Project 52 - Week Two

What a rollercoaster week this has been!  I heard unexpected news from England on Tuesday, which made me book a flight back to England a week earlier than anticipated.  My wish for a peaceful and calm start to the new year was not really granted...

A visit to Penne for shopping on Monday. It's a beautiful historical town.

Freddy enjoying the views of the garden.

The state of our road is atrocious and I rang the Sindaco (Lord Mayor) on his personal mobile to ask him when he was going to fix it. He said he would see what he could do, but basically I know the Abruzzo region doesn't have enough money after the severe floodings and landslides......

Would you be able to drive down this 'road' in your vehicle???  It was quite a hair-raising drive to the airport yesterday morning at 5.30am.  Our 'road' is 1.2 kilometres long and it is now mostly washed away into the valley.  I asked the Sindaco to come and visit it for himself.  The land is moving constantly and deep ravines have formed in the surrounding fields.....

The ruts in the road are getting bigger and bigger.  The sheer amount of water has forced the land to open up, as you can see below!

Yes, it was quite a soggy mess for a while!!

Our ancient 4x4 is getting battered and bruised by driving in these conditions, and the mudguard has come off.  We intend to take this to the Comune when I get back to Abruzzo and ask for a replacement one to be ordered, as it is a comunal road, therefore it should be driveable for the public. Let's see what happens next in this saga.

This week has been stressful with the news of my mother being rushed to hospital on Monday, just 6 days into the new year, and me being in Abruzzo at the time.  I am happy to say that she is now back at home, and I will be able to help with her rehabilitation, and I am very happy I can do this, thank goodness.

EVO 2014

This week, however, has also been exciting due to the EVO session I am currently moderating called EVO Crafting the ePerfect Textbook.  I wrote and published a blog post about it on my main blog here.  I was delighted to see so many familiar faces and members of my PLN joining in and posting their fabulous 3,2,1 introductions. 

As one of the 15 session moderators, I am welcoming as many of the new members as possible, and so far I have personally greeted 201 participants!! 

There are over 400 participants to date, so it is well and truly a MOOC.  (Massive Open Online Course).  It's the first time in my life I have ever moderated such a huge number of  participants. I am enjoying it very much indeed, and had got off to a flying start at the beginning of the week, but now being back in England much earlier than expected means I don't have as much free time as anticipated. However, I will be catching up with the action whenever I can, and of course doing my best!! 

Finally, I was notified by Slideshare today that my presentations have been viewed quite a few times...  I am absolutely delighted to hear this lovely piece of news.

Let's see what Week 3 of 2014 has in store....