Once more unto the breach

6th November 2022

The week started as the last one finished, with Stephen still positive, but as for the majority of Italians Monday was a day off, being the bridge between the weekend and the public holiday on 1st November for All Saints’ Day, at least he wasn’t missing work as the office was closed. The news that Bertrando had tested negative gave us hope that Stephen might be near the end of his confinement, and really it had gone on long enough. A joke is a joke, but this was bordering on the ridiculous.

There seemed little point in testing on Tuesday as he wasn’t going to be going anywhere anyway (unlike me who had my third taste of freedom when well masked I hit Conad for a spot of shopping), but there was general rejoicing when a test on Wednesday morning showed that after almost two weeks, he was safe to be released back into the community. He lost no time in sorting himself out and heading for Montegranaro, and spent a large part of the day at work as there was quite a bit of catching up to do. I also ramped up my work, being once again able to have face-to-face lessons and not just those via Skype.

A back-to-normal Thursday led to Friday, and I would say that the best thing about it was that I was able, after the Covid hiatus, to get my hair cut at long last, but I don’t want to be branded the Frank Churchill of the party, so I won’t. What was significant, though, was the change in the weather. The protracted spell of sunshine and high (for October) temperatures finally came to an end, causing something of a surprise when Stephen and the dogs opened the door in the morning to be faced with rain. It continued grey and drizzly for most of the day, and whilst today has been brighter, it is definitely colder, meaning that we resorted to turning on the central heating for half an hour for a bit of a boost.

We made the most of this weekend by catching up on things that had been left undone due to our enforced seclusion. The first, and most important, was a return visit to Auto Pompei to take a second look at the cars we first saw three weeks ago. Both were still for sale, and after some time considering one and then the other and looking in the boots, we were sort of leaning towards the Renegade, which was time for Stephen to throw in the Freeclimber card. Would they take it in part (very part!) exchange, he asked. While we scanned our picture libraries on our phones, Mr P took us back downstairs and we went into his office where he did a few calculations.

He had more success than us (as trying to find a photo of the Freeclimber to show Mr P amongst the detritus that clutters our albums was really a non-starter) and presented us with his offer. It was, needless to say, still somewhat more than our budget but unlike all those deluded people on Location, Location, Location (is that still a thing?), we had to accept that we couldn’t get what we wanted for that budget. We said we would think about it and left to sort out a more important matter: trousers.

My Fitbit obsession, and especially making sure I walk fast enough to overachieve with Active Zone minutes, means that I have dropped another waist size since last winter. This in turn means that the wardrobe changeover has left me in a potentially embarrassing position: the trousers I bought last year are a bit on the big size, whilst the ones that were a bit on the big size now need severe support from a judiciously tightened belt in order to avoid them ending up round my ankles when pushing the trolley round Conad. We called in to OVS, which if you have a weathered eye and a personal stylist called Stephen, usually has the odd thing or two worth buying.

So it was on this occasion. After trying on numerous pairs of trousers we settled on three (though not the pair that were marked 52 like all the others but left one wondering about the sizing as they were not so much tight as having a waist button and hole that refused to come nearer than 2cm from each other), together with two shirts, one of which, spotted by my eagle-eyed assistant, had 30% off.

As if that wasn’t enough for one weekend, this morning Stephen put his DIY head on and assembled the new outside cupboard to house the fire extinguishers, replacing the old one that had somehow lost one of its doors and was looking a little the worse for wear. He would have had it done in a trice, if only he hadn’t put a piece in the wrong way. It took quite a bit of effort to extract, but it finally succumbed with bit of gentle persuasion from a screwdriver.

Fortified by this triumph, we went to Corridomnia to stock up on basics at Risparmio Casa as well as popping into Casa (no relation) to buy a few things we both knew we needed (tealights, three packs for the price of two) and things we didn’t (a lunch box for Stephen, a light up Christmas scene globe and two tealights complete with reindeer faces and red bobble noses). Between these was the real reason we went shopping: Diverxo and their all-you-can-eat lunch menu – and if you are wondering how much we can eat, the answer seems to be quite a lot actually, especially when we’ve had an action-packed morning.