Calmer

19th February 2023

After causing mild excitement with a flurry of snow last week, this week the weather has now decided to lead us gently into spring – hopefully. Whilst the nights hovered around freezing, the crystal clear skies during the day have meant that the increasing warmth in the sun has seen midday and early afternoon temperatures in the mid-teens. Bella and Harry have made the most of the bright mornings, sunning themselves at the side of the house before decamping to the terrazzo around noon, and then taking a well-deserved siesta after lunch, tired out from all that effort.

Tuesday was, of course, Valentine’s Day, and while I gave Stephen a selection of goodies for his afternoon merenda at work, he was far more romantic, presenting me with a bouquet of flowers, a bottle of Mumm champagne and a beribboned red box full of sweets with a heart design in the centre.

It was also notable as I received an email in the afternoon which led to a new student who is due to start next week. We had a quick chat on Wednesday afternoon and we agreed 9 am on Wednesdays for our Skype lesson. This will mean some rescheduling of my morning tasks on that day, the biggest decision being whether to squeeze in our morning walk before the lesson or make Bella and Harry wait till it’s finished. Currently the first option is the favoured one, if only to avoid having the guilt of seeing two woebegone faces wondering why they are at home and not sniffing amongst the undergrowth.

Thursday Stephen had the morning (and a part of the afternoon) off work as it was time for my check up with the nice Doctor Scorolli, the oculista. The appointment was for 11.40, and we were not that much later in being see. There is not a lot to report, and what he said was what I expected: the right eye is fine, the left is worse than last year (four times he said) but not yet ready for intervention, and to come back next year unless things deteriorate significantly. He did give me a new prescription for my left contact lens. This will help a little, but not significantly while the cataract is still there, so the right eye will have to continue doing the heavy lifting.

The timing of the appointment was a convenient excuse to have lunch in Civitanova, though that wasn’t as easy as anticipated. When we got to Stephen’s suggested venue, it was not open for business – and given the general lack of people in the town in the middle of February, it was easy to see why. We ended up popping into Galleria, the bar by the main square, where we had a glass of wine and half each of two very fine sandwiches before polishing off a slice of apricot crostata. It was then back to the car where we discovered that using the station car park is a very good idea, even though a true Italian would balk at paying a nominal fee for ease of parking instead of enjoying circling round the side streets looking for a space. And the reason? Because when you (and by that I mean Stephen) forgets to wind the car window up after taking the ticket from the machine, so safe is it that everything is just as we left it, with the addition of the inside getting an airing.

Friday was significant, not so much for Stephen fretting all the way home in the car after his visit to Rocco that he had kept his beard too long, an important aspect given that he was Milan bound the next day for MICAM/Lineapelle and he didn’t want all those incredibly au courant people sniggering behind their hands, but because he was “working from home” all day. I was, therefore, able to wallow in his presence (or would have been if I hadn’t had to take two hours out in the afternoon for my lesson with the Montegranaro two) before taking him to the station as per usual yesterday morning. You will be relieved to know that I was driving and I made sure that the window was fully in place before we went for breakfast in the station bar.

I do, though, have another confession to make, again to do with benefitting monetarily to the cost of others. This time, unlike the case of the unintentionally (really, Your Honour) cut-price magazines at Pina, the victim was and remains unknown. When I returned to the car park I put my ticket in the machine to pay followed by a 2 euro piece that adequately covered the €1.50 charge. The change dropped, I retrieved it, and did a double take. I checked it and counted it and counted it again and indeed, there in my hand were coins amounting to €4.50. Either the machine was malfunctioning or the previous user had omitted to collect the change.

As no one else was in sight, after a tortuous struggle with my conscience I pocket the money and sauntered casually, to avoid suspicion, back to the car. And what, you may well ask, am I going to do with my ill-gotten gains? Well, as Stephen is away there will only be one of us for breakfast at Pina next Tuesday, and €2.50 covers a cappuccino and a piece of cake, with a little left over for a tip – because, in the karma of the Universe, you could say that it does rightfully belong to them.