Cover up

31st August 2025

It was back to work for Stephen on Monday, for a time anyway. He was home mid-afternoon as the factory that should have had some boots ready was closed when he called there, bringing that day’s work to a shuddering halt. He did better on Tuesday, though, managing a full day – after we’d done the shopping, of course, in the morning, when we also hit the post office.

We had a couple of cards to send, and we didn’t do too badly considering there were three men ahead of us. The first took a few minutes to finish off before standing up and, we think, asking Paolo if he wanted a coffee. This happens a lot, people often pop across to Pina and bring back a caffè for him, but we weren’t sure on this occasion as whatever the man was speaking wasn’t Italian, nor a dialect Stephen recognised. I think it could have been Clanger.

The next guy should have been done and dusted in a couple of minutes but he threw in a curve ball just as customer number 3 made his way forward for his turn.  Could Paolo give him a balance on his bank account, he wanted to know. Ever obliging, Paolo tried his best but he was hampered by two things: the account wasn’t with the Post Office and the man, when Paolo suggested he could use his bank card to get a reading from any cash machine, said he’d left it at home. I guess you can’t blame him for trying, but maybe you can for being stupid.

It was then a couple of days of living purely for pleasure, if you discount the little matter of fitting in work and daily chores. Wednesday, we had a very pleasant evening at Verde Pistacchio where we met Ben and Alessandra for pizza. Little Ennio was also present but declined to partake in the meal, having only just recently had his first taste of solid food.  Thursday was the swan song for this year’s markets in Fermo so we had to show our faces if only as an excuse to have dinner (and a very fine bottle of Gewürztraminer) at Loggia al 42. We did stroll the stalls beforehand but were very modest in our purchases. I would have had another t-shirt from the Lost Ship man, but he wasn’t there (the theme, it seems, this year). Stephen, however, bought a bracelet and we stopped on our way back to the car park for some packs of spices, forward planning for autumn casseroles.

Following our recent trend, after two nights out on the trot it was another weekend at home when the most exciting thing was picking up our new stretchy settee cover from the Amazon hub on Friday morning. This is to replace the loose, throw over one that has served us for a good few years. That just covered the arms, seat and back, and having no fastening meant constant rearranging to keep it looking tidy – especially on the many occasions when Harry decided to gather it all together to make a cosy nest. This new one fits snuggly over the whole of the settee so he won’t be able to do that, theoretically.

Stephen used his time to do some tidying up outside, and not just the grounds of LCDDB. Yesterday afternoon, he took the strimmer to various substantial weeds growing down the middle of (what remains of) the road, which have been catching underneath the cars, as well as some general upkeep nearer to home. Today, he took the opportunity with a return of the sun and the absence of rain to cut the grass. According to the Apple weather app on my iPhone, the beginning of September tomorrow coincides with a return to some consistency and the next ten days are set fair. It’s sunshine all the way if it’s to be believed, apart from a bit of cloud on Tuesday, and the odd flying pig or two.