A gallimaufry

While I continued to be busy with lessons, there were no more additions to my workload as such, just a couple of minor alterations. The children in Montegranaro have had to change from Friday afternoon to Monday due to extra lessons in preparation for moving from middle to senior school and the exams inherent to the process. This did have one interesting knock on effect, however.

When I was returning from the lesson, I was just approaching the petrol station near the turn off for MSP, from the major carriageway, when the car in front of me started to slow down. This is an unusual phenomenon in Italy, but the reason became clear when I got nearer the garage and I was able to get a better view, as there was a whole herd of sheep in the middle of the road making its way casually from the cheese farm on the left to the waste land next to the garage on the right. Presumably there was some particular ovine delicacy attracting them, or maybe it was that stolen fruits are sweeter, but they were in no particular hurry and my fellow drivers and I had to wait patiently while the stragglers caught up with their fellow escapees.

Whilst my work was continuing more or less normally, the early part of the week saw changes elsewhere. On Monday morning, Stephen went into Civitanova for a meeting with the owner of a shoe factory about doing some work for him regarding consultancy on developing a shoe range with a less specifically Italian vibe. The meeting seemed to go well and it is likely that things will progress once Stephen has MICAM out of the way. In this, he was more successful than Claudia, the dentist, who seemed to be more than a little weighed down when I went, on Tuesday morning, for yet another filling to be replaced.

Her usual dental nurse and all-round person Friday had moved on and she was not only having to deliver her usual excellent service to her patients (in this case, me) but also trying to train up a new assistant. When I went into the surgery, the lady looked distinctly bewildered and Claudia had to continually tell her what to do. I was hoping that maybe it was her first or second day, but afterwards when I was making my next appointment, Claudia told me that she was very, very tired but that she remained positive. This didn’t bode well to my ears, and when she came yesterday afternoon for one of her intermittent lessons she said that she had spent the morning interviewing, and if we knew anyone who was looking for a job to send the person her way. So if you are looking to transfer to Italy…

Thursday we made our return trip to the front office at Fermo hospital to hand over our authorised documents (Stephen having called in at the PO in MSP to pay and have them officially stamped) in return for this year’s health card. As I had an early morning lesson with Mr Mancini we weren’t able to do your usual trick of getting there for just after 8, before the rush, and it was 9.30 when we took our numbered ticket and waited to be called forward. We thought we would be a while, but most people were quickly dealt with – including the woman who did that Italian trick of hanging around near the counter then slipping in quickly between patrons on the pretext of asking a quick question that somehow then turns into a whole series of follow up ones. When it came to our turn, we were disappointed that we drew the, unusually for Italy, glum looking man rather than our friend from previous years, the shouty lady – who, it turned out, spoke like that to everyone and not just to idiot Englishmen. Whilst we missed renewing acquaintances, the man was very efficient and we were folding up our temporary paper cards (the real ones come later in the post) some 30 minutes after our arrival.

As for our other, unfinished, bureaucratic transaction of the moment, i.e. finalising for the change of postal address from our home to the box by the post office, we are beginning to wonder if Paolo has indeed got it right. You may recall that when we tried to sign the forms and make the necessary payment last week, he suddenly discovered that it was not due till 7th February (despite us doing it in the middle of January the previous two years). If this is so, then why has there been no post left in our casella but there has been some delivered to the leaky box by Mario and Luigi’s? When we passed on Friday morning it was veritably bulging with envelopes, as Stephen’s style magazine had been squashed in together with a catalogue and a couple of bills. It all seems a bit odd to us, and is something we will need to investigate further next week.

Apart from this minor frisson, the week again ended quietly. I was busy yesterday, as not only did I have my Saturday morning lesson with Massimo there were also the two hours with Claudia, as mentioned earlier. Today was market day in MSP, with the fiera for the town’s patron, San Biagio, falling on his actual feast day – thus denying local school children and workers of a day’s holiday. We opted out of the early morning prayers and the afternoon procession of reliquaries and holy mass, but we did take time out this morning to wander round the market.

This year the location had been switched from Porta Sole to the other side of the town – probably because of the long-standing traffic lights near the cordoned-off house awaiting renovation following the earthquakes the other year – which meant that you missed the morning sunshine and the view across the valleys to the distant mountains. Despite this, we had a very pleasant stroll, passing the time of day with various acquaintances, buying some new socks and a half a dozen caciù – the semi-circular local fried Carnevale delicacy – which were being sold by the Pro Loco in aid of their funds. Stephen thought he was destined for disappointment as the man on the stall was awaiting further supplies of his preferred filling. I was all right as there were plenty of chocolate ones, so we made the best of it and asked for four. The man was just about to slip them into a bag when his colleague hastened up bearing a tray of hot fava filled ones. Stephen’s day was complete. He added two of these to our order to enjoy with a cup of coffee when he got back home because really, who would want to settle for chocolate when you can have mashed up broad beans instead.