Noisy car

Well as Beth has stayed in the same city for a couple of days, there have been no travel problems for me to resolve.  It appears that she hooked up with a few people from the hostel to wander around Rome which is probably a very good idea.  Unfortunately whilst they were on the train into the city, there were lots of Romany children swarming around and generally being a nuisance.  This seems to have been a distraction technique and resulted in one of the males in the group being relieved of his phone, which she said had put them all on edge.  Apparently Beth was hugging her bag to her chest all the way.  Thank goodness.
Our car has been making expensive sounding noises for some time - whenever we went over a bump in the road a creaking or scraping sound was heard.  I was afraid that the suspension was in trouble so eventually we bit the bullet and took it into the garage for investigation.  We were somewhat relieved when the mechanic said that they couldn't find anything wrong, except that the covering for something had come loose and worked its way out of place catching against something else (possibly the wheel arch, but I can't be sure) so they had just cut it off and thought that it would do the trick.  We were in high spirits as we drove home, thinking that we had been spared an expensive  repair.  
The very next time we drove over a speed bump - there was the sound again - grr.
Not sure what to do now.

Mia figlia - il Viaggiatore

Today's communications started at around 9.45 with a phone call - "I just booked a reservation on the train to Rome and the guy has given me a reservation for a seat on the train leaving at 3pm, I asked for the next train, which leaves at 10.59" - remember that Rome is one hour ahead of us at the moment.  My response to that is the usual - "why are you telling me - what can I do from here?"  The searingly honest answer came back - "nothing but I just wanted someone to whine at" 
So - I suggested that she should either go back to the guy who sold her the reservation or grab someone else who looks as though they work at the station and explain her problem, but of course she only had a few minutes to do this in.  Shortly thereafter a text arrived, "all sorted" 
 Next text - "pray for some miracles today" , my response - "why?  Do you have to make connections?"  
"Yes"
"you do actually realise that you are in Italy don't you?"  
"Yes, that is why I need miracles"
An hour later "hey, I got the miracles."

A couple of hours later whilst I was in town I had a missed call.  I never heard it, nor did I feel it vibrating in my pocket. For some reason I needed my phone just after she had rung and I found the missed call.  It was yet another plea for help - no surprises there then - the tablet wasn't working and she didn't know the address of the hostel, could I go into her emails and find it for her.  I could remember all of it except the post code, so gave her that until I was home.  Once home I was able to give her not only the address, but also the name of the Metro station close to the hostel.  Before I could do that however, I had received yet another text which made me smile " Thieves everywhere!  Trying to get money off you for "showing" you how to use the machine.  I have never felt less guilt for shouting at a child"  That one text message told me just how tired she is.   I must remind her not to let anyone push a flower into her hand at the Spanish Steps, because she may lose it with the men who do that and then hold out their hands for money.

In some ways I envy her, but I also feel very sad for her.  I envy her the freedom and the opportunity to travel in this way, but I feel sad for her because she is seeing so many wonderful sights and isn't able to share them with anyone.  For me part of the joy of Rome was to share it with my husband as we were travelling together.  It is a city of such contrasts, great antiquity and alternatively great modern buildings, great wealth and great poverty.  I also hope that she has got very comfortable shoes with her because it is a city which is very hard on the feet.  Gosh I remember blisters on my blisters - that was so painful.

Further tribulations of the traveller

OK so yesterday seemed to go well for my only child of the female persuasion.  By that I mean that I didn't get any phone calls demanding my help.  That was yesterday ...

By 8.20 this morning I had had three phone calls.  Admittedly I had missed two of them.  On the third occasion she rang on the land line to say that intermittent internet connection was once again causing problems.  She had had an email from the hostel she is booked into in Rome advising her that she needed to contact them urgently otherwise she would lose her booking.   It is Easter week in Rome after all and they could have let her place many times over.  The city is usually packed out out over Easter and  I imagine the (Catholic) world and his wife want a chance  to glimpse the new pope etc.  Not surprisingly the hostel wanted a deposit for her dorm bed.  The trouble was that she had managed to get a glimpse of the email but the internet connection wouldn't stay long enough for her to deal with it, so Mum needed to sort things out.  I managed to text her their phone number, email them to say that she would be in touch and provide the usual reassurances.
Later I got an email from the hostel to say that she had been in touch by phone and all was well.  I wonder what is coming my way next...

Prodigal daughter

My dear daughter has been spending the third year of her degree course in Germany.  She has been working in a gymnasium as a language assistant, helping to instil a better quality of English into the students.  Hmm, I hope it is a case of do as I say, not as I do.

She decided to spend the Easter holidays interrailing around Europe with a friend.  Well that was the original intention, as things turned out, the friends she intended going with found that life intervened and they were unable to go.  She was left with two options – the first was to decide not to go and the second was to go alone.  To her great merit, and my discomfort, she chose the first option - she’s a brave girl.   

Did I say she was brave?  On day one she caught a train early in the morning, heading for Nurmenberg, from where she was to take a coach (why?  I thought this was called interrailing for a reason) to Prague.  She hadn’t been on the train for an hour before she rang me in tears, sobbing uncontrollably, because she was miserable and overwhelmed.  I tried being sympathetic, but that doesn’t help greatly, in my experience, the more sympathetic I am to her, the more upset she gets.  Eventually I pointed out that she had made the choice to go on her own, and that from now her options were limited.  She could either carry on with the trip on her own or she could change direction and come home for Easter, but whichever choice she made, she needed to stop crying as she was making herself much more vulnerable by doing it.  Many people seeing her upset would offer to help and not everyone would be doing it for altruistic reasons.  Whilst it is sad to be suspicious of people with good intentions, a single girl travelling to several European cities on her own cannot afford to take chances.

Eventually when she got on the coach from Nuremburg to Prague she fell asleep.  The worst of problems looks so much better after a good sleep and my guess is that she didn’t sleep well the night before she started out.   By the time she arrived in Prague she was feeling much better, and our Skype conversation that evening was much more positive thank goodness.

She enjoyed Prague the next day, posting a photo of a humungous cup of coffee which she had bought to warm herself up.  It was so large, I queried whether she was intending to drink it or bathe in it. 

All was so much better I began to relax and think that things would progress more smoothly.

Ha ha ha ha

That will teach me.

From Prague she travelled to Vienna and from there to Salzburg.  Her idea was to spend a day in Salzburg and then take the night train to Venice.  It would have worked fine, if she had only read the timetable properly, and arrived at the railway station at the time the train was due to leave, rather than the time it was supposed to arrive at its destination!   Then something apparently went awry with the night train to Venice and it was no longer a viable option.  That meant getting on an earlier train which would arrive in Venice around midnight, and booking a room in a hostel for that night.   Easy.  Wrong, not easy – the hostel was booked up.  There was no wifi on the train “they lied to  me Mum”  which necessitated a phone call to Mum, “can you book me a hotel in Venice?”  Yes of course – that isn’t difficult – a hotel for the price of a hostel, on the same day and in Venice – yeah I can do that!  Amazingly – I could!  I sent her the details and she booked it.   I can’t claim to have been comfortable for her to be walking around a strange city at midnight but it couldn’t be helped.  Then I got another phone call about 11pm our time, midnight in Italy, to say the train was delayed and she was worried that she would lose her hotel room, so I had to email the hotel and let them know about the delay.  Then 45 minutes later yet another call, she had arrived but didn’t know how to get to the hotel and the battery for her tablet had run out of power, so I had to text details to her.  Finally I got a text at 01.05 to say that she had arrived “safe and sound” at last I could go to sleep – thank goodness!

She has been at this for less than a week, and there are another two weeks to go, - will we survive?  Oh my.

Snow

So far this winter hasn't been too bad.  Some icy conditions in early December which hung around for a while, then it was reasonably mild until a couple of weeks ago.  January brought a blast of freezing weather which covered much of the country with snow.  Here in our little corner of the world we have mostly had the best of the weather - a light dusting of snow for a few days which froze to the trees and shrubs imparting a stark beauty, breathtaking in its simplicity.  This week however we have had two heavy snowfalls.  The first of these came overnight on Sunday and before  7a.m. on Monday morning I was awoken by a strange scraping sound.  When I looked out of the window I was greeted by the sight of a group of neighbours clearing the road from the very top of the hill right down to the main through road.  It made such a difference to the accessibility of the street and was a great blessing to us.  The street is a steep hill and turns a corner half way down.  As it turns the corner there is a row of houses across the bottom of the hill - guess who lives right in the middle of the point where the road comes down to that row of houses?  Yup - us.  If any vehicle lost control on the hill - it was our dining room which it was going to hit!  In light of all that, the snow clearance was an extra blessing to us.    The snow on the lawns and uncleared areas hung around all week although it was gradually thawing.  Last night however we had another, heavier snowfall, and awoke to a thick blanket of white.  This time we were up and ready to get out there with the neighbours to help with the clearing.  Not only is it beneficial to everyone who lives on this street but it is a great opportunity to get to know more neighbours.
It is too easy to live insular lives and never get to know the neighbours  but doing simple little jobs together to benefit the whole community, creates opportunities to come together in amicable companionship and to begin to chat in a way which a wave in passing just doesn't do.
 

A Tale of Three Holes

A couple of weeks ago I was awoken early on a Sunday morning by a horrendous racket outside my bedroom window.  Startled, I rose and looked out of the window to the heartsinking sight of workmen breaking up the tarmac and making a large hole in the road to the side of the house.  This task apparently required a crew of three.  Once they had got the hole under way they retreated to the cab of their lorry and out came the flasks for a tea break.  They sat there for about an hour until another truck arrived with yet more workmen who had a look in the hole then joined their colleagues for another tea break.  A quick word with them elicited only the information  that they were from the Water Board, so presumably they were looking for the source of a leak.  Eventually they all put their tools into the back of the lorry and drove off.   The next day an enormous truck with an excavator grab turned up with a couple of chaps, who picked up all the rubble and earth which the previous crew had left piled up at the side of the hole.  They first had to remove the safety railings and posts which had been placed around the hole.  When they had removed most of the detritus with their big shiny toy, they took out brooms and carefully swept all the small dust and mess up, leaving the area clean and tidy.  The question is  ... WHY?  Why did they take it away instead of putting it back into the hole?   After carefully replacing the safety railings they piled back into their huge vehicle and drove off.  After yet another three days another crew arrived, filled the hole in and replaced the tarmac on top of it.
Three days later a van turned up with two workmen who examined another part of the road but seemed perplexed by the setts.  They were so baffled they had to go and sit in their van for a while to think about it before driving away.  An hour later they were back with a supervisor who appeared in another van, they inspected the road again then had a meeting in the van before the supervisor got back into his own van and left.  Next time I looked out, the men had removed the setts and carefully piled them up at the side of the road, they then dug yet another hole and placed yet more safety railings around it.  These were a real pain because of the position they were in right on a bend in the road which created problems for cars trying to get round them.Two days later the big truck with the excavator grabber turned up and did its thing again, leaving the area around the hole clean and tidy once again, - these two are very good at cleaning and tidying - bet they would make wonderful house-husbands. When they arrived though, the first thing they did was to drive over the warning signs advising of roadworks and a narrowed road!!   Then sure enough, a day or so later we had yet another crew on site, filling in the hole.    Despite my reservations about how they might repair the road surface they did a good job of replacing all the blocks leaving little sign of disturbance.   The neighbourhood breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Well that was a bit premature!

A few days later they were back and we went through the whole rigmarole again, with even more inconveniently placed safety signs and railings, the visits from the three different crews and all their various accoutrements.  This time however they made their hole around the inspection chamber and judging from the muddy stains on the road they may just have found what they were looking for this time, but as I didn't see any signs of any repair work being undertaken here (or in the two previous holes) I won't hold my breath.  They left yesterday - Thursday - so they will probably be back on Monday or Tuesday to make more of a jigsaw of the road.

Emptying Nest

It's been a strange and sad week in our house.  On Sunday Elizabeth left for Germany where she will spend the next academic year as an English Language assistant in a Gymnasium right down in the south of Germany.  It has seemed so quiet without her and walking away after watching her go through the departures gate was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.  I know we are used to her leaving for university, but that is not too far, it is drivable in a couple of hours at most.  This is not.  I don't miss the noise she makes, I don't miss the squabbles between her and her brother.  I don't miss the shoes, coats and assorted accessories strewn around the house, but I do miss her.  I miss her most when I want to say something to her and she isn't here.  I can't even just phone her because she only has her mobile and it would cost both of us a fortune, and when it comes to texts - she believes in using as few characters as possible.  Even if the answer is simple and a yes or ok would do - what I normally get is "k"  K for goodness sake - would an extra character matter so much?  'K, I suppose it must.  To get useful information from her by text usually means about 20 texts between us, and this morning when I texted her a question I got the reply "consult Facebook"   ?*!*?*!  Not a happy mummy!!

I think she has found it an eventful week, she had to get to Cologne by train from the airport at Dussledorf and then find her hotel.  First she missed her train and then got a little lost in Cologne quite late at night. I was very relieved when she Skyped me to say that she had arrived safely, although the Skype connection was very poor.    

She had a couple of days' training at a centre in Cologne before travelling onto her school.  The training was accommodated in a former monastery, where abbey bells still ring about 5 times through the night!  She was so unimpressed by that!  Mmm - Elizabeth + mornings + lack of sleep - not a good combination.  I'm so glad I wasn't there.  I will only say that maybe she might have been a little crabby.

She has now arrived at her host school and will be settling in tomorrow morning bright and early.

Meanwhile back here, I must learn not to go to her room looking for her, and not to pick up the phone to call her at random times.  Most of all I need to make the most of the peace and quiet, because it isn't really that long until Christmas when all the bickering etc will start up again.

Speaking of Christmas - eeeeeeeek  - let's not do that.