lizgeorjon

No attempt at a gris goose avec olives order in Italiano

Settling slowly… until this weak ass grey goose martini is gone! And then yes please, I’ll have another. Mrs Jetsetter suggested I mingle amongst the beautiful people on Via Veneto after our early morning stress out. I do believe that together we possess quite a talent… what with our time zones, currency conversions and otherworldly lives. It’s simple: between Italy and the Middle East surely we can collectively remember to book the $23k USD ticket from Australia for next week by midnight California time lest we lose the space due to the ticketing deadline passing! Ticketing deadline where!? 😜 Fear not for we were able to pull it off with roughly five minutes to spare. Now it’s time to flee. 😉 oh wait, I’m already fled so I guess we’ll have to just go on trust!

I arrived on a sleepy Saturday morning, having been only once before to this fabulous country, but never in summer. It really is true what ‘they’ say about Italy in August! It’s quiet! I remember vividly how chaotic and radical it seemed in October of 2006, on my lesbian honeymoon. Admittedly, I’m rather pleased it is ‘slow’ for my first week living abroad. A soft entry while I try to fit in and get sorted out. Five days now and I’ve finally figured out all the doors required to get into my apartment and have only broken one key lock so far. 🔑

I slept well on the plane, had a lovely breakfast at Eden Hotel and then proceeded to sleep about 33 hours after gathering a few supplies: acqua e vino. At 17:30 Sunday when I rose from my slumber, I wandered out to Fontaine de Trevi for a little sustenance. Enter: stalker número uno. After finishing an incredible meal with agreement (not a promise!) to meet the boy out front when his shift ended, I took a little stroll along a familiar road. Enter: stalker número due. At least this one was all grown up and had a motorbike. A motorbike which I so haphazardly rode on without a helmut… or his first name. 😁

Back to business for Monday! Nervous about my transportation logistics for a much anticipated personal invitation to Positano this weekend from a renowned hotel’s owners, I decided to jog to the Tiburtina Stazione and get my tickets in advance. This eternal city is bizarrely quiet. But it is perfetto as all the Italian friends are returning from holidays and my sense of direction and meetings begin to take form. I’ve figured out that wine is just cheap. Period. 🍷 You can’t buy a €20 bottle in the supermarket. And I don’t see any wine shops! I’m also unable to find grey goose for the apartment, hence my frequenting of five-star hotels like Baglioni and Jumeirah Grand. There are hot men everywhere. No squeaky pants… at least not yet anyway. Motorbikes are the way to travel and I find it kind of nostalgic that it’s always water “with gas” or “no gas”. Frizzante! Sempre frizzante.

Last night I had a lovely catch-up with a really sweet hotelier I’ve enjoyed parties with all over the world. Tomorrow the Rome sites begin and will end with dinner on the terrace above the Spanish Steps. Yes, it is a charmed life… and I am definitely grateful. Just keep in mind I am comfortable (for now) having no address and none of my ‘stuff’… which for me has been invigorating. I venture to guess it’s not something everyone would be comfortable with. Kind of like me with babies. 😳 This weekend is Positano, the week after next will be Portofino with day trips to Florence and Saturnia thrown in for good measure. Yet I love how connected I am able to stay to NYC, New Zealand 😚, the Middle East, UK, California and everywhere else in the world my traveling posse happens to be!

Sitting here at the Jumeirah Grand on Via Veneto, why am I surprised this hotel is full of Arabs? One really big young boy is eating a plain hunk of Brie with knife and fork! Random.com and good luck finding clothes to fit you when you’re twenty! He’s already at least 300 pounds. There’s my opinion for the night! I’m no one to talk though as I was so pointedly reminded that I am living in a very conservative catholic country. Trust me Jacs, if I could have taken a day-train to Germany, I would have! 😆

Tomorrow is 250 squats, 250 tricep-dips and I’ve just decided to incorporate abs into the ‘challenge’… all before America wakes up. Bordeaux and Budapest will reap those benefits! I am truly loving being abroad and still have 27 more days to acclimate to the eternal city. 😘

Nice. Enter: stalker número tres at The Grand, and no it was not the fat boy! Massimo wants to take me for a hike on Gianicolo Hill. 🇮🇹

Love to all… x and ooo

This was ‘our’ bar in 2006!

Enriching lives through human connection… and a bit of chocolate.

I am constantly fascinated by my life. Is that a good thing 😳 or a bad thing?!! Oh wait… I don’t live my fascinating life within those limiting and rather boring parameters. I’m more of a do-er, as the ridiculous bottle service table at The Bank could attest. Pound it! Milk it! Who does bottle service at an open bar Las Vegas venue?! This little one does… apparently. But to quote my ‘already risen’ star: “what da helllll”… it’s just money and we only have one shot in this life at making ourselves happy.

I’ve not written since my London trip, and expected to be in a different frame of mind on my flight home from the amazing rendezvous at Virtuoso Travel Week. Despite the overwhelming praise, successes and charm of the week… I’m a bit bus-struck. 😣 If I’ve learned anything in the last few years, it’s how to suck it up and focus on the positive. 😃

Virtuoso Travel Week was incredible! Third time is a charm!!! Maybe I’m just getting the hang of it, or know all the right people with the best attitudes, who I will forever love. My ‘already risen’ star had to suffer through travel speed-dating 4-minute appointments with my spazzy ass for four days! Especially through our Italian track, having to repeatedly listen to: “I’ll be in Rome for a month, starting next week and I’d like to site…” 😁

Honestly I think I cracked the code to a successful Virtuoso Week. I did not accept any (except Hyatt) invitations all week long, played it super mellow, exercised daily and enjoyed only last-minute one-on-ones. I’d call that fabulouso! Can’t wait to open my new corporate account number for FOUR fucking SEASONS. So random, yet poetic as well. Trying to underpin (the VP’s word 😃) a theme for the week would be nearly impossible. Fabulouso! I ‘milked it’ better than I truly ever thought I could. Envizage may not have their social media expert sorted just yet, but on a personal level… Envizage is getting sorted! “What da helllll” yeah! The human connections I made this week were invaluable. They led me to new business, new friends, security with old business, loving up my existing friends, and a schedule in Italy so full on that a month seems short. Given these ridiculously positive accomplishments, coupled with the unwarranted compliments of my beautiful colleagues… I should be on cloud nine! Not the type Boo and I used to create in my parents RV but wow! What a week!!! Milk it! 😄

It’s so strange how work tends to coincide and cooperate with my personal affairs. I chock it up to the fact that I am ridiculously kind, honest and thoughtful. 😊 Seriously though, loving my work as much as I love myself helps. That’s why I have decided to live in Bordeaux for almost a month after my flat in Rome expires. I am simply not ready to settle! And why should I!!? Am I waiting, am I escaping… no I really don’t think so. I am making the most out of my fabulouso life and sharing it with as many like-minded souls as I can. Besides, when else will I be all packed up into storage so nice and neat? I am just slightly excited to MOVE to the EU and get da helllll out of America. Everyone keeps asking ‘why’. Jeez, like I’ve got a clue!? I chose Bordeaux because St Estephe is my most favourite wine and Paris seems a bit intimidating. I can read and write French, but I can’t hear it or speak it. I’m not going to Italy or France to study, learn the language or for any bullshit eat prey love crap… I’m just going. It sounds fun. And positive. I might go to Amsterdam after. Or perhaps Berlin. So long as I continue to service my clients well and push myself out of the eight-year appetence, it’s all good! The friends I’ve collected worldwide leaves me in my own stunned admiration for very own my fascinating life. 🎉 🇫🇷

It is sure to be fun as I always am, happy, and headed into a direction that not even the most keen observer could envizage. 😉 I just need to get Bob Dylan out of my brain… which is hard to do when it is actually in your soul. My favourite quote from so far back is ridiculously appropriate:

“It wasn’t money or love I was looking for…”

Thank you, my little freak of nature, for walking me home last night! xx

Love my Eden For Your World friends!