What would you do?

After a somewhat hectic time with lessons last week, this past one has been a little quieter. I still managed at least one lesson a day, but there were no early morning starts as Massimo, of Mancini pasta, was travelling all week and some others were off skiing. Marzia and Diego in Montegranaro were away with their school for Settimana Bianca (White Week), where they ski in the morning then do cultural and educational activities in the afternoon – another of the benefits of life in Italy.

We spent our time much nearer to home, without the need to return to the vet with Bella as the antibiotics seemed to work their magic. By Monday the swelling had gone down significantly and the renegade nail had disappeared, leaving space for a new one to grow in its place, and she was able to walk normally again. Well, for the most part as there was a slight hiccup later in the week when I took her and Harry for their after-lunch (ours, not theirs) constitutional. As is her wont, she had disappeared round the house to investigate if there were any windfall walnuts she’d missed and when I called her she reappeared, clip-clopping along the path. Somehow she’d managed to get half a walnut shell wedged on her back paw. Fortunately, that was a minor scrape where she is concerned, and a quick intervention sorted the problem.

Bella and Harry were also the prime movers behind the delivery on Tuesday of a new dog cover for the settee in the back room. This is where we like to take our coffee after lunch and also relax before dinner in the evening, which Bella and Harry are all for as these are the times they are allowed on the settee. The downside of this is not so much the few dog hairs that accrue, which are easily seen to with a bit of a hoover and a touch of elbow grease, but that Harry has taken a liking to licking the arms and the back of the settee. While this is a way of keeping him occupied for a period of time out of all proportion to the interest of the activity, we don’t really feel that it is doing the material much good. Hence the cover, which they seem to like though, as yet, Harry has not commented on its vintage.

There were also some changes to my lessons at the end of the week, firstly when Gloria sent a message asking if it was all right if a friend of hers came with her for a trial run. This was fine by me, as in many ways two is a better number than one, especially when it comes to speaking practice, and Riccardo turned out to be very pleasant and with a good command of English. I obviously passed the test, as when I returned him and Gloria to their parents he said that yes, he would like to continue next week.

On Friday, it was the turn of Elisa to start, who was very jolly and tried her very best to talk in English. This was hampered not a little as, she explained in very broken sentences, when she was at middle school she never had any oral practice as her language teacher couldn’t speak English. She will also be back next week for more, probably with her older sister Arianna, who had lessons with me last year, as her parents said that she would me joining Elisa from time to time. Just as well my middle name is Accommodating. Not that the teaching life is without its advantages as Massimo made it back for his lesson on Saturday morning and sent me home with three packs of his best pasta. Two of these were a relatively new product made with turanici wheat, an ancient type of durum wheat which is, he told me, much easier to digest.

It was also at the end of the week that we started this year’s rigmarole in renewing our health card. Actually, that’s not quite true as, with foresight, we had collected copies of the payment form from the post office last week when doing the mail box, but on Friday morning we went to Fermo hospital to find out what the cost was for this year. Stephen had spent a good two hours online trying to find the information but with little success, so we had to bite the proverbial bullet and go in person. The same as last year, the man behind the counter told us. Trying to spin the visit to more than thirty seconds, Stephen asked if he knew where we could find the information on the Internet. No he didn’t, he said; it was there somewhere but he, like his colleagues in previous years, was not privy to the whereabouts of the ball of string that would take you through the labyrinthine cyber bureaucracy to that relevant piece of information.

In an effort to make the journey a bit more worthwhile, we combined this with a trip to Lidl to stock up on basics. Shopping was also the order of the day today, and this morning we went to Girosole as Stephen was in need of new trousers to cut a dash at the upcoming trade fairs. He made the most of the tail end of the sales by purchasing three pairs, and not to be outdone I bought two new pairs of pyjamas from Intimissimi – half price, of course. In a moment of wild abandon, I chose one pair with a design of moustaches (baffi – get it?) on the top, and another with a robot design, which Stephen seemed to think was quite fetching. He was also taken by a pair that had a raised, fluffy teddy bear head on the top part, which I politely declined, because while I would do anything for love, I won’t do that.