Saturday 27 August 2016

Off to Italy


Henry, former travel guide who once visited Venice 14 times in one year, reckons we are dicing with the weather if we delay, so we are off on Tuesday.
He doesn’t see the need for a wheelchair, though we thought it a good idea. He doesn’t want to see anything, he says, happy to sit in cafes with a glass of something and soak up the atmosphere. Sounds ok to me.
But he is weak which means taking it very slow.

Apart from his stint as a tour guide in the country, his childhood summers there gave him the language and the taste for the country.  As a child we took off for holidays in the car driving across endless France, finally reaching either Austria and the mountains or Italy and the Med. My parents were used to low planning and going where they felt like. My mother did all the driving; even non-stop one time when Henry was struck by  a recurring complaint, Rotlauf. It is a the fierce infection. The name means redrun, which says it all: beginning in the lower leg it moves up the body to finally kill, once it reaches the heart. His mother had it, before penicillin. She had to lie quiet in a darkroom for days, he says.   On this occasion mother drove from Austria straight to London for massive doses of antibiotic. Father in the back, quietly terrified.  It recurred recently; we had to go to Emergency and get the penicillin. It seems to be working, but it laid him a bit low.  It was fairly early on a Sunday and the place was deserted. Not like St Georges, (London) which never sleeps.

The 'guest house' got well and truly used with the party of 5: son, Laurie and family came for a week. It was really good.... they were exhausted from all the changes in their lives, so were happy to chill. It made the world of difference for them to have the house and spread. It is very comfortable and I am happy to be able to offer it as a sort of free hotel to friends and family.
Finally son cut off his pony tail which was not his best feature, and got a Polish haircut! 

All the men

Grandson Grisha and his cousin Vanya exploring the garden.

The cat feeling at home

Family dinner, pre haircut. Note Henry's masks on the wall,


Wednesday 10 August 2016

The Archers


The Archers

We are more settled; inevitably as time goes by we find out respective feet. The place is like the Archers. I went to the Post Office and they were gossiping just like Susan. Though whether they have a Rob in the town I have yet to find out. Certainly hope not. But there are ‘bad’ people here, as everywhere. People who are dishonest and cause havoc. We have one in the near family who is causing untold trouble; such has been her way since the beginning, sadly.  We have yet to work this one out.

My first (early moring) selfie

Sunday at home
But otherwise all is good and we couldn’t be happier. Henry is very well looked after and, as do we all, appreciates his new life.
We are planning a trip. We shall all go to Italy by car, in September, for a couple of weeks. Henry is very keen.  His father was part owner of marble quarries in Carrara, and he spent all his holidays there.  His Italian is second nature, and his years as a travel guide will be used to advantage!  Though he can’t remember, can’t see, can’t walk, he is up for it!  The trip will be all about food and drink. Possibly a smattering of culture. Happily our family friend, Sandra, is coming too, so we will be 4 in the car. We can do just what we want. Finally she has retired and is available!  I am glad of that, very glad; I feel I need all the help I can get. H is very dependent, frail.
I met Sandra at the Royal College. She was the administrator for the Glass and Ceramics department. She lived very close to me In Southfields and I would see her scurrying to work and if we were both on the train we might smile a bit, but I was shy of her.  But we became very good friends and she has become close to both Stefan and Henry. When she was thinking about the proposition we didn’t balk at letting her know it was Henrys’ dearest and last wish she should come. No pressure, then.
 
Making borscht with OUR beetroot
Next week we will have son and family to stay next door. They have moved too, from Garmisch Partenkirchen to France, very close to Geneva where Laurie will be working. No more long commute for him, as he was doing while still holding his job in Germany. He can now concentrate as a freelance interpreter and cycle to work. So the whole family has relocated and is starting a new phase.    

 
View from our bedroom