Too soon to reminisce?

Buondì.

I have a new assistant, an American college student, a friend of my daughter’s, who my wife remembers as being ‘very smart’.

She’s working remotely, so I haven’t actually met her, except ages ago when I cooked for some of Sofia’s friends at her flat in Glasgow, back in 2019, so before the pandemic, and all the upheavals that came with it.

Anyway, I was asked if I had any work – Sofia does the formatting and images for EasyItalianNews.com, so I suppose word gets around – and it wasn’t hard to find stuff in my monster backlog of jobs that I could delegate.

One of those was to read through everything I wrote for the club in 2020 and 2021 and select articles for our ‘Best of’ page.

I usually do that myself, as a sort of trip down memory lane, and to remind myself of what I’ve written recently.

But what with the chaos of recent years, in particular, having to teach becauase our regular teacher was wary of Covid, and because we couldn’t have afforded to pay her, that job never made it to the top of the list.

So M did it for me, sent me the code last night, and I added it to the ‘Best of’ page this morning, before starting this. The joy of delegation!!

Now I have one rule about writing for the internet (mailings, too), and that is: ALWAYS CHECK THE LINKS!

It’s embarassing to be linking to, say, a new ebook, but when the reader clicks the image or the link, it either doesn’t work, or goes to the wrong place.

Embarassing and unprofessional. So, as I said, ALWAYS CHECK THE LINKS, which was what I started to do before writing this.

But after having done a couple, which worked just fine, I was like – hey, I’m paying this girl to do the work, she seems bright, so why should I doubt her? Good management practice, right? Delegate, spot check, then trust that the younger person has done their job and get on with something that only I can do.

Actually, though, it was more that. For once, my heart wasn’t in rereading my own articles, especially what I’d written in 2020 and 2021.

Not that there weren’t great things happening in those years, as well as all the misery and stress.

Back in the first lockdown (was it? I’m not going to check), we did bookclubs, which were fun.

And the teaching wasn’t all bad – in the 2020/21 academic year, the second lockdown hit just five weeks into the Fall/Autumn term, so I did the subsequent twenty-five weeks on Zoom, teaching groups of adults, and children as young as five.

But it feels too soon to look back and reminisce. You can if you wish (‘Best of’ page), but I’m not planning to.

Time waits for no man, as they say. The years have rushed past, Sofia has just graduated, and we’ll be back in Scotland soon for the final ceremony, which I’m looking forward to.

Hopefully I’ll also meet my new assistant face to face. Hopefully we won’t get Covid and die.

Also, today is Day Two of not having to teach any longer, so I’m planning to enjoy it! This afternoon I’ll be cooking sausage rolls and taking Roomie to a party!

A venerdì.

P.S.

Have you listened to Tuesday’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news, yet?

Also, have you told all your friends/classmates/Italian teachers what a great resource it is? They’ll thank you, I’m sure!

Don’t forget to mention that it’s completely free to subscribe.

P.P.S.

And here’s a reminder about this week’s new ‘easy reader’ ebook, Lo chiamavano Trinità.

‘Lo chiamavano Trinità’ (English language title ‘They Call Me Trinity’) is a 1970 spaghetti western comedy, filmed in Italy’s Lazio region and starring Italian actors Bud Spencer and Terence Hill (real names Carlo Pedersoli and Mario Girotti). The duo were and still are famous in Italy and Europe for the many films they made together, movies which were usually characterised by a gentle irony and by the regular punch-ups that substituted for the bloodier violence of other genres.

Giovanni Galavotti’s re-telling of the story of the film for learners of Italian makes a great introduction before watching the movie itself (ideally in Italian!) Or it can be used simply as supplementary reading/listening material which, for lovers of the wild west, is guaranteed to liven up your study program!

• .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
• .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
• 8 chapters to read and listen to
• Comprehension questions to check your understanding
• Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
• Suitable for students at B1/B2 level and above
• Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Buy Lo chiamavano Trinità, just £5.99 (IF you remember to use the coupon code) | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) | ALL FILM EBOOKS | | Catalog

N.b. NEW EBOOKS ARE USUALLY PRICED 25% LOWER – THIS ONE ISN’T!

That’s because this week there’s a coupon code active ( 25%OFFMovieEasyReaders ), which will get you a discount on any/all of our ‘ebook of the classic movie’ easy Italian readers.

To get the new one for the usual 25% discount ‘new ebook’ price, you have to use this coupon code, as for the ‘old’ ones:

25%OFFMovieEasyReaders

Copy and paste that, carefully, into the space in your cart and it will reduce the price of this one, and any other ‘ebook of the classic movie’ easy reader you happen to pop into your cart, by 25%, which means £5.99 rather than the usual £7.99.

Once you’re in your cart and you’ve carefully pasted in coupon code 25%OFFMovieEasyReaders and pressed the ‘Apply Coupon’ button, scroll down and check that the discount has been applied to the CART TOTAL, rather than to the individual items.

How do I access my ebook?

When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook (.mobi/Kindle-compatible, .epub) cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them.

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