Happy New Year

Today I went running for the first time this year. Between coughing and sneezing on the one hand (me) and snowing and freezing on the other (our ridiculous weather), I have simply not got my running gear out. 

But the coughing and sneezing appears to be on the wane and the snow and ice are visibly withdrawing. So this morning, there being no rain either, I set off and ran round the village. I am getting back into my normal routine and the New Year has now officially begun for me, appropriately enough on my birthday. 

This being my birthday, the family are coming for tea. I have baked a cake. This is what you do at my age, you bake your own birthday cake! As I beat up (beat together?) cake ingredients in the kitchen, I could hear mayhem from the basement flat next door. In the space where we have our kitchen and dining room, the house next door has a studio flat, currently occupied by a lady, probably my age, who appears to have far more grandchildren than a sensible person could want or need. She has four children and all of them appear to have followed suit. (My mother also had four children but the four of us only produced six grandchildren between us, a much more reasonable way of doing things!) 

At times the grandmother next door has a large number of them to stay overnight at the weekend. Where they all sleep remains a mystery to me. It works fine, I am sure, in the summer time when they can run around in the garden, but at this time of year, even now the snow has gone, the garden is seriously quagmirish! Everyone has to stay indoors (apart from the small dog who is probably sent out to reduce pressure on space). Hence the mayhem! 

Note to self: as sound travels so well, be sure not to raise voice above the gentlest of tones! 

The world is an odd place at times. I read about a young man of about 22 who set up a website called "Ship Your Enemies Glitter". The idea was to send an envelope full of glitter (the stuff you used to play with as a kid, putting paste on card and sprinkling the coloured, sparkly stuff on top to make Christmas cards for your adoring parents and grandparents) to someone you don't like or to a person who has annoyed you in some way. The recipient opens the envelope and gets covered in glitter. Anyone who has ever supervised children doing craft work knows how hard it is to remove glitter from furniture and carpets, not to mention clothing. Even if you just need to sweep it up off a tiled floor, it still hangs around for days and days and your dustpan and brush are contaminated with the stuff so that wherever else you sweep gets glittery. So I suppose it's quite an effective way of getting your revenge on someone. 

Except that I find it hard to think of anyone annoying me in such a way that I would need to send them an envelope full of long distance revenge. I seem to be in the minority in this. The site was so successful that he has sold it on to some bigger concern. I wonder who now dispatches envelopes full of sparkly malice. What a strange thing to do! And besides, you wouldn't even have the fun of watching the recipient get covered in glitter! 

How did people go about creating strange businesses that nobody knew we had a need for before there was the Internet? Nowadays, someone has an idea, puts it out on the net and, before you know it, the idea goes viral and the creator has the potential to make a fortune. 

Then there is declaring your undying love in public for a person you will probably break up with in a very short time. I caught a short extract from a radio programme either about Verona or about Romeo and Juliet. In Verona you can visit "Juliet's house". We have been there. I am pretty sure it isn't a real Juliet's house but it is equipped with a suitable balcony from which from time to time actors perform bits of Shakespeare for the tourists. The passageway leading into the courtyard is now festooned with graffiti along the line of "Sam loves Mabel forever". Where there isn't space for more graffiti notes have been stuck on with chewing gum (how romantic!) or sticking plasters (also very romantic!) especially on the notice that says not to stick notices. 

Couples have always done this, of course. Think of the numerous trees with names carved inside hearts that are now much higher up the tree than even a tall couple could reach and weirdly bent out of shape by the tree's increased girth. But now people travel a lot more and do it on an international scale. 

There's the Pont des Arts in Paris where so many couples have attached padlocks as symbols of their love, and thrown away the key, that the weight is endangering the bridge. Bits of the guardrail have broken off and landed on boats going under the bridge. Declaring your love can obviously be a dangerous business! The last time we went to Sicily we saw the same phenomenon on the guardrail of a viewing point above the town of Modica. There were none there when first we saw it about ten years ago. 

It's a funny old world!