My Roman friend at the Colosseum

We were staying within walking distance from the Colosseum, which was awesome.

Our 29 hour flight over here, left us feeling very glad to meet ‘Dominico Fato’, our B&B host in Rome, who showed us to our bed and gave us a very warm ‘Prego’ (that’s welcome… nothing to do with making babies).

Prior to arriving in Rome, I was living an illusion. I thought I was fit and I thought my shoes were comfortable. I have since discovered, that the sight of a set of stairs is enough to reduce me to tears and my calf muscles to go into spasms of panic. We have climbed ab out 5 thousand stairs per day, due to the fact that we HAVE to go to the top of every building we find. Not wanting to leave with regret, that we missed something, we are certainly covering all of the sights we were hoping to see. The ‘tour guide’ (Colin) is up at 5am and ready to get us off on our days adventures long before I am awake (at 7am).

Col and I at Trevi fountain

Most of our first 2 days, we used the ‘hop on hop off’ buses, which, apart from being knocked unconcious by the branches of trees, was a great way to get around. I am still picking the splinters out of my skull from the times I ducked too late. Part of the attraction of riding on the open top double decker bus, is watching the motor bikes duck and weave. I have never seen so many bikes. The laneways are so tiny for the bus to get through, that today it wouldn’t fit at all so 2 men came out of a shop and picked up someones motor bike and moved it so we could fit. The traffic antics are hilarious and I have had a great time filming/photographing them.

The breathtaking sights of ancient Rome can’t be described. To turn a corner and be confronted by the Colosseum or the Pantheon can make even ME lost for words.

Colin has not attempted to try speaking Italian and so far has received a completely different meal to what he ordered and held up a very impatient queue in the supermarket while he tried to figure out the Italian system. Most people just laugh at our clumsy attempts, which is just as well. The woman working at the supermarket, however, was most UNIMPRESSED and rolled her eyes at him and sighed.

We climbed the stairs to the top of St Peters Basillica at the Vatican, into the dome right up the top and enjoyed a breathtaking view of Rome. It seems that at the top of every looonnnggg flight of stairs, we are rewarded with a view which takes the pain of your calf muscles away (momentarily). By the time we get to France, we will be sprinting up stairs without blinking!!

The Spanish steps with Charlie

We met up with my friend Charlie at the Spanishh steps today and had lunch in a little Italian laneway. Charlie seemed very keen on getting directions from Italian police. I think she has a ‘thing’ about men in uniform perhaps? It was great to catch up with her and also to talk Aussie for an hour or two.
I have used an 8gig memory card in 3 days. Hand up who wants to come to the slide night afterwards!!

I ILLEGALLY photographed some Roman uniforms today and got into much trouble from a little 4′ tall Italian woman. It was worth it. I honestly ommitted to read the sign, but even so, it was WORTH the scalding I got. Why is OK to photograph Michaelangelos paintings in the sistene chapel? I don’t understand the rules.

We have had no internet, TV or newspapers for 4 days and I don’t think things are going to improve over the next few days, so I am going to keep ‘blogging’ off line and put it all up at once.

7th June
st peters basillica and the Vatican museum.
hop on hop off bus (around Rome several times!!)

8th
Colosseum and tour of the Roman Forum, Circus maximus and The sistine chapel.

9th Castle of Sant Angelo, Piazza Nevano, Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps, Pantheon (including the tomb of Raphael) and many surprising little churches with amazing artistry adourning the ceilings and walls.

More pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86581&id=561229505&l=fd4e0c2f6d

Arrr, this ‘ere Youtube ‘ideo shows a great bunch o’ pirates, Nati’es, sailors and galley gals, all dressed up and ready t’ perform in the ‘Spear and the Star’ performance this year. Ye’ll ne’er get me buried booty!

This blog has been sadly neglected…. due to my involvement in the costume making for the ‘Spear and the Star’ production.

So here is a catch up…..

We went to the QMF with Jen and Andy a few weekends ago and had a hoot! Apart from the 4 star accommodation which was more like 1 star (what drugs was the person on who guaged it 4 star???)…. we had lots of fun groovin’ to the beats;)

< Ross Wilson (left) from up close in the mosh pit!

After finding a great artist on the Blues train, Jen (alias Lousie) and Andy are now Stalking him at pubs (and clubs)? It was great to have some laughs with them and watch some awesome music acts.

We have been going for about 4 years now and still have a ball….. but it was great sharing it with good friends this year.

The Blues train

Whhhheeeeee! I won 3rd prize for the wacko bra I decorated for the Croydon Curves competition.

It was voted on by participants who paid to vote and raised $58 by voting for my bra! The winner and 2nd prize raised even more and all funds went to Breast cancer research.

It will be displayed at Sovereign Hill for the next 6 months so if you are up there check out how wacko it is. It is called ‘mouse girls’ although some say they look more like weasels!

And no……. I will not be parading it!

My friend Jan got 4th so I think she ought to parade hers. Agree?

Here are the 3 prize winners…….

Now I am on a bird theme. Actually I did this before my pheasant (below). I did it on my weekend tangent. For someone who doesn’t like her hand writing I used it a lot in this one LOL!

I used my own writing for shading and wing texture. Lucky I have such good eye sight cos I am sure it is a size 4 font I wrote with! My sight has deteriorated in the past 2 years but when I had it tested it was ‘better than 20/20’.  I must have been bionic to start with!

The hands are pretty gnarled looking and not quite how I want them to look. Practice practice……. I think the dove was probably glad to escape from them.

Yes…….. the purple theme keeps coming out doesn’t it?

I can see what this is called a drawing CHALLENGE. Normally I would avoid drawing such things! Esp a bird.

I drew this while eating tea so I guess it is influenced by my hunger!

I have to say, that even though handwriting gives drawings a personal touch, I don’t like mine. You can see that even my ‘teacher practise’ of writing on a white board has failed to give me a steady hand!

I think drawing is a great thing to do after work when I am supposed to be cleaning up the dishes from tea.  Actually……. anything would be better than cleaning dishes he he he!

Done in a rush…. but done!

Having been to Egypt earlier this year…. I couldn’t resist twisting the challenge to mean a different type of lamp….

This one is just a collage of photos of my Dad when he was young. His album of childhood pics have been missing for a few years now so he was glad to get hold of some pics recently and gave them to me to scan. I have added some I scanned years ago to the collection and put them onto a movie …….. all they need is a narrative (hint hint Dad!!).

The photo on the clip (as seen below) has his favorite teacher in it…. Miss Something or other (sorry for not listening Dad!), who he claims encouraged his love for music by shouting him a ticket to see ‘Fantasia’ at the movies. Most of the photos are taken around Coburg and Brunswick.

This is my favorite because it is about our family at Newmerella in 1973. Newmerella is 3k Melbourne side of Orbost where we owned the General store and Petrol station which was open every day of the year. We lived behind the business, so it was quite a huge job to keep it running and all of us were involved.

The backing audio is a tape we made for our Grandmother at Christmas. It is a bit ‘noisy’ because when I tried to remove the noise it became ‘echoey’, so I figured it is probably better off like it is.

The clip is a bit of a tear jerker for us as Mum died 14 years ago at the age of 54. Hearing her voice on the tape was a bit hard, but now that I have heard it 900 times (that’s what happens when you make a movie!!!!) I hardly feel a thing. I am officially HARD of heart! Well….. when it comes to this movie I am LOL.