call me rudolph

stuck at home with festive cold and all for a week now, nervously sneezing my way through the house of old in one of my best incarnations ever of a christmas favourite, I looked up in the sky at a christmas full moon and back at fond memories of a year (sort of) solidly spent in my good old country, currently under (and under-standably so) heavy fire from both the yankees (here) and the brits (here and here), and concluded I'd hang around over here a tiny bit longer, if u don't mind... here's to 2008, then... hope it'll see you flying safe and sound, "little" one!;-)

so this is christmas ... so what!?;-)

Wow, after I jumped it occurred to me life is perfect, life is
the best, full of magic, beauty, opportunity... and television...
and surprises, lots of surprises, yeah... and then there's the best stuff,
of course, better than anything anyone ever made up, 'cause it's real...

Jeremy Davies (alias Tom Tom),
from "The Million Dollar Hotel", Wim Wenders, 2000

For those who know what I'm talking about up here, that's a quick summary of (the best of) my 2007, for the worst you'll have to find it out by yourself, if you can bother, but I'd never spoil the festivities by grumbling about the immensity of life, would I!?;-)

Particularly warm greetings to Marco y Rosaria from La Laguna (ES), Sergio from Madrid, Carlo from Vancouver, Odysseas from Roma, Dani y Olga from Tonantzintla (MX), Daniela from Madrid, Emma from Malmoe, Jeff from Socorro (NM-US), who provided a bed, a couch, a floor or something for me to lay my tired astro-traveler's self during the past year, and to all those who nicely offered some hospitality but to whose offers I couldn't oblige for a number of reasons (this is not to say I didn't try, and you know it!;-)

Not without some fondness I think about Markos & Myrto, Carlo & Simo, who've been and still are writing up like crazy (you'll be alright folks!), Gabriele & Lucia who'll be joining the group's daily grind (well, I told you not to!;-) and Padova's "astrosocials" for the good times.

Finally, let me raise a toast: to all of you, "may you always be courageous", and to my bittersweet home country, for everything under its fiery sun and for everything we must ask of ourselves in order to make it a better place to live and work.

It was all, as I was warned at the very outset, one "bel casino".

And standing there, drenched by the rain, I realised that I didn't

want to live, couldn't even imagine living, anywhere else.

Tobias Jones, "The Dark Heart of Italy: Travels

Through Time and Space Across Italy", 2003

Well, sort of...