The Final Countdown

Next Friday Nick and I will be hosting our Going Away Party at Zep's bar, Oops. The theme of the party is Cioccolata (chocolate) in honour of Nick's mate, the legendary D.J. Dani S., who will be laying on some cool grooves to relax to.

Everyone will be there: the somebodies and the nobodies, the bohos and the hobos, the friends and barflyes, the locals and the expats, the Bally brigade, the Radio 3 crew, the TV people, the beautuful people (architects and graphic designers), the artistes, the club owners, the musicians, the party crashers.

I'll be working the room in a killer outfit (black velvet pants, high-heeled boots, a purple silk shirt with a key-hole neckline and a pussy bow), cocktail in my manicured hand and purple fingernails to match.

For the occasion, Raffi a local artist, will be hosting the afterparty (starting 1.00 am) at ther studio, and my friend Jonata the celebrity singer-songwriter, will play an acoustic set in downtempo.

The weekend after the party, Nick and I will be leaving Lugano for good. The thought of going away is daunting. I look forward to it as much as I'm a little bit anxious of moving back to Melbourne after an almost seven year absence. Although leaving me with the feeling thtat it was a bit of a tight fit, living in Ticino has been lovely, it's had its perks and most of all: it provided a real sense of security and comfort, which I hope to be able to re-establish in the big smoke downunder. But will my friends still be there for me? There is so much to figure out...

So far, we have begun to dismantle our home. We have sold the wardrobes and kitchen furniture and are now camping inside our flat, our clothes hanging off wobbly clothesracks and us having breakfast on our camping furniture in the kitchen - once the setting of lavish dinner parties, now looking very bare.

There are piles of boxes of linens and clothes and cds in every corner of the flat, packed suitcases leaning against now bare walls, and I've rolled up the Kilims to save them from getting all dusty and grimy from all the coming and going.

Meanwhile outside, it has snowed round the clock for the last three days. It's the heaviest snowfall in over 20 years, causing total chaos not only in southerns Switzerland but in the entire northern Italian region. Cities are in chaos, citizens held captive by the snow. Public transport has come to a full stop, with airports closed and over 200 trains cancelled. Driving is impossible without snow chains, turcks have been forbidden to circulate, the schools are closed, workers are stranded.

There are 80 cm of snow on my balcony. Enough to build a big fat snowman. Yesterday morning, as I shovelled the snow off the balcony and freed the terrace plants from the weight of the snow, I saw a man in skis, gliding past my street! All parked cars are buried under an enormous mound of snow. The spot where my scooter once stood, is now a single, tall, white pyramid of snow.

It started on Wednesday evening, after I got back from visiting the Keith Haring exhibit in Milan. By the way, it was one of the best art shows I've seen in recent years, on par with the Magritte show I saw in Balsel last December, the Basquiait exhibit in Lugano last summer, the Georgia O'Keefe in Zürich and the Whitny exhibit in Milan a few years back. The great thing about the art exhibitions around here is that they are usually comprehensive retrospectives, whereby one has the rare opportunity to see an immense collection of the artist's work gathered under the one roof, the works spaning his or her entire career - from the early days to the last, usually including such treats as sketches, sculptures, photographs and video footage.

Happiness is a Jam-Packed Breakfast Tray!

For new years' Nick and I booked a room in a historical, art déco hotel in Zurich to partake in the city's festivities. It was too cold to wear anything glamorous, just black lacks, an embroidered jersey top and sensible shoes for (there was snow on the streets so we had big parkas and beanies, gloves and scarfes!) The best part, other than shopping in the Bahnhofstrasse's boutiques during the sales, was dinner at Lipp's a French brasserie: boujolais, rosted lamb with potatoes duchissoise followed by crème caramel. And of course wee had a bottle of Mum's Champagne with us.

On the first of January we awoke to two opulent breakfast trays of fresh orange squash, croissants, coffeee, bagles, sliced meats and cheeses, and complimentary champagne - all delivered to our room! After breakkie we slowly, lazily headed back home. But when we got in the car it was such a gorgeous, clear and sunny day we decided to make a detour and stop in Luzern on the way home. So it was lovely, in Luzern, we walked around, taking in the sights and just loving the scenery, the famous wooden bridge that corsses the lake and the dramatic mountainous landscape as a backdrop; a perfect way to begin the new year!

At home, things are getting a bit hectic; with Nick working until the day we leave Lugano(!) and me taking care of everything, including his paperwork (superannuation and pension funds, banking, taxation, notification to immigration, taxation, and on and on...). The list of things seems endless so I break it down into managable quantifyable units. However, I lost a whole day just sifting through our boxes of photographs and throwing out all the unwanted ones! In the meantime, people are coming to look at our flat, the removalists have been here too, to give us estimates and quotes on volume.

On today's list of priorities: place ads for sale of motorvehicles, dry cleaners, decluttering the sutdio, photocopying all important documents, notifying the post office of our change of address, contacting the removalists, recycling unwanted stuff, shopping, cooking and cleaning. And I'd like to squeeze in a couple of hours at the gym for some Pilates, followed by a sauna and a solarium (don't want to arrive in OZ looking like a ghost).

Well it's only four weeks now before we leave and panic is starting to take hold of me. I hope we'll get everything sorted out in time! And there is so much cleaning to do! Sometimes I just wander around the rooms in this place wondering where to start... As much as I feel nostalgic about leaving my friends and this gorgeous part of the world, I'm now looking forward to being in New York, when all this will be behind me and I'll be enjoying my holidays, thinking only about the future.

Hope this year is filled with wonderful surprises!