Post 1,500

When I first posted on this blog back on November 12, 2006 I said:

I wrote my first blog back in 2000 while working at the Warsaw Business Journal.
(snip) Back then I promised readers a daily update of ex-pat life in Poland. That promise was well-intentioned but more often than not it was a broken one. Blogging on a regular basis can be time consuming and lets admit it most of us don't have that much excitement in our lives that warrant a daily post. Basically I've started this blog to keep a record of our trip to Vietnam in December. We'll see how that works out.

1500 posts and more than five years have passed since I wrote that "mission statement" if you like - funny how we slip back into "bureaucrat-speak" isn't it?  And what I wrote still holds true today - blogging is time consuming and hard work, and often topics or events that thrill you would bore your readers to distraction or at least to click quickly away to something more fascinating.  My blog log (look Ma I rhymed) shows that there are 61 posts sitting in "draft" status - things started, abandoned and on occasion restarted and once again abandoned.  Perhaps this is a good time to clean up that file - finish off the gold that cries to be posted and delete the rest as the dross it is  A project for a snowy, cold day - which could be any day this month or next!

Looking at one set of tracking statistics I see that since that day in November there have been:

• 111, 879 visits (that does not include the times when the code suddenly disappeared from the template)
• 64,365 unique visitors (I have always thought that all of my visitors are unique)
• 153, 060 page views (thought this conflicts with the stat on another counter that says 103,160 since June 2009)
• 168 countries are represented on that survey and though the bulk of my visitors come from the U.S., Canada, Italy and the United Kingdom at least on one occasion someone in Vanuatu (Cameron or Dan during their stint there?), Saint Helena and Bhutan (Bev on one of her many exotic trips?) have clicked their way here.
• The most visited post has been A Word of Warning which suggests there is a great deal of interest out there in the corseting of Austro-Hungarian royalty and obscure 19th century German texts on healthy living!!!!
• The most popular search strings have been "crollalanza", "pavol breslik gay" - apparently he is but you couldn't prove it by me - and "the past tense of fly" which since it addressed the flu I caught on a flight from Beijing to Toronto must have disappointed all the grammarians out there.

But what a statistics gathering programme can't measure is the pleasure I've experienced in recording the things that have interested, pleased, saddened and, on occasion angered, me.  Nor could it in any way record the friendships I have established with so many of my visitors and fellow bloggers.  The experiences of reading, corresponding, telephoning and in some cases meeting with people has enriched the past five years in so many ways.  And that, for me at least, has been the greatest reward of all the words, links and photos of the past 1499 posts.

And now to get to work on the next 1500!

26 January - 1500: Vicente Yáñez Pinzón is the first European to set foot on what is now Brazil.

Lunedi Lunacy

This may be a bit of a specialized lunacy suitable for my friends and readers with a liturgical bent but lunacy it is. But then so much of it is, isn't it?

Many thanks to my dear Rob in Rome for this one. Miss you caro.

23 January - 1556: An earthquake devestated Shaanxi Province in China with a loss of nearly 830,000 lives.

龙年吉祥！Gung Ha Fat Choy - Gong Xi Fa Cai

The Dragon is a magnificent beast. In the East, the Dragon is the imperial symbol, the sign of the emperor and the male element of Yang. The Dragon is also synonymous with power and wealth.

It is said that people born in the year of the Dragon carry a natural charisma and are gifted with power and luck. They can also be egoistical and ambitious, almost to the point of megalomania, and will often stop at nothing to get what they want. They can be successful as actors, singers, bankers, financiers, politicians, pharmacists and quite comfortable in many other professions.

The Dragon falls on the following years: 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, and 2012.

 Once upon a time, the Jade Emperor decided to select twelve animals to be recognized as the zodiac (生肖shēngxiāo) signs. In accordance with a decree, the first twelve animals to present themselves to him on the day appointed by the Emperor would be selected as the animals of the Chinese Zodiac.

A right click on the Zodiac will take you to predictions for the coming New Year of the Dragon.  Once you get there just click on your sign and all will be revealed.

The Cat asked the Mouse to help her compete, but the Mouse forgot and the Cat was overlooked. Ever since, there has been bad feelings between the two animals.  The other animals choose the Ox to go first but the sly Mouse rode upon his back so that when the Ox lumbered into the Great Hall the Emperor first espied the Mouse.  So the Mouse was awarded the first place.  However the Tiger and Dragon were angry about the mouse's deception and to placate them the wise Emperor granted them the Kingdoms of the Mountain and the Sea.   The Rabbit also voiced his displeasure and challenged the Dragon to a  race for the fourth position of the celestial signs.  Though the Dragon was swift, Rabbit proved the victor.   That’s how the Dragon became the Fifth Animal in the Zodiac.

The story is told that once in the old times there was a monster called Nián. The monster was enormous and had spiky antenna coming out of its head.  During most of the year it lived in the deepest part of the ocean but on the Eve of the New Year it would rise to the surface and devour people and livestock living on land.  However after many years a wise monk discovered that Nián was afraid of the color red, bright lights and loud-bang noises. So on the New Year's Eve Chinese people put couplets written on red paper up on their gate, hung red lanterns across gate beams, set off fireworks and stayed up all night, which was called "守岁 (shǒusuì)".  It is still the tradition today as people throughout the East approach the New Year with deep lingering feelings for the passing year and a hopeful longing for good things in the coming New Year.

Another tradition that people follow on the New Year is to hang small messages or wishes called Hui Chun in and around their homes and offices, hoping for good fortune during the year. There are many different Hui Chun depending upon the occasion and circumstance. There are Hui Chun asking for sufficient food, domestic harmony, special wishes for the elderly and some wishing students good luck in their studies.

And as I've done in the past I have a Hui Chun that I want to share with all my dear friends:

And may those treasures not be just monetary ones but also the treasures of love, health and happiness.

If you would like to send friends and family a Hui Chun to begin the New Year the people at Discover Hong Kong (one of my favourite cities in Asia) have an interactive site where Hui Chun can be created and sent to family and friends.

22 January - 1506:  The first contingent of Swiss Guards (150 soldiers) arrives in the Papal States.

Patterns of Winters

I've made no secret of the fact that winter is not one of my favourite times of year, particularly when its a day like today - freezing rain, snow, cold wind, -9c feeling like -13c.  Or days when it is bright and sunny but -27c with the wind chill.  The other day when I trudged through the Rideau Centre in a t-shirt, shirt, sweater, fleece, scarf, winter coat, toque and big clunkly lined boots I asked myself why I wasn't sitting in Miami in a shorts and t-shirt with many of my friends?  However that is a question to be answer another day.

But then every so often there is those moments when the sight of pristine snow falling in soft flakes on virgin white drifts - before the dog walkers set out and the sand trucks appear - takes on a mystical fairy tale aspect.  Or times like this morning when I went into the living room and saw a literal forest of frost on the window - looking for all the world like a Lalique sculpture.  I know it means that the seals have broke on the window and more cold is coming in than should be but it really was beautiful.  I only wish I had a better camera that wouldn't catch the reflection but even that added a touch of the mystical to the designs etched in ice by the cold.

Remember that a left click will enlarge the photos for a closer look.

At this point I'll simply bask in the beautiful of nature and not even bother looking out the window.  That would only bring back those old feelings about winter!

12 January - 1908 A long distance radio message was transmitted from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.

Mercoledi Musicale

This time last year I was preparing to head up to Salzburg for the annual Mozartwoche for a few days of concerts, bazaartost, Salzburger Knockerl and the warm hospitality of the Hotel Bristol. Amongst the musical highlights was a concert by the German bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff in a concert of Hayden arias and songs. It was an opportunity to hear one of the greats in a little known repertoire in the intimate setting of the lovely Mozarteum. An added thrill was having him come into a restaurant we were lunching at and ask if he could sit at a communal table.

Quasthoff's story is a fairly well-known on in musical circles - how he overcame great physical challenges to become one of the most respected and loved artists of the past few decades.  Known for his sensitive and nuanced singing in recital, he branched out into opera and jazz and proved that the subtlety he brought to the concert stage translated into so many forms.

Today at the age of 52 he announced his retirement due to health reasons.  As my friend Opera Chic says his ".... statement to the press demonstrates why he's treasured for his elegance and professionalism."

 “After almost 40 years, I have decided to retire from concert life. My health no longer allows me to live up to the high standard that I have always set for my art and myself. I owe a lot to this wonderful profession and leave without a trace of bitterness. On the contrary, I am looking forward to the new challenges that will now enter my life. I would like to thank all my fellow musicians and colleagues, with whom I stood together on stage, all the organizers, and my audience for their loyalty.”

One of my favorite Quasthoff recordings is this aria by Mozart written in 1791 for the bass Franz Gerl and double bass player Friedrich Pichelberger.  It has been rumoured that Pichelberger had made advances toward his wife Constanza and Mozart composed the extremely difficult bass obbligato of Per questa bella mana as revenge.   Whatever the reason he may have had for composing it, here Quasthoff sings it will his trademark elegance and the young bass player Christoph Anacker dispatches his part with elan.

And here is Quasthoff displaying his abilities as a jazz artist with Have A Little Faith in Me from one of his crossover albums.

Though he may be retiring from performing life he will continue teaching at the Hanns Eisler Academy in Berlin and continue to hold his international master classes.  In 2009 he launched "Das Lied" an international song competition and has a new talk show series at the Berlin Konzerthaus.

One can only say thank you to him for so much wonderful music and wish him happiness and health.  We may not hear the music of his voice but his voice will still be heard in the world of music.

11 January - 1566 The First Official Government Lottery has held in England.
 

Lunedi Lunacy

One of the reasons I never make New Year's Resolutions is that I have never been able to keep them past the first week of January.

So how you doing with yours?

09 January - 1768 Philip Astley opened the first modern circus, in London.