Driving to Rome

Taking a break from writing about my past, I am getting ready for the Xmas road trip we will take in a few days. We will travel from London to Marseille, driving through all of France and then we will get on a ferry straight to Rome. It will be 14 hours on the ferry! Practically a lifetime.
But it will be by night, 6pm to 9.30am, so not too bad, as I will be sleeping 10 hours of those.
Then it will be 5 days in Rome with my family, or more correctly in Bracciano. My family actually lives in Bracciano where Tom Cruise got married, they moved there 10 years ago when I left Italy for London. We knew the place was beautiful much earlier than he ever knew it existed!

On the way back, we are not taking the ferry, but we will have to drive all the way from Rome to London. 1600 kilometers! Of course we have quite a few days and will be stopping by night in b&b along the way. We are hoping to reach Paris by New Year's Eve, and spend it there celebrating 2007. Back in London by the 2nd and back to work by the 3rd!

It will be quite an adventure to drive there and back, but of course also quite tiring. I will take pictures of France and Italy and try to post them here!

Also, this here below is the car we will be travelling with - so it will be great fun! We just bought it in September, it's from 1997, but still in perfect shape and a fantastic drive, if somewhat daunting for me as a new driver. I have been practicing ever since we got it and I am getting better and better.

We hope to be back all in one piece!

The night when the police came to my house...

During my search for the ONE, I ended up in a relationship with a tattooist.
The story with him was complicated to say the least.

He was a crazy guy, but I was in love with him. We were together a few months before I realised our relationship would never go anywhere. He was a complete flirt, and never cared for me too much I guess. He was too much in love with his Jack Daniel. So I started to detach myself but couldn't bring myself to leave him, so ultimately the relationship ended thanks to him.

He was a violent drunk and I was happy to be rid of him. I just wish I put a stop to it myself. As it turned out, he left me one night when I discovered he cheated on me with his ex-girlfriend. I was quite relieved to tell the truth, they deserved each other, but still very hurt.

A week after, he called me at 3am on a Thursday night, completely drunk, saying that he wanted to see me. I said no way, but he said he was coming over anyway. There was nothing I could do to stop him and I knew he meant it and that he would come over. When I heard him knocking and kicking at my door over and over again, my stomach tensed so much, I was sick with worry. I was afraid he would wake up my flatmates, so I let him in. BIG MISTAKE.

He was very drunk and emotional and kept saying that he wanted to start again with me. I played it cleverly and did not reject him, but I pleaded with him to just sleep on the sofa and that we would talk about it the next day. Was he going to shut up and sleep? Of course not. He kept going on and on about all sorts of nonsense, until I got very upset and asked him to leave.
At that point he lost it and grabbed me from behind to choke me. I knew he didn't want to strangle me, just to scare me, but I had enough of it and wriggled free of him and dialled 999 (in the UK it's not 911). Just before the police answered I hunged up. I do not know why, I just did not want to create trouble for him. Even though I certainly did not love him anymore, I unfortunately still had feelings for him. Having understood what I was trying to do, he grabbed my hair so hard, a big chunk of it came out in his hand and I fought back and pushed him hard - the pain was so much in my head, it was like he took the scalp off. At that point the phone rang.

I never knew at the time that the police would trace your call and call you back if you hang up. So they did, and thank God they did, and when I picked up the phone I was in tears and desperate, so I gave them my address. Things quietened down then, so I asked him to leave before the police arrived. I did not want him to go to prison, I just wanted him gone. Maybe wrong, but that was what I felt at the time.

He would not leave, he said 'bring it on'. In the meantime of course my flatmates woke up and came to my aid while we were waiting for the police to arrive.
When they got there, he resisted to go but at the end he went with them. I said I did not want to press charges, I just wanted him out of my house and out of my life forever.

The last I saw of him, he was entering the police van. That was 7 years ago.