Down the line

After my enforced sabbatical from lessons last week, it was back to the same old same old on Monday with the double whammy of Marzia and Diego in Montegranaro after lunch followed by Ariana and Elisa, the mayor’s nieces, in the early evening. What was not back to the same old same old – but, there again, maybe it was - was the Internet.

Sauro’s and Eolo’s intervention the previous day had just lulled us into a false sense of security and after holding out till lunchtime on Monday the line or the router or the server or any combination of the three gave up the ghost completely, leaving us without an Internet connection for the rest of the day. The situation was the same the next morning until Stephen, whilst I was out with the dogs, lost his cool and shouted at it. Much to his surprise, it started working and continued to do so, though the signal kept coming and going but never with any significant strength.

Once again we got Sauro on the case. He contacted Eolo who sent another update, though with no apparent effect as the service continued iffy for the rest of the week. Whoever Sauro spoke to did suggest that the problem might lie with our TV and it fighting against the update (which I can’t imagine as it has always been so obliging) and recommended that we reboot it. We haven’t followed this considered advice as we all know what the result would be – continued dodgy Internet and no television.

The next couple of days passed without incident, though I did receive a message on Wednesday from Peppe, the yoga teacher. He’d been saying something at the lesson the previous evening about a medical certificate and the message was to clarify this. Apparently, I need one for attività sportive non agonistica, or non-competitive sporting activity if you prefer, which is necessary for the insurance, and which I have to ask the doctor for. I’m not sure when exactly I’ll be able to fit the visit in, for going by my recent experience it’s not going to be a quick in and out.

After some time away from the bright lights of Civitanova we had an evening in the big city on Friday to meet up with Computer Luca as the final event in his extended celebrations of becoming a full professor at the University of Camerino. He has had several dinners with family, friends and associates, but this was a much more low-key affair with just the three of us at Vittoriano, a one time cantina that is now the chicest bar in the city and self-styled king of the aperitivo Italiano – and who are we to disagree. The subdued lighting, the efficiently discreet service, the relaxed pace (two and a half hours for the six plate tasting menu) and the fine quality of the food and wine made for a very pleasant evening indeed.

Yesterday was spent at home, at least as far as I was concerned, though Stephen had time out in the afternoon. Before that, Sauro phoned in the morning to ask how the Internet was bearing up and to say that he had been in touch with Eolo who had done “something else” to the connection. I’m not sure if his intervention had anything to do with a nudge from Luca, who was most puzzled by the whole affair when we gave him a blow-by-blow account of it the previous evening, but initially it seemed to have an effect as the service was fabulous all morning. Unfortunately, by the afternoon it was dreadful again if you were more than a few feet from the router.

And it wasn’t only the router that was playing up, as Stephen also had fun with the Panda. He went out after lunch to meet his bff Manuel, who needed his advice with regard to some outlet shopping, and then wanted to do some shopping of his own. I was expecting him back late afternoon but when 5pm rolled around I was starting to wonder what had become of him. Not long after he called to say that I wasn’t to worry and that he hoped to be home soon but he was just waiting for a mechanic to have a look at the Panda and he would explain everything when he got home.

It was a couple of hours later before this happened (though stopping off for pizza delayed him a little), and it turned out that after a fruitless visit to a far-flung outlet he remembered from years ago in search of a coat for my Christmas present (that’s one surprise ruined then), he had tried to turn on the engine of the Panda only for nothing whatsoever to happen. A passer-by of more than a certain age, seeing Stephen looking puzzled, asked what was wrong and when Stephen told him suggested he ask inside if they could help. Stephen went back in, followed by his new friend, and the equally ancient man inside said he knew someone who could help and picked up the phone.

After ten minutes or so, while Stephen hung lose and the two elderly gentlemen chewed the fat over the Panda not starting and the wonder of it being driven by an actual real live Englishman, the third player in this little drama, a comparative spring chicken, turned up. He looked under the bonnet and told Stephen, perspicaciously, that the car wasn’t starting. When Stephen agreed, he said that he had a supercharger in his little white van, attached it, fired it up and before you could say Giovanni Pettirossofiglio, the car started and a couple of minutes later the battery showed full, and Stephen was once more on his way after taking a fond farewell of his nuovi amici.

Shopping was the order of the day again today, well, of part of the afternoon anyway, but this time much closer to home and involving the pair of us. We had a quick jaunt to Girasole where Stephen browsed through the jeans on offer at the various gentlemen’s outfitters but nothing seemed to take his fancy and we left empty-handed. We then stopped at the Click Café to see if the new smaller sized coffee machine had arrived (see the blog for 3rdNovember if you are at a loss to know what I am referring to, and if you are bothered), which Massimo, the proprietor, had said were due at the end of November. They weren’t. He did, to be helpful, show us a film he had taken on his phone when he was at the exposition and told us that they should now be in stock after 12th December. I bet you wish you led such an exciting life as us.

I did have another motive for calling in at the shop apart from the coffee machine, which was to check out the panettoni that I’d seen on its Facebook page. Besides the everyday ones that we buy at the supermarket when they’re on offer, we always like to have, for Christmas, one that is made with a bit more love and attention. This year we have gone down the urban chic road with a fruits of the forest one with a ruby topping (whatever that is) in a box more 60’s inspired than theme park Victoriana, which should prove just the thing should Austin Powers drop in for a slice.