It's now more than two weeks that my net-connection to the world from home has been cut, and I'm starting to resent it badly. That said, I'm still alive, even if not updating my blog so often as I wish.
That said, the highlight of the past few days has been the largest VCN Rome Happy Hour we ever had since we started nine months ago (ok, a bit more, but the first one held inside a mall was not really a happy hour, they tell me). In fact, last friday, despite that being a national holy day in Italy (commemorating the establishment of the republic) and consequently a long week-end, and regardless the not so nice weather, we had no less than 50 people showing up, confirming a trend that sees ten more people every time we gather, every two weeks, and at the same time posing a logistical problem: where to fit everyone?
Because, truth to be said, Rome attracts people from everywhere (there were representatives from every single continent on friday), but doesn't have places where you can easily fit 50 people in a single room, not to mention the almost absolute lack, phenomenal for a mediterranean place, of roof gardens or anyway places where having a drink outdoor.
What else, what else. Oh yeah. The long week-end gave me time to finally finish up my personal moving, and the last box revealed itself to be (well, I knew it, after all, I had made it) the memory box, meaning the one containing the classical shoes-box (in my case, three) where you keep those things you cannot part with but you cannot even have under your eyes. Old mails, presents from your past girlfriends and all those mixed memorabilia that are just meant for giving you a melancholy blues, which is precisely what they did. I know, I have written that three or four times over the last two weeks, but that's what happens when you move after 25 years: as Troy demonstrates, the relics of time my sink for a time, but then, sooner or later, re-surface, especially if you go around digging for them.
Anyway, I'm done, my posters are hung at the walls (well, the main one looks bare, with less than half the stuff that covered the other wall... but was mostly my brother's posters) together with my sport-medals shield (don't ask), my books are all in my book-case, which still look half empty and I even managed to save some space in a wardrobe and a couple of drawers for when Susanne will come over.
So, now I just have to deal with... all the rest. In particular, with the over 5.000 volumes which make the family library (the catalogue reports actually 4.793 volumes, but it lacks my own personal 200/300, my brother's ones and about a dozen of uncensed boxes which have been lying in the basement of the old apartment probably since we moved back in Rome in 1981 and re-discovered only two weeks ago), currently packed in over 150 boxes neatly divided among the car-box, the apartment's basement space and a different one, bought right for the purpose of storing the books boxes, not far from the house. Where and how we'll definitely store them I have no idea.
Oh, the last two incidents with my scooter (the flat tyre and the attempted theft) eventually did cost me over 350 euros in reparations and spare parts (a new tyre and box alone did cost me 150, plus maintenance and stuff having arrived at the 12.000 kms check mark). Note to self, scooters are extremely handy and the only way to go around a city like Rome, but they aren't as cheap as one would assume, especially with roads like the ones we are forced to go around, thanks to a wonderful major (re-elected with over 60% of the votes) who invest millions of euros in awful architectural experiments and idiot festivals, but leaves logistic maintenance to the bare minimum. Actually less than that.
That said, the highlight of the past few days has been the largest VCN Rome Happy Hour we ever had since we started nine months ago (ok, a bit more, but the first one held inside a mall was not really a happy hour, they tell me). In fact, last friday, despite that being a national holy day in Italy (commemorating the establishment of the republic) and consequently a long week-end, and regardless the not so nice weather, we had no less than 50 people showing up, confirming a trend that sees ten more people every time we gather, every two weeks, and at the same time posing a logistical problem: where to fit everyone?
Because, truth to be said, Rome attracts people from everywhere (there were representatives from every single continent on friday), but doesn't have places where you can easily fit 50 people in a single room, not to mention the almost absolute lack, phenomenal for a mediterranean place, of roof gardens or anyway places where having a drink outdoor.
What else, what else. Oh yeah. The long week-end gave me time to finally finish up my personal moving, and the last box revealed itself to be (well, I knew it, after all, I had made it) the memory box, meaning the one containing the classical shoes-box (in my case, three) where you keep those things you cannot part with but you cannot even have under your eyes. Old mails, presents from your past girlfriends and all those mixed memorabilia that are just meant for giving you a melancholy blues, which is precisely what they did. I know, I have written that three or four times over the last two weeks, but that's what happens when you move after 25 years: as Troy demonstrates, the relics of time my sink for a time, but then, sooner or later, re-surface, especially if you go around digging for them.
Anyway, I'm done, my posters are hung at the walls (well, the main one looks bare, with less than half the stuff that covered the other wall... but was mostly my brother's posters) together with my sport-medals shield (don't ask), my books are all in my book-case, which still look half empty and I even managed to save some space in a wardrobe and a couple of drawers for when Susanne will come over.
So, now I just have to deal with... all the rest. In particular, with the over 5.000 volumes which make the family library (the catalogue reports actually 4.793 volumes, but it lacks my own personal 200/300, my brother's ones and about a dozen of uncensed boxes which have been lying in the basement of the old apartment probably since we moved back in Rome in 1981 and re-discovered only two weeks ago), currently packed in over 150 boxes neatly divided among the car-box, the apartment's basement space and a different one, bought right for the purpose of storing the books boxes, not far from the house. Where and how we'll definitely store them I have no idea.
Oh, the last two incidents with my scooter (the flat tyre and the attempted theft) eventually did cost me over 350 euros in reparations and spare parts (a new tyre and box alone did cost me 150, plus maintenance and stuff having arrived at the 12.000 kms check mark). Note to self, scooters are extremely handy and the only way to go around a city like Rome, but they aren't as cheap as one would assume, especially with roads like the ones we are forced to go around, thanks to a wonderful major (re-elected with over 60% of the votes) who invest millions of euros in awful architectural experiments and idiot festivals, but leaves logistic maintenance to the bare minimum. Actually less than that.
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