Highs and lows

Rome is a fabulous city, pulsating with life and history. Having spent the last 6 days, I would move there in an instant. But of course the teenager hates it. It was an 18th/well done for getting this far present. To bring her and the best mate K to Rome for a week. Word of warning, holidays mean
2 completly different things to teenagers. Regardless of location, according to the kid, a holiday means in no particular order: sleep, drink and shopping. No mention of sight-seeing. Of course she and the mate, when they left the bedroom were impressed by what Rome had to offer. When they made the effort. The heat at the start of the holiday had something to do with their mood. It was 34 degrees when we arrived and the kid can't handle heat at all. Needless to say the moods were all over the place. We tried to old lets go see the sights on the Monday.

We managed to get them to the Colosseum and the trevi fountain but that was about the height of it. There was no point in forcing them to appreciate something they just weren't interested in. The funniest was the open top bus tour. They were the only 2 sitting there listening to their iPod and snoozing whilst we went past some of the most amazing sights. They never took one picture and as soon as we get off the bus, they are beside themselves with excitement when they see a truimph motorcycle. They weren't fans of the food either, the pizza wasn't like the ones they had here. The most they ate was when we brought them to burger King. The kid declared that she loved Ireland and was never leaving it.I reminded her of her dramatic declaration of moving to Holland less then 2 years previous. She told me to shut up. She's great at winning arguments. Of course, the Italian men loved the girls and their low cut tops. Thank god they wore jeans or long dresses most of the time, or I would have had my work cut out for me.

On the first day, we sat near the Colosseum and had a snack and one of those silly Roman soldier fellows spots the kid's pink hair and marches over talking loudly in Italian and going on about madonna. He kissed her on the cheek. If he had done anything else, I would he walloped him. Thankfully, he wandered off. There were catcalls from various cars passing , even the police car one time, pulled in and one of the officers whistled out at them. So much for setting an example.

Myself and Mammy2 had a great time though, lots of walking around and relaxing. Thank god we brought the mate K else I don't think we would have survived the holiday. The kid suffered every ailment under the sun whilst in Rome. The happiest she looked was getting on the plane to fly home. The friday we got back was stressful. Flying is always stressful but this time was more so. Once we got into Dublin, we had to register the kid for her portfolio course and go out to my work place and get my on call stuff. I hated dropping out as I had a feeling I might get caught. Sure enough, the developer wanted to talk about handovers as he's off on 2 weeks leave. I told him to put it in an email and legged it.

Finally home, unpacked and settled, the kid rings the brother looking for money. She wants to get some stuff done for her DEBS which is on Tuesday and we told her we would only spend so much on it what with spending a lot of money on the holiday she hated. She was talking to him for a minute when she said he wanted to talk to me. As soon as I got on the phone, he started ranting about contact numbers and how he was trying to get through to us. Once I had calmed him down and explained that we didn't check our emails etc, he seemed okay. Then he dropped the bombshell. Our cousin had commited suicide during the week. His funeral was Friday morning. Absolute shock. I listened to the brother tell me what happended and it was just an unreal feeling. He hung himself in the garden shed of the family home. The youngest ound him. I told the brother I was very sorry and to pass my condolences onto my aunty. The sister K had flown in from Holland for the funeral and she had gotten a wreath from us. After hanging up the phone, I explained to the lads. The kid was
in shock as well, she had grown up with A. Granted we were never very close but he's still family.

A was a problem child from day 1. He was the middle child and once he hit the teens, he was always in some bother. His family background never gave him any chance to be honest. The mother and father were constantly fighting, abuse on both sides. The 3 kids never really had a supportive family unit. The eldest used to spend a lot of time out with us, as Mam always took in any child looking for love. Of course he's in bits now with the brother gone as are the entire family. A was 21. He had tried before and didn't succeed. Obviously it was more then a cry for help. I need to get a mass card and write a letter to the aunty. She was very supportive to us throughout the whole Mam ordeal. The last image I have in my mind of A was at Mam's anniversary mass. All soverign rings and attitude. Its heart breaking that someone so young would think there is nothing out there for them
that they resort to this.

I hope he's in a better place right now.