MORE BIRTHDAY PICTURES

I can hardly believe it's nearly a week since the event. I'm still feeling very moved by all the good wishes and I've still got pics to show you but everybody dived into the food before I could take any of that!

I decided to play fifties and sixties music and I used some of my vinyl covers as decorations. The thing on the right is supposed to be a sort of collage of key figures of my youth and those crepe paper efforts are meant to be discs, just in case you were wondering:

Here I am with "my poet", Antonio Lonardo, who presented me with a poem he'd written specially.

The poem reads:

Salto

Nel salto delle cascate
si purificano i rivoli
e l'acqua corre alla foce
chiara, come alla sorgente.

Cascade

In cascading waterfalls
streams are purified
and the clear water runs to the river mouth
as it does to the spring.

[My translation.]

I shall treasure this and am going to frame it.

I had been delighted to receive another poem, through the post, from my good friend Sileno Lavorini, who organises the Buggiano Poetry Competition.

It reads:

Sono solo 30 x 2 Patricia
e quando a 30 x 3 sarai,
avrai la stessa gioventù di ora
perché la tua vita tradurrai.

It's only 30 x 2 Patricia
and when you reach 30 x 3,
you'll be as young as you are now
because you will translate your life.

I'm going to frame that, too. Hey, two published Italian poets wrote verses just for me! How lucky can a girl get?

By the way, I found the Marilyn Monroe jumper at Modica Market - where else?

Now I'm opening presents and, as you see, I have a willing helper. Irma is standing behind us. This gift is an elegant black purse by Valentino from my student Salvo the postman and his wife.

Here I'm modelling this lovely bag, a gift from my student Lucia and her family. Lucia [a different Lucia to the one I usually mention] is standing behind me having a drink, with her husband. Salvo, who is a very interesting man, is behind me on the right:

Showing off perfume and shower gel, from my friend Vanessa. I have had some luxurious baths since my birthday! My student Cristiano is on my right.

Cristiano has given me a beautiful photo frame:



Here I am with my wonderful friends:



I'm going to show you more presies tomorrow.

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN, JIGGETY-JIG

I am truly stanca morta [worn out] tonight after my adventure so will just say it was all wonderful and post a few photos for now:

Here I am declaiming poetry onstage at Buggiano with Antonio Lonardo and Romano Battaglia:

It was wonderful to see Florence again after 13 years. The city looked lovelier than ever on a bright Sunday morning:

But it's also very good to be home and here is someone who thinks so, too! Doesn't she look pretty after her sojourn at Mr Enzo's doggy beauty parlour?

More tomorrow!

SOME GOOD NEWS

You could be forgiven, reading this blog, for imagining that, apart from the irritations of the water supply and the post office, my life here is an endless round of lunches and festivities. Well, I have my ups and downs like everybody else and, although I am happier now than I ever imagined I could be, I don't have an easy life financially and long-term readers will know that the past year has been marred by a quite scary period of illness.

So it is with great pleasure that I am now able to share with you some good and, for me, very exciting news: if you have been following the almost weekly poetry posts, you will remember that I have been translating some of the work of our Modican poet, Antonio Lonardo. I have now finished translating a new collection and the book is to be published soon. Professore Lonardo is a finalist for the 2009 Premio Internazionale di Poesia "Coluccio Salutati" and is invited to the awards ceremony in Buggiano [Pistoia] on 3rd May. And guess what? I am invited, too! I was delighted to accept the invitation and I am going to read Prof Lonardo's entry in English, after which I will be interviewed in Italian about the process of translation and the special difficulties and joys of translating poetry.

I'm also excited because we are going to Buggiano by train and, although I have previously visited the beautiful city of Messina, this will be my first crossing to the mainland from that port. [I've always flown before.] And if that were not enough to have me almost dancing in my sleep, Buggiano is only about half an hour from Florence so if everything runs to time, I will be able to spend a couple of hours in that glorious city on the way! [I haven't seen it for 13 years and I have missed it.]

I'm not nervous, except about what to wear and getting up onto the stage in my [pink] heels, but please, wish me luck, readers!