Rest assured

3rd November 2024

Although it’s been another slow news week down at LCDDB, it did start off with a moment of mild excitement when the new geologist, Fabrizio, came with Irene and her father, in a new triumvirate, to inspect the house.

Stephen left work a little early so he could meet them at the top of the road at 11.30, and they were almost on time which was a good start. He was already showing them round when I walked back up the track with Harry, but I couldn’t join in the fun as my 12 o’clock lesson was calling. The necessary business didn’t take all that long this time, maybe because the obligatory lunchtime bowl of pasta was imminent or, more likely, that having been here before it was just a matter of reiterating what had been previously agreed and about which Fabrizio had, presumably, been briefed.

The mooted arrangements were exactly as before, the only proviso being, as ever, the question of access. Stephen offered the use of a tractor if that would help, for while he doesn’t have one, he knows a man who does. Irene said that at some point in the near future (that is Italian time, of course) we would need to sign the paperwork, proposing the work, for the Comune. Other than that it was done and dusted for now, and Stephen drove them back up while I was still deep in discussion of The Tempest with my Skype student.

Tuesday morning we caught our first glimpse of Bertrando’s month-old baby daughter, Carlotta, angelically asleep in her mother’s arm as Rossana took a cappuccino in Pina and accepted the admiration of the usual clutch of matrons gathered to put the world to rights. Stephen was a little taken aback when told, asking if she always sleeps so peacefully, that it is only when she is being cradled. He’d been told by Bertrando that she slept really well, an observation scoffed at by Rossano. “That’s because he sleeps in the other room,” she said. Which is indeed the case, for when Stephen took this up with the boss later at work, he said, without a hint of irony, that of course he did, how was he to get any sleep otherwise?

Thursday was Hallowe’en, and whilst no trick or treaters for some unknown reason (other than Italians still being in the early stages of this American counterculture import) didn’t find their way down to LCDDB, a very happy looking bear did, complete in his bat costume, when Stephen presented me with him at lunchtime. Friday was, then, a holiday for La festa di Tutti i Santi, which meant no work for Stephen though it didn’t interfere with his haircut (Rocco having a very temporal attitude where religious festivals are concerned) or the shopping as we got our first glimpse of the new improved and extended Coal.

We had wondered if it would be open, given the feast day, and while I remarked to Stephen that it seemed strange that they would have the heralded reopening one day then close the next - or it would somewhere that logic was included in decision making - it was with some relief that we saw the post on Facebook saying the store was open for business n the morning.

So what did we find? Well, it now has a grey scale colour scheme and is indeed bigger, but to make it feel more spacious rather than increase the range of goods (Worcestershire sauce had disappeared, not even a label on the shelf), the fruit and veg are displayed in what are meant to look like stacks of wooden crates (they are plastic units), some things have moved, with the wine at the back and the frozen foods now in cabinets to the left hand side, the aisles run at right angles to previously and the check-out has moved to the a new exit. A change, for sure, but not anything that the good people of MSP won’t be able to handle, and which you no doubt found riveting.

It was then home for the holidays, where we ensconced ourselves for the duration. Stephen gave the grass a much-needed cut on Friday afternoon, though it proved harder than he anticipated. Whilst it had turned sunny again during the week, it was also colder with very high humidity overnight, the sort where the morning fog doesn’t clear till 10 o’clock and you can hear the water dripping off the trees. This made the grass still very wet, too wet to adjust the mower to its lowest setting as the cuttings would clog everything up. Another couple of days improved the situation and Stephen whizzed round this afternoon for what might be the final time this year, still not at the lowest setting but low enough to make things look decent.

You might be thinking we homebodies don’t know how to live it up but you’d be wrong. I would tell you about the exciting half an hour we spent this afternoon choosing a cable storage box to accommodate the plugs and chargers in the dressing room so it looks a lot neater – but I’m not sure you could handle it. We had to have a sit down and a cup of coffee afterwards with a couple of biscuits to restore our blood sugar. Odd, really, how often that happens.