From 104 – 35.6 degrees fahrenheit

My week leading up to our departure for Rome was quite stressful. I don’t know if it was all the preparation with finishing up a lot of small projects, a conflict with a colleague, or a patient who had an unexpected outcome and I had to Medevac out to London that made it so sleepless. Plus our dear friends are leaving for Hawaii. He’s coming back but Sirianna and Eila won’t be so we had our last get together before we rushed home to pack and catch the flight. We all refused to cry because we know we’re friends for life and nothing could ever change that (but I did fight back a few tears except for one which fell into my wine glass when no one was looking ). Oh! And I had to go get my haircut as well.

The plane left at 12:35AM and I was exhausted. Still, I had trouble sleeping on the plane. I reach a point after about 3 hours where it feels like my neck muscles have given up after all those head jerks and there is no position for relief. At 2AM I was vaguely aware of Camille eating the dinner they brought. At 3:15AM my neck snapped and I opened my eyes, only to see her laughing with a set of head phones on watching old cartoons. We landed in Paris on schedule but they couldn’t get the catwalk to work so we sat and waited on the plane for over an hour before they finally got some stairs. People were standing in the isles and they kept announcing, “Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize but we have a broken finger.” You can imagine where my mind went and the joke I made with that a la Gene Garson style. We missed the connecting flight to Rome. They rescheduled us for a 9:40 flight but since it’s Paris, we really didn’t mind; a magazine stand, a croissant and coffee, a beer? Why not? Everyone else is having one!

Then we get onto the flight to Rome. There is a strange and menacing vibration and drilling sound heard from under the plane. The plane heads for the runway with frequent lurching stops (no relief to my poorly recovering neck). “Ladies and gentlemen, we unfortunately have a problem with our brakes and will have to return to the terminal. Thank you for your understanding.” Then, after a few more lurches, “We have reset our computer braking system and have rectified the problem so we will procede to take off.” Still a bronco ride while taxiing followed by an announcement that they are changing the braking system computer. “Thank you for understanding.” We sat just off the runway while they worked on the problem. Then, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I apologize for my premature optimism. We still have a braking problem and will have to return to the terminal. Thank you for your understanding.” Fine with me! After the first announcement, I had already written down “Problem with braking system! Pilot given the go ahead for take off anyway!” on the air sickness bag in case we were found and there was an investigation. At least the family back home could get a few mil.

We stopped halfway back to the terminal, waited 20 minutes for a bus which took half the passengers back while the rest of us waited another 20 minutes for the bus to return. Back in the terminal there was chaos since nobody knew where to go or when to expect the next plane. Finally, they got us back onto the bus and delivered us back to what could have been the very same aircraft we had just gotten off of.

We arrived in Rome at 4:30 PM. Our cab driver out raced all the other cabs for the hole shot and managed to write down some recommended “tipoco” Roman restaurantes that where not tourist traps while skillfully driving 100 miles an hour on a tight curvey highway. The drive in through the city was beautiful, right past the colloseum and all the antiquity. The hotel is beautiful. There was shocking news that it is against the law to have more than 3 people in a room (who passed that law I wonder?) and that we need to pay for an extra room but we negotiated and they compromized so we have to pay an obscene extra euros a night for an extra bed they brought to our room. Aren’t we lucky?

Things quickly became better after our doorman directed us to a very nice Pizzaria just a 5 minute walk from the hotel “Il Pomodorino.” A brick oven pizza was ready in 10 minutes! And what a pizza! Why does it take so long to get a pizza in Niamey? Dina had a salad where they walk with her and she points out from all the different salads what she wants and they put generous portions on the plate and serve it to her with a fine wine and San Peligrino water of course. My sausage gorgonzolla pizza was unbelievably delicious. A fine meal. Kids are happy. We’re all happy. Just a short walk in the cold night back to our room. Ahhhhh!