Grounding…

January 11th 2023

Playing house in southern Italy is what we are up to these days.

Happy New Year to all!

Got my teeth cleaned and my hair cut. 

The days are slowly getting longer, the sun is just a bit hotter and the gloomy clouds are fading in the distance. The mind is recovering over a cappuccino but mostly over some happy news! (To be shared when the time is ripe…)

We have been hiding out in the dark. Even s.Italy can be cold, rainy and downright wintery. I had a bit more of a fairy tail Phantasie what it would be like. Goosed skined and cranky is more of a reality these past weeks/month.

We opted for a house/pet sitting gig in Italy and got it on the second try (it is competitive to be a member of the trusted house sitters.com).

We had a few nice references from our friends in CA who shared their experiences with us as house/pet sitters on the THS webpage, but this one from Coby “takes the cake” and I feel like sharing it:

“Margit and James have taken care of my place for months at a time. These are the folks you want on that life-raft with you. Not that there's all that much meat on 'em, but they are two of the most considerate, thoughtful, competent people you can imagine. Both are skilled in a multiplicity of complementary fields - you just know you're not gonna be getting any midnight text messages because the toilet doesn't seem to shut off all the way. I have between 1-3 cats, depending on who's awol at the moment - somehow they never are when Margit's around, tho...”

It very likely contributed to help us get a 6 week sit with two Doberman dogs and plenty of room in the house to spread out and relax the winter out.

We are hanging out way down south, right in that last little bit of the high heel of the boot -near Lecce - between Brindisi and Lecce - between the Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea. Albania is right across of the A. Sea.

Some of those dark hours had gotten to me, I admit it….

Though, the highlights of those times were clearly reuniting with friends and family in Berlin.

Update: We did cycle to Rome, we left our bicycles at a WarmShower host, took wings to Berlin in December -round trip from Rome. After the holidays, we cycled to Naples, took the train to Taranto cycled to Lecce and: voila! Here we are: 

It is nice to have a place to come home to.

The weather had been a bit rough in November and we found ourselves spending too much money on hotels, pension and B&Bs. Some of those nights we could have spend outside in our beloved tent….maybe it has to do with being over 60 years old?: A shower, a bed, a place to hide away from the wind, the cold and the dark has a lot more pull than it used to. We choose to be “on the road” and the new “old” me feels: Yes, I so enjoy to be comfortable! Not as an excuse but as a right of passage.

Being home in somebody else’s home - hard to describe…responsibility is shifted, but freedom is at the front door. Does that make sense?

Space is filled with somebody else’s stuff. Personal items are no more than what we carry on our bicycles. Our world is still wide open and attachments are left at home. We can stow away our things in less than 10 minutes and say good bye to somebody we don’t know.