Leaving Italy

I'm still mid-air on the flight from Rome to Singapore though there is probably less than an hour to go as we have been flying for more than 10 hours now. It probably seems like an incredibly long flight to you Canadians but 11 hours is a short flight from those of us leaving at the arse end of the world. Usually I'd been spending just an hour at Singapore airport and reboarding for the second leg of 8 hours or so for Sydney but this time we are stopping over so the boys can visit Singapore, albeit only for 2 days and 1 night. Singapore airlines are a very good airline I think and I have had my oick of movies and TV to watch which has been great. I was getting used to that flying with Qantas and thought all long-haul flights had that capabiility until I discovered Air Canada.

I have just finished watching "in the Land of Women" and wiping the tears away - it's one of those tear-jerker chick-flick type of movies I enjoy. I also watched 'Music and Lyrics' - a Hugh Grant playing Hugh Grant movie and 'WIld Hogs' which I quite enjoyed and made me want to do some long-distance motor-bike riding. I'll have to buy myself a motor-bike capable of long trips. With sons living in Sydney and Newcastle next year there will be plenty of excuses. I bought a leather riding jacket in Florence yesterday - that was my 50th birthday present to myself.

We drove from Florence to Rome yesterday all the way on the Autostrada so it didn't take long. No problem driving straight to the guesthouse this time and we got our old room back. All the luggage we had left was still there. We didn't go anywhere last night. The boys caught up with their friends on the internet and watched movies on the laptop. I did much the same though I went for a walk along Via Tuscolana which is quite a shopping street out in the burbs. Spent quite a lot of time re-packing the suitcases to distribute the weight. I had them all weighting around 24 kilos and fortunately they were all checked in without comment including the snowboard bag which had two snowboards, boots and a pair of ice skates in it. I read in the SMH online that we're having a great ski season this year.

Chris was disappointed to find that his tickets for the concert in Spain had not arrived at the hotel. They were posted by registered mail from the UK and he was able to check online via the tracjing number that they had arrived in Italy but the tracking doesn't work further than that. He has a dilemma as he is booked to fly to Valencia tomorrow but without the ticket he can't attend the concert with his friends and it goes over a few days and includes his camping permit. I hope it arrives before he has to leave. It was great to have him along on the trip and Richard and Darcy enjoyed his company a lot. They call him Cristabel which is a name I fear will stick.

The boys were very good and were up and ready to leave at 8am this morning. It was a good thing I had allowed us a lot of time to drive to the airport as there was quite a traffic jam on the ring road. Everything went very smoothly though - returning the car and checking in etc - which is always a relief.

I am looking forward to visiting Singapore again. I have transitted at the airport many times but haven't stopped over since we stayed there on our way back home from Ghana in 1992.

I am getting excited and sort of nervous now about being home again.