Brushing up

28th January 2024

With my recuperation from the debilitating attack of flu, or whatever it was, very nigh complete, I have to face a humbling realisation: what does it say that about a person when the most interesting thing about them is a forensic examination of their illness? Prepare yourselves, then, for a journey through the mundane.

Having said that, there was great excitement on Tuesday, at least on Stephen’s part, when our new toilet brush arrived – a statement that may be a little more understandable when you know that he came home in the evening with a box, that had been delivered to the office, proclaiming Alessi on the side. He had, during one of his infrequent spare moments last week, been perusing the Internet and the Alessi sale in particular and had sent me the link to this specific item. OK, it still wasn’t the cheapest bathroom accessory in the world, but what ministering angel doesn’t deserve a treat? I ordered it as a surprise, and the pleasure on his face was more than worth the premium, even discounted, that one of Italy’s foremost contemporary design companies is justified in applying.

The hours he is working is another reason why Stephen deserves a bit of a treat. Take Thursday, when he left at eight in the morning and didn’t return till eight at night, with no real break for lunch. He didn’t anticipate being off so hastily, but the woman from New York arrived much earlier than expected, hence his hurried exit stage right from LCDDB. Having arrived early, she also left earlier than thought, but that just meant Stephen and Bertrando dashing to one of their manufacturers where they worked in a room the size of our bathroom (adequate, for our needs, but not if we had to share it with cardboard boxes) to put boots in cartons and attach labels ready for shipping. With all this, it was not the biggest surprise in the world that the office Christmas dinner, postponed to the 25th, was delayed yet again.

Friday marked another milestone on my road to recovery when I did the shopping at Coal, all on my own and without the aid of a safety net, and that was only the beginning. Yesterday evening we went to Marco and Maddalena’s for another postponed dinner date. This one was only a week late and actually took place, though the pizza promised last Saturday morphed into roast chicken. I have to admit to flagging part way through, but a caffè, a bit of a digestivo and Marco treating us to an impromptu game of Name That Tune, courtesy of their new Alexa unit playing BBC Radio 2 and his use of Shazam to generate the details before Gary Davis back announced the hits of the 80s, soon revived me.

There was no stopping me now, and this morning we hit Cuore Adriatico for one of our trips to the big Conad to stock up on basics and jars of Nescafe that we are too embarrassed for our MSP neighbours to see us buy. This was followed by lunch at the sushi restaurant, named Sushi Koi would you believe, in the upper floor food court. Like DiverXo at Corridomnia, it was an all-you-can-eat menu (quite a lot it seems in some cases) and it compared favourably with our more usual haunt – at least where the food was concerned. We were a little taken aback when we sat down to be presented with a physical menu and order sheet to write down the numbers of the dishes we chose, with no tablet in sight. And I thought Civitanova was the spot for all things trendy and cutting edge; how wrong can one be?