Padded out

26th January 2025

The start of the week was notable, but maybe only just, for the affair of the missing buono sconto, not that we knew it was missing till we walked through the door at Conad on Tuesday morning and were metaphorically rolling up our sleeves to start tackling the fruit and veg, when Roberto, the middle son (MSP Conad is a family affair) came over with a small piece of paper in his hand.

He explained to Stephen that it was a voucher for €10 discount on a minimum spend of €50; it had printed out the previous week but he had omitted to pass it over. Stephen thanked him, showed it to me, commenting that you wouldn’t get that at Tesco where anonymity rules, and then shoved it in his jacket pocket.

It was a timely coupon as we had flagons of both red and white wine on our shopping list to fill up our litre bottles at home, to use for culinary and vino da tavola, with a spot of water, purposes over the coming weeks. However, when we came to the check out it was nowhere to be found. Stephen checked some pockets and patted others (though how much of a bump he was expecting to feel is anyone’s guess) before coming to the conclusion that it must have fallen out ofhis baggy jacket.

All was not lost. He started combing the aisles and found it on the floor by the chiller cabinet, making our flagon of Rosso Piceno a free gift. As for the buono sconto Roberto handed over for next week, I took charge of that and it is in a safe and secure location against next week’s shopping.

Stephen made one of his overnight visits to Milan midweek for meetings with the big bosses, leaving on Wednesday with samples and returning on Thursday evening with bargains from Zara. He was very made up with himself having netted two pairs of trousers and two shirts, all at 70% off in their sale, and a waistcoat, cut down from a traditional men’s checked jacket, at 80% off.

More importantly than that, depending on how you look at things, of course, were the two messages he received during the day. One was from Irene, saying that she would be coming on Monday to measure the exterior of the house (complete with drone if not the man with the snapped tendons?) and one saying that this year’s supply of refuse bags would be available for collection on Saturdays from 8th February to 15th March. Because of this, it further said, the ecocentro would not be available for general waste disposal. Presumably they are expecting a high demand, so maybe Stephen needs to set up camp on Friday night to make sure he’s first in the queue.

Friday, Stephen booked Harry into the kennels for when we go to Bologna, and just to prove that despite abandoning him for a couple of days we really are responsible parents, he signed up for the optional extra of a heated lamp at €4 per day, just in case the end of March sees a cold snap.

And so to Saturday and our unfinished business from last week of the new iPad. As we were going all that way again (twenty-five minutes each way, imagine), to make it worth our while we decided to go in the evening and then take in dinner at DiverXo as well, it being some time since we graced it with our presence. We allowed what we thought was a reasonable amount of time for the iPad and to pop into Arcplanet for some more of the chews Harry likes, but so efficient was the service at Med Store, and so lacking in dithering were we, that it was in and out in under ten minutes.

We knew we were off to a flying start when after speaking to the assistant, who appeared almost as soon as we started looking at the tablets, in Italian he replied in perfect English (with what seemed like a Scandinavian accent). I said what I needed it for, he pointed out the model, I decided to go for the larger memory, he went and got one, we chose a case, paid and left. Simple.

That left us, by the time we had driven to Corridomnia, with a good hour to fill before DiverXo started serving, so what else was there to do but browse Maisons du Monde where we bought some candles in their sale and a new tray for the sitting room that wasn’t in the sale and which we didn’t know we needed till we saw it. That left about thirty minutes, and after getting the chews and a couple more candles in the Casa sale, there was still time to whip round OVS where the one remaining padded tartan shirt in the sale was in my size, a no brainer.

And that’s it really. Today has been a day spent at home seeing to various mundane bits and pieces – but that’s ok, there is only so much excitement two people can have in one weekend.