Birthdays are VERY scary…….

……for they remind you of the years that have passed.

I remember holding A at a party and feeding her curried goat (I’m not convinced that it actually WAS goat but that’s what V’s family called the spicy hot stew) when she was a few weeks old (OK, maybe a few months). Apparently, although I don’t really recall that well, she loved it. She was in a white shawl thing. She was the most beautiful baby I had ever set my eyes upon.

Today, I spoke to her by phone. She was at home but was going in to school later because she has a Drama exam – she is taking her ‘A’ levels! She is 18 today. She has turned into a beautiful woman and still I love her as I did when she was a baby (although then she did not have a Brummie accent then). I am so proud to have known her. Another reason to be grateful to V.

Anyway, I hope you have a very Happy Birthday and I just wish that I could be there to watch you tonight in your Drama practical. I bet you will do well.

xx

On different flats; the Good, the Bad but not the Ugly.

Yesterday I had written a longish post. But it just didn’t feel right. And I don’t want to turn this blog into some sort of painful car crash thing. And, anyway, that’s not really me. Well, that’s not quite true, it is a part of me but I constantly fight against those crap thoughts and do my very best to find positive things.

I went to see a flat the other night. Newly restored (still wip), it will have all new appliances (better than the current flat, for certain), new floors, newly painted walls and it is only partly furnished so some of my prized pieces of furniture can come with me.

The lady (landlady) was lovely and I think it would work. Just a little further out than I would like but you can’t have everything, I suppose. Still, it’s quite a nice residential area of Milan. I know the area a bit and it’s close to other friends which will be nice. It has some things that are not important but nice like automatic shutters (and it’s on the first floor so they will have to be shut when I am out).

There’s another one, cheaper and bigger, on the fourth floor, but no lift. I wonder how annoying that will become. What will it be like when Rufus finds it difficult to walk up and down the stairs? When I’ve a glass of wine too many? When my knee is hurting? On the plus side, it has a terrace! And it’s coming up to summer. Sipping a beer there on a warm summer evening might be worth the four flights of stairs, maybe?

Let’s look at it first.

A final note is that we are communicating. By email. This is, at the same time, good and bad. The good part is, I would hope, obvious. The bad part is that I could, quite easily, just fall back into the thing without resolving the fundamental issues which, in the long term, would prove fatal. But time is short. However, at least we are friends and it is not turning ugly.