Slip sliding

21st February 2021

And so we come to another week of not anything very exciting, at least as far as I am concerned. Stephen, being the member of the family to be out and about wheeling and dealing, had a somewhat more eventful time of it than me – relatively speaking, so don’t get too excited.

He made his customary visit to the factory on Monday morning, stopping off to get milk at Conad (exciting, see) on his way back and buying us our one and only concession to Carnevale and the impending Martedì Grasso with a selection of those half moon pastries, ones filled with crema for me and him and some with fava/bean just for him (don’t worry, I wasn’t envious), whose name I can never remember. Tuesday he was back at the factory when he was able to use his new camera that had eventually arrived (it’s a long way from China, even via Amazon) to check the inside of the boots.

Previously, the only way to do this was to shove his hand down into them, but now with his flexible camera he can investigate the dark recesses with the finesse of keyhole surgery. In fact, this might be what a nameless member of the Carelli family must have thought it was for, as he found great amusement in putting it down his throat. A visit to a jacket factory with Mirco in the afternoon added to the thrill of Stephen’s day, while mine was not without a moment of interest for when I was driving Fouzia back up to her car after her lesson the headlights caught sight of a hare bounding across the road and over the field, obviously in a hurry to get home before the curfew.

Stephen had another important date at the factory on Thursday when he was due to support them in their discussion regarding opening up a virtual stand for MICAM which, after being postponed from February to March was cancelled altogether and moved entirely online. In the event the meeting with the people facilitating this for some strange reason didn’t happen, so he went off again with Mirco, this time to a last factory. On the way, Mirco told him all about the mayor of Civitanova’s plans to turn the city into the Adriatic’s Dubai by applying for permission to build the equivalent of that city’s Palm islands, jutting out into the sea with luxurious skyscraper blocks on each arm to attract the great and the good, as well as berthing facilities to entice any passing super cruise ship steaming up the coast.

It all sounds wonderful - if you overlook the fact the Civitanova is not nestled in the crook of the Arabian gulf, that the skyscrapers will cast unwelcome shadows on the sunbathers, and the current lack of high end luxury (and duty free) shopping - but as one of the inhabitants of MSP pointed out in a Facebook post, how does the mayor think he is going to achieve this considering neither he nor his predecessors have yet managed to sort out a roundabout to ease the traffic congestion at the end of the autostrada.

As for me, the highlight of my Thursday was going arse over tip in the mud when taking the dogs our for their midday walk.

Which would have been about it (other than some hastily arranged washing) if not for two pieces of good news. The first, and more general, is that this weekend, in contrast to last Saturday’s snow, has been more than pleasantly spring-like, with a definite warmth and clarity to the air that heralds the start of a shift in the seasons. The second, and more personal, was the news of another addition to the swelling Firth-Webster family. This time it was Stephen’s niece, Laura and her husband Tyson who welcomed little bundle of joy Harvie Rose, sister to Nakoa, into the world. We wish them all much love and happiness… and peaceful nights.