Power to the people

Those of you who are not or have never been teachers, turn away now or you will quietly fume. Those of you who are connected with schools and the progression of the academic year, however, will fully appreciate it when I say how startled I was yesterday to realise September had started with no sinking feeling. Another benefit of early retirement: not having your yearly body clock governed by a tripartite cycle.

OK, it’s safe to look back now.

So how have we spent the first couple of days of September?

Yesterday morning Stephen went to Ancona airport to pick up Chris, the freelance agent who was over a couple of months ago with the three Internet entrepreneurs dubbed Take That by the factory. The significance of this, other than work terms for Stephen, was that I had to deal with the man from the gas company who came in the morning to case the joint and get me to sign, as ever in Italy, lots of sheets of paper.

The said gentleman, one Renzo (I know, not Marco nor Luca nor Alessandro) was a very jolly man who checked the tank before heading to our kitchen, it being the only place with somewhere to lean on to write my signature copiously. We muddled through with his broken English and my attempts at Italian, and I think we may actually be getting some gas in just over a week when he has processed the forms.

During our conversation, Renzo told me that he has two sons, one of whom lives in London and the other in California. When I, testing my ability to make conversation, said it was good to have places to travel to, he disagreed. Shaking his head and smiling at me as though, as a simple Englishman I could not possibly understand, he told me that he was from Pesaro, he liked Pesaro and why should he go anywhere else. A true Italian.

In the evening we had pasta at the pub with Chris and Leaping Luca. As ever, Luca shared his wisdom with us, this time regarding drinking and driving. After Stephen had taken our car back to the house and returned on foot so he could enjoy a glass or two of wine, Luca told him he was thinking like an Englishman and when he starts thinking like an Italian he’ll realise it’s all right to drink and then drive your car home. Right.

He did, though, learn something himself when he learned that one of the shoes Stephen had designed for the Internet entrepreneurs had notched up several thousand likes on Instagram within hours of it entering the ether. Luca was genuinely unaware of the power of social media and that people choose to buy off the Internet than actually go into shops. As I pointed out, getting your hands on the latest trend is all right if you live in Islington, but what if you live in Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh? He seemed to understand that young people, no matter where they lived, wanted to be on top of the style heap – after all, he said, his sons were the first people in MSP to wear football shirts as a fashion statement. Well, what can you expect from a man whose entire wardrobe is from the Armani Homer Simpson line.

And today? Stephen took Chris to the airport, I got on with stuff and Alessandro the electrician spent a profitable day at the house with his assistant Giuseppe. Hopefully we will not only have lights but also light – and then we can give a bit to Luca so he can see it.