Brave new world

Considering all the excitement I had in store over the following two days, you won’t be surprised that Monday was a day in which to reserve energy, and with Marzia and Diego’s lesson moved to Friday it was very much business as new normal. It was then, on Tuesday morning, not so much back to old normal as moving forward to the new old normal when, for the first time since 10th March I made it past the top of the road and all the way into MSP itself – or rather the commercial hub that is Sigma and its environs.

I don’t want to mislead you, it wasn’t that I actually ventured into the supermarket and shopped, that was still Stephen’s department, and a task he completed while I was in Rocco’s for my appointed haircut. Before that, however, it was breakfast at Bar del Borgo, where he and I took our positions, suitably masked, on the stars marked on the floor in front of the counter to ensure social distancing and ordered a pastry and a much missed cappuccino each. These we had sitting at one of the strategically arranged tables, before paying and leaving by the wrong door. So much for one way in and one way out, but seeing as everybody was using the same door, and some customers displayed a very fluid concept of measurement when it comes to keeping your distance, we didn’t let it weigh on our consciences too much.

It was then time to part company, as Stephen took charge of the shopping basket and I headed across the road to Rocco’s. I was a tad early, but was just in time to see him, in his white disposable overall, mask and gloves, wiping down the cutting station. He also had arrayed by the till face masks, gloves and hand sanitizer for those who, unlike me, didn’t have a Stephen at home to make sure they are properly accoutred before leaving the house. It was a slightly strange experience, not so much because of all the hygiene regulations but because of having an appointment rather than turning up and taking potluck, whilst the great and the good and the hirsute of MSP chew the fat – the barbers being one of those places, like the ferramenta or the post office, where you go not so much for the services they offer but to take some time out, to chat and to see what you can find out.

I’m sure Rocco was very happy to be back at work after all this time, but I’m also sure that he will be even happier when the backlog has been cleared and the locks of the MSP men are once again tamed. He said that the previous day he had started at 8.30 in the morning and hadn’t finished until 9.30 at night, with only an hour’s break, and that it was like that till Thursday. Not that he is capitalising on his popularity. Stephen heard from the Carellis when we went to the factory on Wednesday that Mrs C had had to pay a €5 surcharge at the hairdressers in the centre that she frequents and Mirco had paid one of €3 at his barbers to cover the extra cost of implementing the hygiene requirements. Rocco, of course, is too much of a gentleman to do such a thing.

Hitting the big city was obviously too much for the balance of the universe to take as we found out when we were woken up just after 1 a.m. by the whipping of the wind around the house and the battering of hail on the roof. This was another of those periodic maelstroms that, if we didn’t know better we would have thought was presaging the end of the world. Bella certainly thought so, as she was most disquieted about it all, either that or she realised it was a good ruse to cry pitifully and spend the rest of our night on our bed. You can hardly blame her, for when we got up it was to incessant sheet lightning, the like of which I have never seen before, being akin to when the starter on a neon light is on the way out and it is flickering constantly. As for the hail, we got off lightly as pictures of Montegranaro showed the next day, with people shovelling piles of still frozen hailstones from the pavements.

Fortunately, the only after effects for us, apart from the road having taken a bit of a battering, was that Wednesday was a very dull and wet day, but despite that there were two very bright spots. The first was a post on Facebook from the pizzeria announcing that they were putting the final touches to their new way of working and would be open either the coming Saturday or the following Friday. This was followed later in the week by the news that it would indeed be Saturday, and whilst this was too late for us to resurrect our Friday night dinner ritual, it did give us a whole week of looking forward and deciding what pizza we would celebrate its return with.

The other bright spot was our planned outing to the McIntosh with Marco and Maddalena for cheeseburgers and social distanced dining, as evinced by the removal of one table and a sign on the bar asking people not to lean on it. This, though, had little effect on regulars Cristian and Ivan when the latter came in and the pair, obviously delighted to be back in the pub, started wrestling like puppies and falling against the sign. Apart from those two we were the only people dining, with Stephen and I at one end of the table and Marco and Maddalena at the other, so at least we were abiding by the rules.

One thing that came up was where to put your mask when you have removed it to eat. I put mine on the table but that hardly seems to be the best solution. Stephen observed that there was obviously a gap in the market waiting to be filled, so if you know anyone out to make a killing in this brave new world then fashion accessory mask bags could be the next big thing. Needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves very much and I didn’t get too giddy despite Marco trying to ply me with digestivi in order to make the most of his first post-lockdown night out.

It was then back to LCDDB for the rest of the week, at least as far as I was concerned, which was no hardship after two days of excitement and the return of blue skies and balmy weather. Stephen, on the other hand, was out about on Thursday afternoon for a summit meeting with bff Manuel, which meant that he missed Mr C and Mirco calling by, bearing gifts. Well, one gift to be precise, which was a paper bag of cherries fresh from their tree. I think they were a little disappointed not to find Stephen at home, but I did my best to chat as we talked about the lemon trees and Mr C pointed out that the tomatoes had been planted too close together – which may be the case by the laws of MSP but they are not any different to how Stephen has done it in the past and we have always had bumper crops, so why change a winning formation.

The more alert of you may have noticed that no mention was made of shopping on Thursday. That’s because under the new old (or old new?) normal we are back to twice a week, with Friday being the day to stock up for the weekend. Stephen did just that in the morning, though halfway through his travels round Sigma they had to reintroduce number controlled entry. Obviously all this newfound freedom was going to people’s heads.

In the afternoon, while I took my rearranged lesson Stephen occupied himself with starting off some cherry brandy with the fruit supplied by Mr C yesterday. It is now macerating nicely in a cupboard, waiting for the day in two months time when we can bottle it and taste the results of Stephen’s complete disregard for the quantities in my trusty recipe, preferring to use the whole of the cherries and the whole of a bottle of brandy irrespective of the ratio.

It was then hunker down for a quiet weekend, with bits and bobs around the house and Stephen getting on with working in the garden – with, for once, not even any baking. But don’t worry that we’ll be going without, there is still a sufficient supply in the freezer to satisfy our needs; we just have to decide if we want jam thumb biscuits, ginger biscuits or lemon cake. If only every problem in life presented such a dilemma.