I'm back in Genova and so truly madly deeply glad to be here.
It seemed like I had plugged into some kind of joy-refill machine as soon as I stepped off the plane in Milan. And that feeling grew as the train took me across the plains and in through the hills to Genova.
I am here. And that ... that is a very good thing.
Photographs and stories to follow in the days ahead.
And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that gate— once the crying of confusion stopped— seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women too.
This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.
By Naomi Shihab Nye, a wandering poet.
The rest of the story is here.
It began harmlessly enough ... gate-climbing as soon as I worked out the 'how' of it.
Another memory from long ago, quiet excitement ... a gap in the hedge that surrounded my childhood home. They closed that up pretty quickly once they realised how I was slipping away.
Me and my trike, then my bike, traveled far and wide ... or as far as my lazy legs would carry me. Then came the car and that seemed like the best freedom so far, until I flew over to Istanbul. And zipped off to Rome. Then ended up in Belgium, discovered France, Holland and every place else in Europe was easily reachable.
'Gate-climbing' on steroids.
Then Genova, Italy. That place I keep on returning to ... since 2008. That exquisitely ancient city surrounded by beautiful hills and the sea.
These days I can wander where ever I want but I keep returning.
I'm flying this week.
14 days in that city I love ...
Listening to The Sweet Remains these days, specially Ghost in the Orange Blossom Air.
I've been writing blog posts here ... then deleting blog posts, since finding out I have this iron deficiency.
I am consumed, these days, by the anemia. So frustrated. To the point where something about it slips into every post I try to write and I get so far through, see I've been whining, and delete.
Perhaps I just need to write, getting over the block and accepting it all as a timely life lesson. Perhaps I shouldn't try to do everything all of the time. Perhaps I should have taken vitamins, rested more, eaten more sensibly.
I wish I had.
I was raised in a particular way. We like to ignore these impediments. I broke my navicular bone, they missed the break on the x-ray, told me to walk on it ... and I did, till they found it.
A hospital once sent me home with a burning hot, bright red swollen knee. No accident to report in New Zealand, no treatment. See your GP.
He was enraged on my behalf. I had cellulitis. There was me, so embarassed by being sent home from the hospital, that I walked on it till he could see me. Six courses of antibiotics later ...
But anemia. You actually can't push through it. Or I can't. Every time I over-do it, I pay. It's like I can't cheat here. It's 4 months until the doctor retests my iron levels. Gert suggested this was because my level of iron deficiency was such that it would take that long. He thinks I should be patient.
I think I have to be.
To add to the misery of this, coffee and red wine interfere with iron uptake. I laughed as I wrote that. Can you believe it???
And I know it's minor but minor usually means I can find a way round it. I can't. I'm slowinggggggg right down, trying to accommodate this difficult guest.
However today a lovely client-to-be filled me with inspiration. I've been working here at the computer, plotting and planning, all day. Taking facebook breaks when breaks were required. Cleaning a little ... knowing fish and chips are booked in as that unhealthy but simple dinner tonight.
A good day after a series of epic days lately. The Belgian Bloke crashed into bed with 3 intense days of fever, he spent something like 53 out of 64 hours sleeping, and was only just on his feet when he returned to work after a week.
In fact so much goes on behind-the-scenes here that sometimes I'm tempted to share it all but it's always too whiny. And so ... let's see if I've turned a corner. The stairs to my office are noticeably easier ... small steps, Diane. Small steps.
I've been searching out photographs from years past, for a 5-day challenge on Facebook, and found this one. A favourite of mine.
It's taken me a week to even make an attempt to write about the weekend that was because it was overwhelming ... sublime, full of friends and laughter. It was full.
The photography exhibition went right to the wire, in terms of preparedness. I may have overcommitted myself a little but that's my style. I should know this thing about me by now. We had 6 house-guests over the 3 days but that was pure magic as well. I know so many good people.
Teresa arrived first, over from London and we had much to talk about. There I was cooking bacon and egg savouries for the exhibition opening, writing up descriptions for the photographs that Gert and Sander had helped me hang in the morning, drinking a little red wine from New Zealand, while Teresa and Miss 10 tied ribbons around little packets of postcards by Di.
Ren and Egil flew in from Norway. Shannon and Erik drove over from Holland. Kim also came in from England and before I knew it, it was all on. Cars, directions, trams, even bicycles. People arrived at the reception.
Hilde, from the Choice New Zealand shop here in Antwerp, was hosting the exhibition, and she made sure that the New Zealand wine flowed, as did tasty little NZ inspired snacks. Friends and family just kept on arriving and my heart sang.
But perhaps you get a sense of the atmosphere, the good people, the beautiful evening via this selection of photographs taken by Kim and Teresa. I'm so grateful. I'd love to have documented it but I was too far into it all, as warned when I mentioned I might take my camera.
So very into it. Thank you to everyone who came out and supported me.