Yes the Holidays Season is over and we now enter into January of the blahs. It was for us a quiet Season, very few parties only 2 in fact, one I gave and one we went to. It seems that as time goes by fewer people are willing to give parties on the scale known in the past. Who can blame them, frankly unless you have a very good reason for a party and really want to have a good time, I find and I do not know if a lot of people feel the same way, that I do not have the energy. I much prefer to have a few people over for dinner or a cocktail or just for an afternoon drink, a good scotch, tea, some little thing to eat. Keep it simple, the new motto. It is far nicer, I find to have maybe 2 to 4 people over and just talk and laugh, gossip over drinks. Winter weather eats up a lot of your energy and this is probably the extreme cold and the difficulty of walking in snow and ice covered sidewalks.
Also the cost is something to keep in mind, it is often better to simply go to a nice restaurant than to entertain at home. If we go out in the evening now, I prefer to take a taxi instead of driving, you can have a drink or two or three and not worry about the issue of who is the designated driver, parking and then driving home often in winter on bad roads. As anyone seen the roads in Ottawa lately, my God! what a mess, snow banks 9 feet high, yes that is 2.7 meter high folks. The City is not cleaning as much as it could and everything is carefully budgeted, called 311 City Services, they don't know, something about a snow removal schedule and something about in 3 weeks time. Called the By-Law Officers, no one is there, I strongly suspect they are all in Florida, in fact I have not seen any of them around, they are usually very good at patrolling for illegally parked cars. Ottawa in winter is a very different city, you try to avoid it at all cost. Nothing has been done about the Canal are they opening this year for skating? I strongly suspect that with the announced 10% budget cuts the National Capital Commission simply has no funds to open the Canal this year. Too bad so few tourists come as it is. Lots of people skating at City Hall today on the rink provided by the striking millionaire hockey players. It's a very nice rink with good quality smooth ice for skating.
So we are in the winter blahs, now and then we have February another dismal month. Lucky for me I have things to do to keep me busy, other wise I would think of escaping to somewhere. All the Christmas decorations have been put away. Though the 6 January for people on the Julian Calendar like the Orthodox Christians it is Christmas. I suppose you could celebrate both Christmases on the 25 Dec and 6 January, thus extending the Season.
January
In January in Rome on a sunny day at the top of the staircase of Santa Maria Coeli next to the Campidoglio.
In January by the Tiber river in Rome
In January on the Old Via Appia, Rome
I much prefer this type of weather in January as exemplified here than the snow bank, which after Christmas and New Year has lost its appeal entirely. Otherwise why do Canadians by the millions flock to Southern climes.
Also the cost is something to keep in mind, it is often better to simply go to a nice restaurant than to entertain at home. If we go out in the evening now, I prefer to take a taxi instead of driving, you can have a drink or two or three and not worry about the issue of who is the designated driver, parking and then driving home often in winter on bad roads. As anyone seen the roads in Ottawa lately, my God! what a mess, snow banks 9 feet high, yes that is 2.7 meter high folks. The City is not cleaning as much as it could and everything is carefully budgeted, called 311 City Services, they don't know, something about a snow removal schedule and something about in 3 weeks time. Called the By-Law Officers, no one is there, I strongly suspect they are all in Florida, in fact I have not seen any of them around, they are usually very good at patrolling for illegally parked cars. Ottawa in winter is a very different city, you try to avoid it at all cost. Nothing has been done about the Canal are they opening this year for skating? I strongly suspect that with the announced 10% budget cuts the National Capital Commission simply has no funds to open the Canal this year. Too bad so few tourists come as it is. Lots of people skating at City Hall today on the rink provided by the striking millionaire hockey players. It's a very nice rink with good quality smooth ice for skating.
So we are in the winter blahs, now and then we have February another dismal month. Lucky for me I have things to do to keep me busy, other wise I would think of escaping to somewhere. All the Christmas decorations have been put away. Though the 6 January for people on the Julian Calendar like the Orthodox Christians it is Christmas. I suppose you could celebrate both Christmases on the 25 Dec and 6 January, thus extending the Season.
I much prefer this type of weather in January as exemplified here than the snow bank, which after Christmas and New Year has lost its appeal entirely. Otherwise why do Canadians by the millions flock to Southern climes.
I wish you two Canadians would flock to this warmer clime. So many of you are here already! We have a room to let,without GST.
ReplyDeleteOf course, who wouldn't rather be in Rome on a sunny winter day - not that it's often warm there in January.
ReplyDeleteI am intrigued by the news that the Russian orthodox Epiphany is connected with baptism, so all those crazy Slavs go bathing in holes in the ice...
It must be a Canadian Custom, we do have the Polar Bear Clubs and people run into the sea usually the first week in January.
Delete