Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Too many cooks...

The two-year blog sabbatical has passed: as, we hope, has the English winter – and so, I guess, have the loyal readers. I was tempted to post today on England’s decisive cricket victory, but everyone else is posting it, so I’ll just note a coincidence: my last post before the hiatus was about cricket and Alistair Cooke. So is this: in the final game of the recent Test Cricket series, the man of the match - and of the whole series - was Alistair Cook.


No turgid history of the last two years’ events, I promise – they were a great couple of years, but recounting them would resemble a Windows update: shut down when finished if not before. Briefly then, did some writing – articles, Memoir of my first 25 years, and Foreword to a new edition of Tobias Smollett’s (1766) Travels in France and Italy. Moved house to downtown Nice, (more about Nice later)had a stroke but recovered – thanks to TLC by the DG. We don’t have a panoramic sea view any more, but one more conducive to writing – a library. And started another book, this time Florence and Tuscany: A Literary Guide for Travellers – hence the photo of the Arno.
About to start the most creatively challenging activity of them all: the Tax Return, which has to be submitted by end January.

2 comments:

Sam said...

Ooh, I've just ordered the Smollett book off Amazon - got a little Grand Tour of my own coming up, I should think that will be a fascinating read.

Welcome back!

Tuscan Traveller said...

Welcome to you too, Sam, my first commenter (-tor?) in two years. (Does great PR, that This - he should be in No. 10.) Enjoy Tobias: we're great fans - in fact my mission in life is to prove he wasn't a grumpy old man. Have a fantastic Tour.