Bec – 29 September 2011

And so it happened….as inevitable as death……we hit the middle of our journey.

I could try and deny it……… just as many humans do death……..but deep down we all know that none of us are getting out of this world alive and we also know that you can’t rewind time….. so as I write this blog ….. we HAVE crossed over the middle point in our travels… and so it is, that it must be accepted and embraced.

This week has been sheer bliss, sharing our home in Tuscany with Jamie’s sister Jo, her husband Alan and her gorgeous children Gulliver and Hilde.

There is nothing like close family and there is certainly nothing like sharing a life changing adventure with your loved ones, so we have been especially lucky that Jo and Alan decided to join us for a short time on our travels.

Very different to the pace of last week’s day trips and exploration around Tuscany, this week was filled with long lunches, children’s soccer on the terrace and lots of Uno. It gave us a chance to relax, breathe in and out and soak up the Tuscan sun, that so many fall in love with and never return from.

This really doesn't need words does it!!!!

Tonight we spent our last meal together at a restaurant in Radicondoli. It was very impressive, seated on the Pergola, looking over the Tuscan countryside and taking in the colours of the sunset. The food was simple and rustic, with the perfect blend of flavours, just what we were after, so the evening was always going to be a success.

The only thing that had the waiter stumped was when I asked for a coke……..what, he said…no vino for you. ……….no I replied in my most responsible voice….I’m driving…….he then replies…you don’t need to worry signoria …….all the policemen are asleep now …(it was 7.45pm on a Thursday night!!)

This is the wonderful kind of life that we have become accustomed to in both France and Italy, they both have different ways of describing it……in France it’s a certain joi de vive …a zest for life and in Italy it’s la dolce vita….living the good life. Whatever language you say it in…it means the same thing…and it will be something that I will miss sorely as we travel further north into Germany and across to the US.

There is a immense freedom in France and Italy to enjoy one’s life…in fact the inhabitants would see it more as a right. The food and wine simply assist in the enjoyment factor, but life is simple and the smallest things are celebrated. Everyone is included in the bounties that life brings. A simple act of waving and saying good morning to the farmer below our house the other day, led to a knock at the door and a gorgeous old man with a basket of freshly picked figs especially for me. I did not understand a single word he said but a few kisses on his cheeks were enough to make him blush and smile from ear to ear. Now, whenever I see him in the village he waves, dips his hat and chats furiously to his other little old male friends on the bench with him. I’m sure he is saying something along the lines of ….’see that young girl…if you take her a basket of fruit she’ll kiss you’….but you know what…I don’t care…..the fact is….he made me smile …..and I made an old man very happy…and that what I think life is all about.

I’m not really looking forward to entering back into the world of deadlines and time constraints. I have been able to let so much go ……and I have calmed so much that I’m not sure about how I really fit into my old space.

For now I am assuming that the pace of life and necessities of school terms will snap me back into gear….

Jamie is often perplexed by my sadness at how fast the days seem to be flying by, but I see it as such a wonderful thing that I am finding each moment so precious, so important that I do not want it to pass.

A wise person once said that “time flies when you are having fun”…………then I must be having the time of my life…because it is rushing by at the speed of light.

Jamie and Jo enjoying Caffe La Pergola