October 2019 Chit Chat

I can't believe it's October already.

And I can't believe that our Tuscany vacation will start in just two days. I have planned and organized this trip for nearly two years, and I've just finished most of the packing this evening.
We'll start our journey Thursday morning and will drive about 600 miles up to Northern Italy where we've booked an overnight stay at a motel. Then we'll stay eight nights at an apartment in a suburb of Florence. We've already booked a private guided tour with a German lady who lives in Florence for decades, and I've also booked a restaurant for my husband's birthday dinner.
Then we'll spend one night in a small village in the south of Tuscany where we'll visit a farm which produces fantastic organic wines, olive oils, pastas and other priducts. We discovered this farm in 1998 when we first visited Tuscany and order their products since that time.
We'll continue our journey to Venice. During our honeymoon, we had visited Venice in July 1995 and found it unbelievably hot, sticky and smelly, so we were done with it. Then friends of us raved about their stay in Venice last fall, and my husband loves crime stories by Donna Leon, an Italian novelist whose stories always take place in Venice. So we thought we'd give it a second chance and booked an apartment quite close to the Piazza San Marco.
We'll finish our trip with a three nights stay in a pretty town in Northern Italy, close to the Alps.

I would have loved to go to Lake Como but it's just too far away. I guess that's another trip, something to look forward to...

I'm so jealous. Your trip sounds WONDERFUL!! Are you taking the kids, or is it just you and your husband? I know what you mean about Venice. I've also only been there in the summer and it was hot, sticky and smelly! Let me know if it's better this time of year. For your sake, I hope so. Have a great trip and take lots of pictures!

Have a wonderful trip Carol.

Carol, you will love out-of-season Venice! Was there in February at the time of Carnival and stayed on another island. It was brilliant.

And you'd love Como too............

It's me! How are you?!

Carol, I’m so excited for you. Sounds like it will be a wonderful trip.

Thanks, guys! Yes, we will take the kids with us, it was their desire to go to Tuscany and not just look at the pics we took 20 years ago...
My husband and me also went on a cruise in 2000 to explore the Mediterranean Sea and went to Naples and Sicily. We did a trip to Pompeji which was just stunning and discovered Sicily - simply wonderful. I would really love to go there again and spend a whole holiday on the island. But I haven't been ti Rome yet, so if there's a chance, that's what I'd love to do. Maybe without the kids because I think that that's just too stressful for them, especially for my son who can't walk that well ..

Diahann Carroll has passed away she was 84.

[size=39]George W. Bush Sat Next to Ellen DeGeneres at a Cowboys Game — and the Internet Had a Lot of Thoughts[/size]

This month is a bit of an emotiinal rollercoaster for me:

We - my husband, twins and myseld - spent 17 wonderfuldays in Tuscany, Venice and Northern Italy and enjoyed every minute. Visited lots of churches and museums and watched unbelievable pieces of art. After having been to the Uffizi, my son asked if we could go back the next day - which we did. We enjoyed wonderful meals and wines and couldn't get rid of the landscape. Venice was simply breathtaking, especially in the early morning and the evening when most of the tourists had left and the whole city looked so different in the soft light. We also loved the Murano glass art, and after having visited the Doge's Palace, we both agreed in the statement: "There are really beautiful paintings, but after having been to Florence, it wasn't that special anymore."
Yesterday, my husband and I went to a temporary Van Gogh exhibition in Germany and really enjoyed these paintings as well since they didn't compete with the Renaissance paintings in Italy. But this place, a museum, also had lots of paintings from this era. We started to have a look at them but had seen enough Madonnas with Jesus as a baby and Holy Families for a while, so we went for a cup of coffee instead (which simply isn't as good as in Italy).

Today, one of our dearest friends passed away. She was 56 and hadn't been ill, simply faded away, so we all are in a shock. She was an active member of our church community, sang in our choir and was simply one of the jolliest and nicest people I've ever met.
It's a feeling of disbelieve, not knowing why she died, worrying about how her husband will be able to cope with this loss, who will look after her 95 year old father-in-law she had looked after for twenty years etc.
And all of a sudden, nothing else matters.

Carol I am so sorry about the loss of your friend.

Carol ... your friend seems like a lovely lady who bore her burdens with joy ... and possibly silence....

I believe there is only so much “caring” we are born with....when you spread your caring you lose it from somewhere else .... she may have cared joyously ... but simply didn’t realise she was running on empty....


Some people care too much for themselves.... massages, pedicures, manicures you name it .... to me that’s wasted care .... but a little of this is necessary to honour yourself, hold yourself in the same esteem as you hold others....

Take care....

Carol - Your trip to Italy sounds wonderful. It's so sad that you came home from such joy to the sadness of the loss of a friend. My condolences to you and your friend's family.

Carol, losing someone close to you does put life in perspective. Such sad news for you and your husband to deal with after what seems like such a wonderful trip to Italy. Your fond family memories of your trip do matter and so does the loss of your dear friend.

Totally agree with everybody's sentiments, Carol. I  so hope that you can find some solace

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Amal & George Clooney, Snooki's Hair and 13 Other People and Things Ellen DeGeneres Has Been for Halloween




I don't remember this.  

Thanks to all of you for your wonderful words!
It's a hard time for all of us, we all get more silenced, talk to each other and share our memories. And this reminds us to be thankful to have known her, having been her friends and also about our own mortality...

Strangest thing... I saw a guy in London for a split second i thought it was Himself ...

But I don’t think I’ve ever seen him wear a puffer jacket ... not even a Moncler or Canada Goose or even a Primark...

Funny the things (a puffer jacket) that sabotage your dreams. Whitney,  I did not run, this time...