Quiet Weekend...by comparison

This weekend we didn't go very far, well London on Saturday but that is only an hour or so from us. But no European travel and no pre-planned events to go to.

It was a much needed 'gentle' weekend. Although I am feeling better, I am still suffering with a nasty chesty cough and I still feel tension in my neck muscles. What I need is a good massage from a gorgeous looking masseur...mmmmm. Lee perhaps?

On Friday Lee and I went to the Fleur de Lys and the Rose and Crown in Cambridge. We met up with some of our Cambridge friends. Matt, Alfonso, Tristan, Pete, John, Ali plus others. I wasn't drinking heavily because I was still feeling quite delicate following my illness. It was noticeable that there was a different crowd hanging around in the Rose and Crown. In fact, it seemed as though there were a lot of people who may have been trading drugs. I can't make that accusation, because I didn't witness anything with my own eyes, but there was a strange atmosphere and one of our mates told me he had been offered drugs on a previous visit. That is worrying - it seems so easy to obtain drugs. It makes me worry about my own children and the influences they are under when they go out just to a pub (not even a night club in a large inner city!).

What is this world coming to? It must be my age...I can't believe I'm saying that !

On Saturday Lee and I went to London, relaxed in the sauna and then wandered around Soho and grabbed something to eat.

Sunday was a relaxing day on the sofa. I cooked a roast dinner and then Lee and I watched the 1980's movie 'Beaches' starring Bette Midler. A sad ending, brought a tear to my eye. It must again be an age thing, I no longer feel immortal. We can be taken from this world at any time, so it is important to show and say how we feel to those we love. This is especially relevant to me. My father died in a motor accident in 1989. I never told him I loved him, and in the end I never got the chance. It stays with me for the rest of my life.

Anyway. I'm travelling again, away from my loved ones. But I'm thinking about all those important to me as I travel around.

Miss you Lee! xxx

Birthday in Sicily! Buon Compleanno!

Going against my doctors orders, at the last minute on Friday I decided to go to Sicily as planned. Lee was delighted, of course, but it wasn't his sulks or strops which made up my mind. I had been taking the painkillers prescribed for my headache and these were working. I was feeling well enough to travel, even if it meant taking it easy whilst in Italy. The final deciding factor was a telephone call from a good friend and colleague from my Manchester workplace. She told me to go "f**k it, you only live once!" were her last words on the subject!

So off we went in a bit of a dash and arrived in Palermo late on Friday night. The hotel (Regina) is on the older side of town, about 15 minutes walk from the Central Station. We walked it, and saved ourselves €15 in taxi fares! When we arrived we climbed an old, formerly grand, stone staircase to the hotel reception. So far, this place looked like it needed a fair bit of renovation! The old man, speaking only Italian, took our money and then showed us and a couple of Australian girls who I recognised from our RyanAir fligh, to our respective rooms. He pressed the button to light up the next staircase, but nothing happened - oh dear, we'll stumble our way to the next floor then! We then passed through a secure door and my, suddenly we were in a bight, modern corridor leading to our bedrooms! Although the rooms consisted only of a bed, wardrobe and bedside tables and lamps, suddenly this place was looking like a bargain for the money! The rooms were clean and comfortable, if basic. But who cares about basic when you are paying less than €60/night (incl breakfast).

Next morning was a glorious day with blue skies, bright sunshine and warm temperatures. Lee and I walked to the port in the morning and along the waters edge where we saw some fishermen on the waterfront and on the green park nearby young men playing football. We then walked around the Kalsa area of town. This is the oldest part of Palermo and although many of the buildings are in dire need of renovation this doesn't entirely take away from the character and history you see in the walls of everything around you. As we wandered around, passing through narrow streets dodging the frequent motorcycles and little cars zipping through, we saw children playing football on the hard cobblestones, some sitting idly on the doorstep letting the day pass by with the unhurried innocence of youth protecting them from the frantic complexities of the world around them. As you look down the little narrow streets where some of Palermo's poorer families are living, you see wet laundry hanging from windows and balconies above, clean drips of water falling to the cobbled paving below as gentle wafts of the sweet smell of freshly washed laundry provides a welcome relief from the underlying stench of the sewers below.

In the afternoon, we went to the Catacombs. This was, for me, an uncomfortable experience and something I had not witnessed in my life before. It wasn't that it was particularly scary to see hundreds of dead bodies, some smartly dressed, hanging from the walls or in open or windowed coffins, and all in various states of preservation or decay. No, it was more that I felt I was intruding on their privacy. Here we were, wandering around an open graveyard! I do feel it is a private matter when one has passed to decay in the privacy of your own, closed, coffin! This might even sound a little flippant, but it isn't meant that way. I simply cannot understand why these people chose to put themselves on display (if indeed they did) as the shells of their bodies wither away in smart suits and dresses for all the world to behold. As their fingernails fall away and their hair decays to nothing more than a few wisps, the real person is long gone and leaves behind a decaying shell as a memory for the world. No thanks. Remember me for what I did or didn't do, please, not for what I look like 200 years after I'm dead. Anyway, I don't regret going there, was an experience like nothing else.

On a more pleasant note, we met and made friends with some other people staying in the hotel Regina. I mentioned the Aussie girls, who live in London. Also we met some American students who are currently studying in Milan and were also visiting Sicily for the weekend together with a Canadian student. All very friendly people (save one incident I'll talk about later).

More to come from both Lee and me....meanwhile many thanks to everyone wishing me a Happy Birthday and your wishes for my good health, I appreciate it!

Feeling Unwell

I woke up yesterday morning with a bit of a headache. I drove Lee to work and decided to work from home so I could take a small sleep if I needed to. By the time I got home, I was feeling tired so I decided to lie down on the bed. As the day went on, the headache became worse and I felt feverish.

I still have the headache today, so its time to seek medical help. The trouble with the internet is that you can find out anything and everything and usually more than you really need. When I looked on the NHS Direct website, I felt I was suffering with everything I searched, from a common cold to pneunomia and even meningitis.

I made an appointment at the doctors. She told me I have a tension headache and that I am most likely heading for a viral infection as well. The headache is not going away because I am tensing-up and that is keeping the pain going. The pain is causing me to tense-up, so it is a viscious circle.

I told the doctor I am travelling to Sicily this weekend for my birthday - guess what? She recommends we don't go as I need to rest :-(

Anyway, she has given me some strong Ibuprofen to relieve the headache, which should mean I relax and then the tension goes away.

What a birthday! I'm sick!

Hamburg - Work and Pleasure

I left my home on Thursday morning very early to take the 6:25 RyanAir flight from Stansted to Luebeck. Luebeck is a small airport approx. 70 km from Hamburg and normally a one hour bus ride to Hamburg centre. Because my flight was so cheap (just 36 GBpounds) I decided to take a taxi to the office in Hamburg where I have been working Thursday and Friday. The taxi is €85, but together with the flight cost it is still much cheaper and more convenient than flying from Heathrow or Gatwick to Hamburg airport. (The BA flight was 180 GBpounds and Lufthansa even more expensive!). Heathrow is at least 90 minutes drive from Cambridge but Stansted just 25 minutes, so it was a no-brainer this time.

I've been working hard the past couple of days and now I'm staying on in Hamburg for the weekend, heading back to UK Sunday evening - also using RyanAir. I have had some pretty bad experiences flying with RyanAir this year and it is usually on the return flight as they are the end-of-day flights subject to the delays occuring earlier in the day. I am hoping Sunday's flight will go ahead without problems as I have to work early on Monday morning. I'll tell about the RyanAir horror stories some other time.

Lee flew out to join me here in Hamburg last night and we went to a club and then a late bar. We met up with a friend we have met here before, Mark, who obviously fancies Lee. he asked me "Why haven't you married him yet? If you don't marry Lee tomorrow, I will!"

So a quick word on this....marriage or to be more precise, Civil Partnership, is an important step and for sure Lee and I will do it sometime quite soon. It has only been less than one year that same-sex partners are recognised under the law in the UK. Lee and I did not want to rush out and do this just because we could, although we realise and celebrate this change in the law as an important step for equality between hetero and homosexual couples . More about this subject, and how it will influence Lee and me, another time.

Tonight (Saturday) we are preparing to go to the gay bars in the Lange Raihe and then on to PIT ( a gay disco/club) and Daniels bar - apparently it never closes!