well, this is day 2 in rome. Currently sitting in the air-con bliss of an easy internet cafe. only Ä1.65 an hour.

Outside it is is 31 degs according to the bbc and was 37 earlier today. I believe it was hotter. It has certainly been hotter earlier on in the holiday. be recorded a temp of 42 degs using the car’s temperature gauge.

Getting the car to rome was like many kinds of hell. a story for another day tho. Suffice it to say that will never be using Europecar again.

Rome is nice. smaller than I expected, and everything seems to be within easy walking distance. Our hotel is run by a youngish, strange italian bloke who struts around in speedo shorts, strumming on a guitar occasionally.

Yesterday we wandered around fairly randomly. we saw various monuments (the names of which escape me) and saaw the changing of the guard at what we guessed was the president’s residence. today, we spent the morning trudging round the muesii di vaticano in the vatican city. It was free becuase it was the last sunday of the month (oh how generous and charitable of them). Frankly, it was crap; loads of religious paintings which i didn’t like. the “map room” was nice enough – filled with, yes indeed, maps. we then spent many hours trying to get in to the sistine chapel. after about what seemed like 6 hrs we got in. it was filled with japanese tourists taking forbidden photos of the ceiling and wasn’t really that impressive. though i had, by that point, seen about 10 other painted ceilings, so the novelty had worn off.

Just wandering round is nice though, you continously bump in to piazza’s with a fountain, statue or monument in it. Or some sort of castle or large building. I think we shall see the coliseum tomorrow.

This pm we walked to large park in rome, the villa borghese i believe it is called. most pleasent tho still hot. we read a while before striding back.

drinks are extorsion here. i use my 1ltr bottle and fill it from the occasional drinking fountain we come accross. I’ll probably catch leprosy or something.

our flight is actually late on tuesday, so i shall get back to barnham lunch or early pm.

I’m pretty sure i have created new records in the amount of sweat i’ve produced.

I am a bit disappointed reading about Bali there is no superlative like the best, the biggest, the highest, the longest in the world like Borneo or excitingly full of dangerous wildlife like in Belize (jaguar, snake …) But I’m sure you will prove me wrong and tell me all about the fantastic sunrise from the top of the mountain, the busy market at dawn and bicycling through the paddy fields. I am waiting for the descriptions and details that will convince Daddy to book the next plane.

Remember to use your mosquito net every night, citronella oil and water, and wear long sleeves and long trousers in the evening.

Love Mama

English mulberry

Balinese snakeskin fruit

Hail all,

Sounds like you are having a good time in italy, though a little toomuch time in the car for my liking! Who are you with, to repeat jul’s question? Wel, i don’t think i’ve spent 6000 of the best by any stretch of the imagination! Maybe between us, but even that is stretching it a bit. We shall find out soon i’m sure. WEll, just stocked up on the last of the dvd’s and packing up for the off to OZ on the morrow! Mjuch exitment at the prospect of CHEESE!!!!! Not so exited about the prices though.

Well, will phone from singapore airport tomorrow about 9 or 10 in the morning, flight times permiting of course!

Bye for now,
Tanya

hello!
sorry i haven’t blogged in a while but i have had pressing matters of state to attend to.

ok, tarn seems to have covered most stuff on recent bali-ness and things so i shant repeat it. though possibly you might have a more sane perspective if i did.

one thing i will mention though,the other day i was pottering through ubud market with annika, idly sneering at costermongers when i chanced upon a fruit stall. a creture(it may possibly have been a hag or crone) popped out of a mound of sacks and gestured at a load of unusial small black objects. i had seen them before around the place, about the size and shape of a very big conker, and covered in what apeared to be slightly furry snake skin. i presumed that it was like some sort of arcane potato/maniok thing which clearly required boiling for three days to make it pallitable. “how do you cook it!” i said loudly and with gestures. the crone looked at me in confusion.”HOW DO YOU COOK IT!” i said utilising the time honored tecnique of repeating the same thing only louder. she grinned at taking one of the things from the basket deftly peeled it and profered the contents. it looked like the inside of a chesnut and it had a very similer texture once i bit into it, but the taste was remarkable. a sort of pinaple and strawberry melange with a hint of bibas. really very nice. i bought a load and descovered later that they are called oddly enough “snake skin fruit” and thus ends the saga of the tasty fruit.

ubud is alright , but the weather is not all it could be. mostly cloady with patchees of rain. we plan on checking out some temples in the surounding area and the monkey forest, then head back to the coast and warmth.

cheapish accomadation is around 40000 for a room. and cheap meals can be as little as 8000. though the cheaper food tends towards the skanky end of the food trough.

italy sound a bit jolly liv. how many people are with you on this “road trip”? were do you eat or do you cook your own food on a small combustible?

slightly, i recomend that you refrane from picking at the BBS until fully healed as it will increase the chances of gangrene.

are you suggesting that i have been saving tin somehow, dod?! sounds a bit good to me.

julio

Relax, Liv, all is in order. I had Outlook open for a few days until I realised your computer stayed online without it.

I have installed a new 20gb disk and am looking forward to bidding goodbye to this hyper sensitive glide pad.

dod, have you been downloading my emails? I only see mail from the 20th onward. Sheesh. I dred to think of the havok being delt on my computer.