Ho pensato* ..

*I've been thinking, not all that unusual despite what a few of my friends may think, that I  haven't done too much in the way of postings lately. When I look at the sidebar I realize that this month's entries have been sparse upon the ground.  There have been several reasons for this - you'll notice I said reasons not excuses - chief of which has been that this has been one of the busiest times in the past four years.  There have been guests (always welcome so not a problem), events have piled up one on top of the other  (opera, a cheesecake cooking class at the house, the Roma Marathon, private tours of a few choice sites here in Roma etc.), it was Laurent's 55th birthday this month (which involved two great dinners and a few other carryings-on), the celebrations of March 17th and the news that we would be going back to Ottawa this summer.  It has made for a busy month both physically and mentally.

It also means that I have let many things slip - blogging, responding to e-mails and even leaving comments on friends blogs.   With the former I am not at a loss, god knows, for subjects just for the time and inspiration.  For the e-mails I am ashamed and have a few people that will be receiving e-mails that will begin with heart felt apologies for ignoring the senders.   For the later I want to assure all my friends - David, Debra, Jacque-Sue, Yvette et al - that I do read your blogs faithfully just that often the only thing I can think to say in the way of a comment is "thank you for posting" - hardly the wittiest or most intelligent response to the hard work that goes into writing a posting.

The move involves compiling a complete inventory of everything that will be shipped back to Canada, finding a house to live in, arranging travel for the Hounds from Hell in the summer months when many airlines won't transport animals and a checklist of things that fills three pages of single spaced items.  Fortunately I have Laurent to keep me on track when I threaten to go off the rails about things and he in turn has me for those moments when hyperventilation sets in.

And to be honest at this point the news that we would be returning to Ottawa, though not unexpected, has led to a minor period of depression.  Life here has been incredible, and frankly charmed, on so many levels and though I knew it would eventually come to an end I tend to put that sort of thing out of my mind until I run smack into it.  As things slowed down a bit at the start of this week I was having time to think.  But before I got myself into too deep a funk I received an e-mail from a friend who in two sentences gave me some perspective on it.  Dayle and I met through tragic circumstances which I will not rehearse at this time but out of that tragedy came a friendship - though we have only met face to face once I think our notes back and forth in the past four years allow me to call it that.  I'm not sure how she sensed how I was feeling this week but sense it she did and wrote:

You guys have had a great 4 yrs chocked full of good times and wonderful memories.  Remember to think of what you have had - not what you are losing.

Cara Dayle many thanks for that reminder - it was needed and timely. 

Now to sit down and work on: the inventory, a few postings and those e-mails.

31 marzo - Sant'Amos

Missing in Action But Still Around

Things have been a little crazy around here the past week or so. As a result I haven't been either able or in some cases up to doing a regular post - even those easy ones like Mercoledi Musicale. This time it isn't the infamous "blogger's block" just life.

First there was the trip to London - just too much going on to do much other than take pictures, go to the theatre, museums and concerts, eat and meet up with a wonderful fellow blogger and his partner.

Second there was the kids' birthday - okay that didn't take up that much time just an extra biscuit on "the day" but Nora was under the weather - oh look something unspeakable on the sidewalk let's eat it and see what it will do to our digestive system! Now that could set me off on a rant about the bloody people here who don't pick up after their dogs but that is for another day.


Third the visit to the Corsini Library and its wonders.

Fourth, and probably the biggest - I'm back to working full time at the Embassy for a few months. I won't go into the details - at times they were just too Machiavellian for words - but every morning I am now arising at 0630 and merrily trudging my way into the office. Hey its will pay for the upcoming trips!

So all and all its been a bit of a dog's breakfast - sorry Nora. I am honestly working on something about those first three items, the fourth we will leave to God and her Angels to inscribe in the Book of Life. In the meantime I'm off to boot camp with the kids - this week we'll learn how I should respond to the command "Down"!

28 febbraio - San Romano di Condat

Numbers

With the 45th anniversary of the day I reached legal drinking age in Ontario coming up I guess I've become a bit obsessed with numbers. That and the rather startling fact that according to Blogger this is the 1000 post I've put up since I started this blog on November 12, 2006. That means that for over 3 years now I've been subjecting the world to my bad spelling, copy editing, curmudgeonly musings and out of focus photos - Blog spot has a great deal to answer for.

A few more fascinating (?)numbers:

First entry was 1126 days ago:

Which means in the past three years there has been at least 126 days when I've posted nothing. Taking in to consideration that extended period when we first moved to Roma and didn't have Internet, time off in the hospital, blogger's block and just nothing to say and the good sense not to say it, I guess that's not a bad average.

32 drafts

Like my friend Sling I have a backlog of posts that all seemed a good idea at the time. They range from rants about the traffic in Roma to opera, ballet and concert reviews to a few personal observations about life in general (no doubt under influence of that brown liquor Sling favours); and photos - lots and lots of photos in fact a hard drive of photos. I really must go through them some day and maybe even finish off a few of those drafts. Anyone want to hear about an opera performed on a gigantic bisected diaphragm three months ago?

53,746 Visits

According to the Google Analytics plug in thingy that's how many times people have stopped by - that includes family and friends forced to because they were worried I was talking about them; people googling boxing and ending up on my page devoted to a bronze piece in Museo Massimo (Surprise!!!!); someone Googling teabag and ... well lets just leave that one alone.

148 Countries

Those visitors have come from all over the world - or at least their servers have - with the U.S. leading the group; I really must speak to some of my friends in Canada about loyalty. Vanuatu was amongst the more exotic with only 1 visit and that was long after Dan and Cam had moved back to Vancouver.

130 Visits

That was the most visits I've ever had in one day on July 21st of this year. Not sure why. The only thing posted that day was a video from Happy Feet. But then why not it was a fun little video!

Search Keywords

People have used keywords like: Roberto Bolle naked - I only wish!!!!; faggots - only to find a recipe for a disgusting dish using pigs innards but a very good onion gravy; and the most popular is past tense of fly which only leads to an article about catching the flu on a flight (get it "fly-flew-flu" god I can be witty, or at least half-so).

20 Comments

That was the most any one post received and that was back when I first introduced the Hounds from Hell. Just goes to prove that animals and sex sell. Guess my readers go for the animals more than the sex! And DF, Uncle Pervy, Dora - I am working on an new GPV - honestly!

1:05 Minutes

The average time spent by a visitor on the site. Not sure how that works out but it may mean the average person doesn't bother with the text - so much for copy editing - and just looks at the photos. Or it could just be those disappointed people who leave the minute Roberto Bolle doesn't show up naked - as indeed would I.

Uncountable

And that would be the number of friends I've made over the past three years through my blog and blogging. I won't start to list because I know I'd forget someone but each one has let me into their lives and shared so much with me and for that I don't have the right number of words to say thank you.

I'm sure that the Google Analytics could show me all sorts of other fascinating numbers, trends and patterns but they are after all only numbers. And as we know numbers can be manipulated to mean anything. Now that 45 number plus 18 number I mentioned at the beginning - that one's disturbing. And try as I might I just can't fiddle with it. Oh well its just a number!

07 decembre - Sant'Ambrogio

And Now Back to Our Regular.....

Its been a very odd week or two here. Between the flu that seems to be striking everyone and was really energy-draining and ADSL problems I haven't been either able or in the mood to update. Though I've been reading all my favorite bloggers I just haven't felt much like sitting down and commenting let alone putting finger to keyboard and writing about what's been going on here in the Eternal City.

However things seem to be on the turn around - Eugenia, my Italian teacher, assures me that Spring is just about to begin - and I'll post a few things that I had been working on with their original dates.

And to my buds - you knew the silence was too good to last. I'm back!

08 febbraio - San Girolamo