Hey ya

1st December 2024

The end of Black Friday week (is there not some sort of misunderstanding of basic English there?) and I have survived relatively unscathed despite the daily influx of e-mails offering me fabulous bargains on things that I didn’t want. There is one good thing, I suppose. Before, I didn’t know that I didn’t want them, but now I do know that I don’t want them.

I maybe shouldn’t have started with the most exciting thing that happened in the last seven days, with one or two slight exceptions, but I had to grab your attention somehow before starting on a litany of the inconsequential.

Monday was a bit of a surprise to the system when I had three lessons, but I managed to survive. Tuesday, Irene contacted Stephen to say that the Comune had been back in touch regarding the documents she submitted about the house and required more safety features. This meant my signature was again needed. She forwarded the payment advice, which Stephen printed and I took to Bar del Borgo on Wednesday morning to pay, as we had the first one (obviously, that one wouldn’t cover the new paperwork – why pay a charge once when they can make you pay twice?) before carrying on to see Irene in the office. I signed the new documents (only three times, hardly worth getting a pen out) and she said she would be in touch when she heard back.

Thursday it was back to the dentist for the check-up that Claudia couldn’t fit in the other week when I had my clean and polish. Apart from a nice chat and catch up, she also examined my teeth, finding a couple of little things that need attention. She made an appointment for the end of January, as the work isn’t urgent, when she will also X-ray my implant to see that all is ok there. In the evening, we cracked open the our first bottle of punch, a spicy rum one as opposed to our usual orange, and very fine it was too - proving again that cold weather is an excuse for some good things, like baked potatoes and staying in. 

Stephen heard from Irene quicker than we anticipated when she contacted him on Friday, mainly because it was about the geologist, who seems more on the ball, than the Comune. It was to say that Fabrizio et al would be coming next week, probably Wednesday or Thursday (when Stephen is in Milan, of course) to set up the equipment. I should be able to cope in his absence, my main task being to keep Harry on the terrazzo so he doesn’t make an escape bid after they take down the fencing. I have also received my instructions about that, too; I have to tell them to unfasten it from the post by the gate. Let’s hope it is that simple.

We were very happy yesterday as we met up with Computer Luca for dinner at YaYa Sushi after a gap stretching back well into last year. He has been having more than a little trouble with his eyes, and whilst he has continued to work for the main part, it left him, understandably, with little inclination to socialise whilst he was undergoing all the treatment. It was fabulous to see him, almost back to his old self, and to give him last year’s Christmas present. This he was very pleased with and not just because he didn’t have to wait till 25th December to open it.

In anticipation of Fabrizio’s arrival, Stephen chopped down the sapling/weed that was growing right where they will need to access the well. It wasn’t an onerous job, it being of slight girth, but he still managed not to escape unscathed when he made like a Looney Tune cartoon. You might have thought no one really steps on the head of a rake, and if he did, the handle wouldn’t spring up and sock him in the face.  Not so, as Stephen found out when he did just that – and he has the bruise to prove it.