A lot has happened

A lot has happened since my last post. I’m a bit shocked to note that it’s already been a month since I last posted.

The construction crew is gone…they finished last Friday and the house is starting to look great. But I don’t really want to write about the house right now…

This post is a bit more personal and a little morose (sorry).

I spent much of the last 2 weeks thinking about life, friends and family.

Some of you probably heard that John’s sister-in-law passed away on May 2nd in a scuba diving accident. It happened  on a far off, south pacific island that I had never even heard about. Laila had gone to Vanuatu on her own to dive (a passion of hers).

The happy thought, as someone said, is that “she died doing something she loved” but I keep thinking about her husband’s sadness at losing the person he loved.

John’s been in New Zealand, with his brother, for the past 2 weeks. While he’s been gone  I’ve been in a bit of a daze. Without him here I’ve hardly gone out, preferring to spend my evenings alone watching Mad Men and thinking…

Thinking about life and how precious and unpredictable it is; about friends who become part of your life forever; and about family that builds the foundation of who we are.

I’ve thought about what I would do if I lost someone I loved so suddenly and what those who love me would do if it happened to me. I’ve always said that if I had to go I’d want to go in a flash  but now I’m thinking that’s a bit selfish…

In 1 hour John will be home. I can’t wait to wrap my arms around him and tell him I love him.

I urge you to do the same to those you love because life doesn’t always play fair.

Love,

T

The boys are fast!

At this rate, the workers will be done and gone in less than 1 month.

The sun panels are up and the roof should be finished by tomorrow. Once it’s done all that will be left is digging out the rest of the ground floor and laying out the foundation for the floor.

Everyone is impressed with the speed at which the work is being done…some people have even stopped laughing at my target “move-in” date.

So far no surprises. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Tiziana

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It’s coming along

The rebuilding is progressing at a great pace.

The roof is almost done and by next Tuesday the solar panels will be up. That means that soon the workers will be done and gone and John’s work will start.

The target is to be able to move in by September and then finish everything by end of the year. I’ve been told it’s unrealistic but I actually think we’ll make it…

Tiziana

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The rebuilding has started

After almost 3 weeks of deconstruction the rebuilding has started.

Half of the main support wall is now up and the beams for the 1st floor ceiling/floor are up.

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Still a long way to go but now we can start visualizing the end result.

Tiziana

Another Easter already over

This Easter was a little shorter than most years. Last night the clocks went forward and, although we knew it was happening, we completely forgot this morning.

We did wake a little early since we had planned to go for a jog along the beach before heading off for a grand fish lunch with some friends.

I even had a little surprise visit by the Easter Bunny who left a cute little chocolate replica of himself on the pillow.

The jog was tough since it had been a little too long since we’d last done it but the day was glorious… The first sunny day in a long while since March has been quite rainy and grey.

We were planning on walking back to the car instead of jogging when we realized that we were 1 hour behind schedule due to the time change. So, no leisurely Sunday stroll back. Instead we ran back, possibly in record time. It’s amazing what our bodies will do when put under pressure!

In the end we rushed for nothing…I know many women take a long time to get ready and get out of the house but I think Italian women are champions at it…We were supposed to meet up at noon and head off to the restaurant but “Princess Leia” didn’t arrive until 1 hour later…so much for rushing back from our jog!

But lunch was great  - 6 courses of fish and seafood and all you can drink wine.

The weather held off until about 4PM and after a bit of rain we were rewarded by the sight of a full rainbow. Maybe there was a pot of gold at the end but, after such a big meal,  it was just too much of an effort to go find out!

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!

Tiziana

All for a good cause

I would never have imagined…me, in an elementary school, giving a presentation to a bunch of super excited 10 year olds!

But that’s what happened this morning.

It started over 1 year ago…we were asked if, one day, we would be willing to speak at the local school about Canada and Ireland.

We finally agreed to do it the week before I left for Canada and settled on today as THE DAY.

I can’t tell you how much I was kicking myself last night when I was trying to finish off the presentation and couldn’t get the videos downloaded onto my Prezi. And how sleepy I was when I woke up this morning, early enough to check on the files that I had left downloading when I went to bed last night and realized that I’d forgotten to take off my contact lenses last night and couldn’t see anything because they were glued to my eyes…But I had committed so we couldn’t back out.

We were booked for 10:30. The kids were excited and waiting with great anticipation.

We were taken to the “English classroom” where we had time to set up a computer before the kids were brought in.

It was a bit mad…never seen kids so excited (at least not in school).

We did our thing…

John says the presentation was brilliant…It was. I could have done a boring PowerPoint or we could have just blah!blah!blah! (as John wanted us to do) but I did a Prezi presentation. (For those who don’t know what this is you should check it out at http://www.prezi.com).

The closer was John playing an Irish song…1 song turned into 2 then 3 and then 4. If the kids didn’t have another class to go to it probably would have turned into a full out concert.

It was tough getting up this morning and I may have to go take a nap now but it was all for a good cause…and a great deal of fun!

Tiziana

PS: As usual no pictures of me but I did take some of John when he was playing.

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It’s down to the shell

What a shock! I went to see the progress on the house today. The workers have been at it for 9 days and all that’s left is the outside walls.

I don’t know what I was expecting…I’ve never seen a house being gutted. It’s a bit scary but John says “don’t worry, you’ll see how quickly it will get built-up again”…we’ll see…this is Italy, not Canada and, to me, it seems that everything is a bit more complicated, a bit slower here.

Tiziana

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