Have a break...

18th February 2024

Fittingly enough for the week of Shrove Tuesday (or Martedì Grasso as some prefer), Stephen’s time for returning to the bosom of his loved ones has been something of a moveable feast, governed not by the moon but the demands of clients and the rush to get samples finished and to the DHL office in time to make the next day’s runway show.

He was given the whole of Monday afternoon off, which, with the weather having turned dry again after a bit of a rainy weekend, he used for making an early start on some gardening with a spot of judicious pruning. This was not confined to LCDDB; yes, he had a good go at the oleander bushes, but he also chopped back some wayward branches from a particular thorny bush near the top of the road. These had been gradually stretching outwards, reaching the point where even taking a wide berth in the car didn’t guarantee missing them completely. Ah, our road, if it’s not one thing, it’s another.

I also had some extra free time as my evening lesson had been cancelled due to the onset of a high fever, so we took the opportunity to take my new contact lens prescription to the opticians in Corridonia. And that, if you discount a new student starting on Tuesday, looked about as exciting as my week was going to be, if it hadn’t had been for St Valentine’s Day.

Of course the question was, what do you give a man who has everything as a Valentine present. That I don’t know, but I gave Stephen a bumper box of dark chocolate Kit Kats. Not very romantic, you might think, but as it is nigh on impossible to find, in Italy, any chocolates or chocolate assortment without hazelnuts in some form or other, a food he considers the invention of the Devil. He was delighted with my alternative, and now, at work, when he has a break he can have a Kit Kat and think of me.

As for my presents, I was showered with an assortment not of chocolates but of little goodies from Flying Tiger, including a weekly planner to display and some heart-shaped push pins, because stationery always says “I love you” – and roses, of course, of which I received three proper, old-fashioned blooms in an elegant bouquet.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Thursday we had an “It’s Not Valentine’s Day” dinner date at Pomod’oro, when it was much calmer and much more conducive to a romantic tête-à-tête, I’m sure, then the previous evening.  It was during our sparkling conversation that we made the discovery, with the aid of a smart phone and a Google search, that Loredana Bertè, Italian chanteuse and recent contest at Sanremo, used to be, some thirty years ago, married to Björn Borg. If you wonder why this is a thing to be noted, or why Stephen was so incredulous, I will put a picture of her at. And if you don’t know who Björn Borg is, ask your parents.

We chose Thursday for our date night, not for it’s proximity to the 14th but because it was that time of year again when Stephen headed north to Milan for MICAM and Linea Pelle, and so didn’t want a wild bacchanalian evening prior to setting off. There was an elegant variation this time, as he caught a later train than his normal one, meaning we didn’t have to be at the station till 10.30. While I missed out of breakfast at the buffet, Stephen scored as a special fare meant this faster train (with complimentary snacks and water) was only €10 more than his usual one, so well worth splashing out the extra.

He called to tell me he had arrived safely, but that was the last I heard and went to bed hoping that no news was good news. Indeed it was, for the next morning I woke to a late message apologising for not being in contact but he had fallen asleep – presumably because he was tired out from a mad spree at Zara, bagging a selection in the dying moments of the sales, as his accompanying picture showed.

While he has been profitably employed checking out the fair, for me, today has been spent in splendid isolation at home, doing odds and ends and this and that. It was a little odd, as recent Sunday mornings seem to have become our time for a spot of shopping and maybe a sushi roll or two. I can’t say that I made with the nori, but I did manage a spot of online purchasing to pre-empt any withdrawal symptoms. I would tell you what I bought, but if you knew that I am expectantly awaiting some organic conditioner, a set of wooden coat hangers, and a packet of Advantix antiparasitic treatment for the dogs, you would just be enviously wishing that you were living your best life, just like me.