Looking on the positive side

23rd October 2022

The week started with a bit a surprise, if not a totally unexpected one, when the gasman arrived on Monday just after lunch to fill up the tank. Stephen had called him last Monday and he’d said he’d try to come during the week when he was in the area. Obviously, that didn’t happen, so coming on Monday wasn’t completely out of the blue, but it was, as I said, a bit of a surprise as he normally comes in the morning, and definitely not halfway through my first lesson with a new pupil. As Stephen had made an early return to work, I had to make profuse apologies and garbled explanations in order to see to things. Fortunately, my new student was very understanding, and even more fortunately, despite have the smelling salts on stand-bye, the cost didn’t seem particularly any more expensive than last time.

The reason for this became apparent the following day when the brief affair of the temperamental boiler reached a satisfactory conclusion. Not that it seemed it would when after breakfast, try as he might, Stephen couldn’t get the jets to ignite and, in the end, as time was pressing and he had an early meeting with Manuel, he gritted his teeth and enjoyed the stimulating experience of a cold shower. What, exclaimed Manuel on being told about this, had his service engineer not been in touch? He was straight on the phone berating Samuele, as we discovered his name to be, saying how could he (i.e. Samuele) let him (i.e. Manuel) down when he (i.e. Manuel) and recommended him (i.e. Samuele) to his (i.e. Manuel’s) friends in good faith.

Thus it was that when I came home from doing the shopping (solo due to Stephen’s meeting) it was to find the said Samuele, as amenable and agreeable young man as you could wish to find, filling out his report form having completed the work. All it needed was cleaning, something, we discovered, that you should have done annually in exchange for a certificate saying that nothing was likely to blow up. We just hope that we’re not going to get a fine for the six years we have missed, as you know what sticklers the Italians (well, some of them) are for bureaucracy. All that was left was for Samuele, having politely refused Stephen’s offer to drive him down to the house, to make it up the hill in his metano powered van, which he managed on his third attempt. Not bad, as these things usually go.

And what about the reason why the gas was no more expensive than last time? Because we have GPL, which is a gas mixture used for heating, rather than something piped (or not as is the current case) from Russia. In case you are not familiar with GPL it is better known in Britain as LPG. And if you don’t know what LPG is, that, gentle reader, is what Google is for.

It looked like the week was going to progress in its usual familiar way, though Stephen tried his best on Wednesday to bring a little drama into my life by returning to work after lunch in the Freeclimber but with the Panda keys still in his pocket, meaning I had to search out the spare set to get to my lesson. Not that I particularly minded, and as he had returned at lunchtime with a generous selection of Pina’s winter chocolates – the ones on display to buy individually and have with your post-lunch caffè – he had pre-empted any possible future chagrin on my part. As I said, it looked like a pretty normal week but that was until Stephen returned from taking the dogs on their first walk of the day on Thursday morning looking something the worse for wear and saying that he thought he should use one of the Covid self-test kits still in the cupboard from the adventure of the ambulance and Fermo Pronto Soccorso.

He did the test and yes, he was positive, and hastened back to bed where he stayed for most of the day. It would have been all the day but he was supposed to have a zoom meeting at 8 pm, and whilst he sat there all ready and trying not to look like he was suffering from a bad case of influenza, somehow he wasn’t able to join. Just as well, as I’m not convinced what contribution his fits of coughing could have added to the discussion.

He had, of course, contacted Bertrando to apologise and explain why he would not be coming into work. He (i.e. Bertrando) thought he should do a test too, and who would have thought it but he was positive as well. Given that the pair have recently been roaming the immediate area, visiting local factories and coming into contact with an overabundance of owners and workers, it was really a matter of time till the inevitable happened.

The good news is that while I immediately decided I felt like I had a bit of a cold, my test was negative, as was Bertrando’s wife’s when she did one. He (i.e. Bertrando) took himself to his mother’s, where he could stay in the spare room with en suite facilities. Not having that luxury, we (i.e. Stephen and I) have been keeping a safe distance and avoiding any direct contact or face-to-face encounters. Not an easy thing, admittedly, but made easier by him spending the most part of two days in bed.

He has rallied energy wise a little over the weekend, but you won’t be surprised that since Thursday we have done nothing and so I have no alternative but to bring this blog to an early close due to illness and will leave you with this message…