One way or another

OK, let’s get this blog moving with a quick resume of the past five days, which is a way of telling you before you get too excited that it’s been a pretty uneventful time in the life of your friendly local ex-pats.

Monday we spent some time at the house measuring up what will be the kitchen/dining area to get a clear idea of what space we have to play with. This is the second time we’ve made good with the measuring tape but seemingly the last time I was not clear enough in the way I logged the numbers. Have I ever laid claim to being a whizz at anything to do with DIY? No: my forte lies in stem ginger cookies. Anyway, with the details to hand Stephen set to and tried to plan out a rough idea for the layout, taking umbrage that I was not showing much interest - but he was missing the point: his responsibility is coming up with a layout, my responsibility is to use the final product to make him nice things to eat. It’s called teamwork.

In pursuance of this outcome, we went on Tuesday to Lube, ostensibly a supplier of high-end kitchens but in reality a purveyor of impossible dreams to people, like us, on limited budgets. We did see some lovely, lovely things but we also saw the kitchen of your nightmares, all faux stone (including the sink) and rustic wooden cupboard doors, sort of like what the witch in Hansel and Gretel would choose if she won the lottery.

Wednesday saw a giant step forward in my Italianisation as I drove on my own all the way to Fermo for my lesson with Alessandro minore, using the navigation on my phone to assist me. This was both good and bad, as it got me to my destination but it did take me up some very odd roads, which I presume were shortcuts, that were narrow, steep, in need of repair and finished with hill start junctions to send learner drivers into apoplexy. I count it a success, however, as I only lost my way twice, once each way, and was only beeped at once too. I don’t really consider the latter as my fault – what can you expect when Italian roundabouts aren’t round but look like elongated junctions and the Comune is so short of money they haven’t painted the road markings since 1978.

While I was conquering the roads of Le Marche, Stephen had an appointment with Loris and his earth moving vehicle, which successfully levelled out the land to the side and the back of our house, making it suitable for a fence to be erected.

Bella and Harry’s world diminished on Thursday as Pierot, Teresa and their dog Rolly (?), who looks like a love child between a Jack Russell and a Corgi, arrived to stay. They come every year for a visit with the family but this year they are also vacating their house so that renovation can be carried out to address their rising damp problem. This means that H & B will spend more time confined to quarters rather than being able to rule the garden – but as the temperature continues to be in the mid 90s then curtailing their chasing around may actually be a good thing.

And so to today and news about our car. Stephen had a quick trip to Montegranaro this morning to finalise and pay for the insurance, but as we had not heard anything from Mr Pompei we thought we had better renew the hire car for another week. We didn’t want to be without transport when there are things to be sorted for the house. As it turned out, we were just a bit too precipitous: we returned to the factory from Civitanova to be told that Mr P had called to say our car was ready. Some indication of this earlier might have been useful but at least we are a two car family again, albeit for just a week, when we collect the Panda tomorrow.