Hang on in there

After a promising start, the weather has turned decidedly Novemberish. It obviously decided enough was enough and to show that we shouldn’t take blue skies for granted it started to rain on Tuesday and kept going, on and off, for the rest of the week with dismal skies. It is a time to batten down the hatches and stay at home, hence a remarkably uneventful week.

The one golden spot, however, continues to be our cachi tree (or persimmon if you prefer), which has now shed all its leaves, leaving the ripening fruit suspended on the bare branches looking, as Lorella said when she came for her lesson, like baubles on a Christmas tree. While it is a thing of beauty, and I still wonder at how the persimmons cling on so tenaciously as autumn turns to winter, we have yet to find any purpose for the fruit. We did, if you recall, have one abortive attempt at making some into jam, but as they are so naturally sweet it was like spreading tacky caramelised sugar on your brioche. There is, though, someone in the family who knows what to do with them: Bella enjoys nothing better than having an early morning snack of the ripe fruit that has fallen from the tree and looks quite disgruntled when there are none. We, on the other hand, just have to make sure that we don’t park the car under the branches otherwise we have a green car with orange polka dots, rather like a dinosaur with chicken pox.

Nicola, my new student and son of the mayor, came again on Tuesday for his first proper lesson after our impromptu one of last week, and then on Wednesday, during my evening lesson with Massimo, I was interrupted by a surprise visit from Vittorio. Those of you with fantastic memories will know immediately that Vittorio (or Vitto to his friends) is the owner of Bar Corradini and my sometime pupil who fell by the wayside when Rocco started taking the lessons much more seriously than he was. He must, however, been satisfied with my service as he had in tow one of his regulars, Andrea, who came to enquire about English lessons. I am, really, about as busy as I want to be and taking on Andrea will make 13 hours of lessons a week – though it is rare that I have a full week as someone or other usually cancels for whatever reason – but I am just too nice to say no.

I should have known from past experience that I would be getting busier the further we got into the tail end of the year. Summer with the warm weather is when people think of being outside and going to the beach; winter and dark nights is when their minds turn to padded jackets and finding things to do where they can keep warm. I just have to remember not to take it personally when May rolls along and I find myself starting to twiddle my thumbs. Anyway, I said yes, of course, and Andrea is starting tomorrow evening, Monday, from 7.30 to 8.30, in between finishing work and having dinner – another example of the different rhythms to life between Italy and the UK.

Thursday was an exciting day for me as I got to drive all the way to Ancona airport and back, accompanied by Stephen on the outward but not the return journey. He left on the afternoon flight to Stansted to visit his sister and to do a couple of work related bits and pieces. This means that I have a whole week on my own to do as I please. And what does a (temporarily) single man in search of excitement do in the pulsating hub of Le Marche? Why, eat pizza on the settee watching Star Trek on Netflix and window shopping at Cuore Adriatico on a Sunday afternoon, of course. Never let it be said that I don’t know how to let my hair down.