From my diary

There’s no news on any of my projects.  I’m still busy earning a living, and I have had no time or energy to do anything else.

A copy of Sevcenko’s edition and translation of The Life of St Nicholas of Sion has reached me.  It made interesting reading, as clearly the cult of Nicholas of Myra was in full swing at that period.  It was also interesting how readable the Greek text was, on facing pages!  My eye kept drifting across there – far from a normal event with parallel texts – and finding stuff that I recognised.  Larger text and better spacing draws you into it.

Today I booked the flights for a short trip to Rome in late October.  I had to choose between the Crowne Plaza hotel, which looked fine but was not very close to the city centre; and another right in the centre but 50% more.  In the end I chose the latter.

It was interesting to see that lastminute.com really offered some excellent deals.  Even more interesting, however, was to compare a bundled flights+hotel with booking separately.  The bundled format was only $50 cheaper, once you worked it out for exactly the same flights, and prevented you from booking upgrades with the airline.

I am looking forward to Rome.  It’s been a long year.  Wish me luck with the weather!