Sharing

One of the great things about being in a blog community - even a very loose one, hmm doesn't sound quite right but you know what I mean - is the talent that you encounter almost daily. It may be the ability to use words or a pencil or a camera. But it is that ability to communicate thoughts, memories, humour and ideas through whatever medium that constantly amazes and delights me.

Even in busy Pesaro the Saturday Market in Centro is quiet during Ferragosto. I wonder where the residents of a seaside resort go in the summer when the rest of the world is flocking to their beach?

I overheard the conversation between this lady and the fruttivendolo (greengrocer)- she needed enough eggplant to feed eight - her son, his wife and the bambini where coming for Sunday lunch. He, of course, assured her he had just the ones she wanted!

As in most small towns here bicycle seems to the be major mode of transportation in Centro. And of course its easy to stop and have a Saturday morning gossip when you cycling through town.

• Lorraine has two brilliant posts in a row this week - not to say they aren't all brilliant just that... there I go sounding not right again! And speaking of the right she uses her remarkable facility with words to address the Religious Right and a possible (?) double standard. And this must see video has become an instant YouTube classic. I sent the link to quite a few friends and they've been spreading it around - the link I mean! Damn think I'll just give up on words today.

I am still slightly surprised when I see a pair of Mormon boys walking through the centre of an Italian town. As with most small towns the Centro Storico of Pesaro is closed to traffic. I'm not sure what the red carpet was for but it gave a festive air to an already festive city.

Rossini was born on the the ground floor of this palazzo. He very seldom returned after he left in 1796 at the age of 4. That, of course, has not stopped the sale of Rossini memorabilia in Pesaro but at least its more tasteful than the Mozartiana sold in Salzburg.

• And Speck uses words and her talents as a cartoonist to tell us all about her Labour Day Weekend (sorry Speck I just can't type labor) and an encounter with some people on the run from Gustav. And that first cartoon should be gracing the editorial pages of a major newspaper.

While hundreds of holiday makers crowd the beach seeking that perfect tan that will be the envy of their neighbours come September ...

... others just sit in the park looking out over the Adriatic and pondering the passing world.

04 settembre - San Tesauro dei Beccheria

4 X 10

So here I am in the middle of working on a few posts appropriate to Holy Week and doesn't Lorraine come along with a bit of memish distraction. Well I'm easily distracted and I wanted to post a few pictures from Athens so:

There isn't a cafe in Athens where you won't find a Coffee Frappe - sweetened ice coffee with a delicious foam on top. My favorite is at the Cafe Metropole in the Cathedral Square.

Four jobs I’ve had in my life:
Airline Employee (33 years) - Clerk, Customer Service Agent, Training Instructor, Project Manager
English Teacher to the Polish Armed Forces Chiefs of Staff
Web Editor of an English Language Business Paper in Poland
Security Screening Officer with the Government of Canada

Four Movies I Watch Over and Over Again
The Dead – a beautiful, simple, touching film - Walter Huston’s last based on the James Joyce short story
Raise the Red Lantern – a classic of the Chinese cinema with the incredibly beautiful Li Gong as a young girl brought into a merchant's household as the fourth wife.
Dumbo – What you ain't never seen an elephant fly?
Some Like It Hot – Well no body's perfect!

This tinsmith's shop is located just on the edge of Psiri.

These iron work swans grace the balconies of the Spanish Embassy on Dionysos Areopagitou; and yes, that's the Acropolis across the road reflected in the windows.

Four Places I Have Lived
Toronto, Canada – born and bred
Ottawa, Canada – home base for most of my adult life as I travelled around the world
Warsaw, Poland – our first real diplomatic post together, I was more a visitor in Mexico City, Amman, Cairo, Chicago and Beijing.
Rome, Italy – our current home

Four TV Shows I Watch
(We have 500 channels here – 100 in Arabic and 50 of those are for sex chat lines???? - and there is still nothing to watch)
The Simpsons (I Simpson)– you know its reruns when you can say the English dialogue over the Italian dubbing.
Ugly Betty – reruns on Fox here and we still don’t have this season yet!
Family Guy (I Griffin) – you know its reruns when you can say Italian dialogue over the original English
Law and Order: SVU – reruns but who bothers with dialogue when you can watch Chris Meloni or Mariska Hagerty for that matter.

Sunday around noon the cafes near the Agora where filled with a few tourists but mostly locals enjoying those wonderful frappees and early lunch. Adrianou St. was crowded with street sellers and entertainers including this old man with his antique hand organ.

An open air cinema on Apostolou Pavlou. Its like a drive-in without the cars.

Four Places I Have Visited
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam
Aix-en Provence, France
Mount Sinai, Egypt
Skagway, Alaska
Okay I’m not bragging here but on one of those map programmes I’ve clocked up 195 cities visited, now mind you that includes a restaurant stop at St. Tite so maybe I should make that 194.

Four People Who E-Mail Me Regularly
Linda Gagne
Charlie Knight
Bev Toomer
Robert Mickens

Many of the houses on the upper reaches of Monastiraki and the Plaka seem derelict.

However this building very close to the Cathedral has been beautifully restored.

Four Favourite Foods
French Fries
Mashed Potatoes with Gravy
Scalloped Potatoes
Roast Potatoes with Rosemary and Olive Oil
And yes I am Irish and yes there is a theme here!

Four Places I Would Like to Be Right Now
(Okay I’m going to cheat on this one and going to include places I'd like to be in the coming months)
In Punta Cana for our nephew Andrew and Jessica’s wedding in April
At Mount Tremblant for our friends Martin and Robert’s wedding in June
In my old garden, once the 52 cm of snow has disappeared, to watch things begin to grow
In Rome with Laurent – oh wait a minute I am but I honestly can’t think of a 4th place.

There were many small chapels and churches throughout Athens, many like this one adorned with mosaic tympanums.

This group of cub scouts where playing a round game of some sort on Dionysos Areopagitou on Sunday afternoon. I'm still not sure how the guy in the Asterix helmet was involved.

Four Things I Am Looking Forward to this Year
Our trip to Salzburg in May
Our trip to Venice and Vicenza in April
Maybe, just maybe, a trip to Malta
Celebrating our 30th anniversary in November.

Four People I'm Passing this on to:

Evilgnome
Tater
Subtle Knife
Cowbell

The area surrounding the Theatre of Dionysos was a mass of poppies and the gentlest breeze sent them dancing.

21 marzo - Venerdi Santo

Sharing

Though things have been a little off kilter here the past week or two doesn't mean I haven't been following my favorite bloggers. Though in many cases I haven't been commenting a great deal - imagine me keeping my mouth shut - I still found so much to enjoy out there.

• The doyenne - so young and she's a doyenne already - of Opera here in Italy if not all of Europe, the beloved Opera Chic has been featured in Classical Singer magazine. Interviewer Amanada White, rightly IMHO, calls her the world's foremost opera blogger.


• My darling Auld Hat is back in full force after a brief sabbatical and is as wise, witty and talented as always.


• Sageweb went on a trip and gets tripped up at Ikea. And then she goes and gives us the cutest damn puppy and puddy picture around. And you all know how I feel about puppy and puddy pics.


• RG has totally ruined The Wizard of Oz for me, I'll never look at getting back to Kansas the same way ever again.

• Once again Tater writes from the heart and reaches our hearts with a memory profile of his beloved Jimmy.


• Lorraine is touched by grace at a time and place she least expected. And in the telling proves that grace can be in the written word.


• And Elizabeth muses on the nature of friendships and the kinship of being an outsider.

And that just a random sampling of what I've been reading from my blog buddies - all of them more than worth a regular visit if they're not on your list already.

These pictures where taken on a back road in the Reiti plain in November. That old dog was very concerned when we separated him from the flock. The shepherd had given us the all clear when there was a break - but that old boy kicked up quite a fuss.

25 gennaio - Conversione di San Paolo