We wish we were in the Pen & Wig (Day 18)

I'm missing home today. Me and Tom have sat here thinking of all the lovely things about Cardiff, that we probably wouldn't think were so lovely if we were actually there. We're in one of the most amazing cities in the world and all we want is cold, dull weather, a nice bit of mashed potato and a good pint of real ale. How boring and rubbish are we?

Wikipedia describes homesickness as:
"The distress or impairment caused by an actual or anticipated separation from the specific home environment or attachment objects. Homesickness frequently occurs when one travels and may be exacerbated by unfamiliar environments or foreign cultural contexts". - So I'm normal then.

Understanding that I'm pretty lucky to be in Venice for 6 weeks I felt the need to combat this thing straigth away so promptly turned to google for some advice. I came across an excellent website called 'Mind Manager', to help people manage their bodies, minds, emotions and thoughts (some people have way too much time on their hands!). It gave a list of suggestions to help overcome homesickness.

Try a trial run. (too late)

Bring something that reminds you of home. (check)

Call home when you can. (I do)

Do something you enjoy. (I am!)
Talk to a friend, ideally someone who's going through the same experience you are. (I am, he's not helping)

Write in a journal. (Yep, got that one covered too)
Stay active. (You can't not be active here)

Review your expectations. (maybe this is the one I should concentrate on?)
Talk to an adult. (That may prove tricky)

 

So let's try to review my expectations. I think what I expected was that everything was going to be amazing, all the time. But in reality there is a routine, you still have to do your washing, shopping and work. So when a day like today pops up and nothing really happens you think, I could be at home with nothing really happening, but at least I'd be at home with friends and family, with my own bed to go to. I actually have another one to add to Mr Mind Manager's list. It's called drinking.

 

I suppose that sandwiched between having the best meal ever yesterday, and looking forward to a big social gathering tomorrow evening, today was always going to struggle competing.

 

So as not to completely waste the day I decided to occupy myself with answering two burning questions from the last week.

1. Which was the first building in Venice?

2. How many photographs are taken here every day?

 

Well obviously both are pretty tricky to answer. Thanks to Wikipedia, again, I have managed to ascertain that "The traditional founding [of Venice] is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo at the islet of Rialto, which is said to have been at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421". So I suppose if I was being clever about it, then this is the first building in Venice as before it was officially declared there was no Venice for buildings to exists in in the first place. The likelihood is that the first building in the area now known as Venice was a fisherman's hut somewhere in the lagoon.

 

As for question number two I've had a bit more luck. The ammount of photos taken in Venice every day is 2,739,726.03 (approximately).

 

Here are the sum total of my photograph's for the day that I took in Scottish pavillion's exhibition of Karla Black.