Days of waiting!!

Goodness me its been quite a few days since I last emailed. There was little to report on Thursday and Friday really. I spent the days going for a few walks, trying to do some Italian revision and basically going into shutdown mode waiting for Rose to arrive. I got a walk or two in each day, I ate and drank as per normal and all I could think about was Rose arriving. That is until Friday night when everything went haywire!!

Rose rang to say she was at the airport…all good!! Then she rang to say the plane was delayed for 2 hours. Still all OK because she had a 4 hr transit in Dubai. Then a 3 hour delay. Then a 5 + hour delay. By this time I was on the website watching as the delays got longer and longer and nervously hoping, hoping that they would hold the ongoing flight to Rome until they arrived. So to bed but not sleeping, not knowing whether I’d be going to the airport in the morning or not. I was up in the early hours of the morning and it was looking as if the connecting flight had departed but Rose’s flight hadn’t arrived. Very bad news but still not sure. Then finally a message from Rose confirming she had landed in Dubai but no connection and she was now arriving in Rome Sunday morning. SO depressing, such a build up but no Rose!! Poor thing, it was so awful for her. They put her in a hotel but it was 3 hours before that was sorted out and she could get some rest.

So another day of waiting!! Again what can you do? The sun was shining and it was lovely and warm…but that is the only good thing I can say about this day. In all other ways it was an absolutely crap day, everything that could go wrong did go wrong:

1. No Rose after so much anticipation
2. I managed to leave my apartment without the card/ key to get back in. So I had to try and get hold of the landlady, Eleonora. I couldn’t get on to her for about 3 hours. In that time I not only couldn’t get into the apartment but I couldn’t leave the vicinity for fear she arrived. So I sat about wherever I could!! Eventually I got on to her but she was at work and couldn’t come so I needed to get to her….a massive enterprise! But to cut a long story short I eventually got in but the effort involved was a shocker.
3. I stood up from a chair after coffee and felt severe pain in my leg. I’ d pulled something that left me in great pain in my leg. So much so that negotiating stairs was a killer. Bloody awful!! (improving now)
4. I went to buy a bus ticket to the airport online, in optimistic anticipation of going to meet Rose in the morning and booked it going the wrong way.

Blah blah…what more could go wrong??

Chris was feeling very sorry for me so I went over there for tea and to watch a film. I walked over and had a nice night…she had cooked a delicious meal. But I had to go home early because Rose was now arriving at 7.30 am and I had to get myself up to the station to get on the bus out to the airport. But in terms of bad luck it was daylight saving changeover night so the 5.30 am get up was actually 4.30 AM (old time)!!!! OK you win…as a day that wasn’t vying for any honours.

Today (Sunday) up at the crack of dawn…actually well before dawn. No problems. Out to the airport and eventually wahoo, there she was. Not in too bad shape for such a shitty flight. We came in by train to avoid delays and the pushing and shoving associated with the bus trip in.

After a shower and a beer we set off to walk to the market where we met Chris. It is such a glorious day and we sat in the sun and had a beer/wine before setting off for lunch in Trastevere. We had a lovely lunch, sitting outside on an unbeatable day. We walked around Trastevere, drove up the Gianicolo Hill, had a coffee, went back to Chris’ place then set off to walk home. Chris came with us as far as Piazza Venezia and on the way did one of her ‘tours’ through Piazza Navona, Piazza Minerva etc. I still love Chris’ tours and the walk in the lovely sun was a delight.

But by then we’d done a lot of walking and were both very tired. We collapsed back home and now Rose has done what I try to avoid…gone to sleep on the bed. Oh well, its been a massive couple of days for her. At least she finally here!!