Selfie, Selfie, what sort of word is that?  Why when new words are introduced into the English language can they not be nice words, beautiful words, elegant words?  Words should fill your mouth with a sensual pleasure, roll languidly round your tongue, tickle your palate, bounce off the roof of your mouth and trace intricately the tiny spaces between your teeth, in and out up and down and finally when you exhale exit as cascade of joy, sliding over your lips, indeed being pushed joyously ever outward by lips tingled by the excitement of a new beautiful experience and so the sound emits to grow in the open, to give a meaning and pleasure to all around, mix with the sound of birdsong,  the babbling river deep below in the valley, the gentle breeze rustling through the trees, the crack of a stick broken by the paw of a dog as he nuzzles deep into a pile of crisp dry spring leaves, the sound adding to and giving pleasure to the daily sounds experienced here at  the moment at Bellaugello Gay Guest House.

But no!  we have ‘Selfie’  I even want to spit as I type, I really do not want to defile my computer with this word.  That kind of word is it?  Self-ie?  Selfish, Arrogant, Hard, vile.  A noise that is as unpleasant to type as it is to say.  If spits out of my mouth leaving only an acrid metallic taste, my teeth retreat in disgust, my lips pucker to try and prevent its exit for they know it will not bring pleasure to the other sounds. S E L F I E – selfish, vulgar, cheap.  You can now buy a ‘selfie-stick’ those ridiculous pokey things that gives the passing thief easy access to your ever increasingly expensive and short of memory smartphone.  A ‘selfiestick’ I ask you how horrible is that?  Poke in the eye, tap on the shoulder prod in the back of a head, a danger and selfish object.

Yet, I am a lone voice.  Selfie has entered the language of all, even aged grannies are doing it – look at HRH Elizabeth II she’s at it (mind you I would have loved to hear what the D of E said when he discovered, maybe we will), celebrities, now there is another word that leaves my mouth with a bad taste (that’s ruined my chance of ever having one stay at Bellaugello Gay Guest House!) is a horrid word, but ‘selfie’ worse.

However notwithstanding my rant ‘selfies’ have undoubtedly given the world pleasure, and like a huge virus are multiplying exponentially.  So it is I feature the first ‘selfie’ on my blog.  It is not especially the concept that I dislike solely it is the word.  Since time immemorial we have been taking picture of ourselves surely we could have though of a nicer more appropriate word?

Today’s ‘selfie’ is of Vince.  Taken on the slopes of Mont Ingeno above the beautiful city of Gubbio, a ‘selfie’ was his only option to capture his presence.  Recently I joined the ‘Workaway’ network and Vince is the first workawayer to come to Bellaugello.  He is an exceedingly nice guy and is helping me for a month with the onerous task of garden maintenance, moving seemingly endless piles of leaves to a huge heap, pruning the olive trees and discussing food, Italian food, a subject of which he is passionate.  Vince is on a break, a tour of Italy to discover his roots and live the Italian life and I am delighted to welcome him to Umbria and to Bellaugello.