Stirred not shaken

26th February 2023

With Stephen away in Milan, I was very much left to my own devices, which, didn’t really amount to much. There were my lessons, of course, and those kept me out of trouble, especially as my new student began on Tuesday (not Wednesday for this week only, as I had a prior dental appointment) and none of the others cancelled – a rare event.

Monday’s two lessons fell either side of lunch, and with the house to myself I thought I might as well do them upstairs rather than in the office. The only catch was Bella and Harry, who, with the weather leading us (at least at the start of the week) gently into spring, were making the most of sunning themselves on the terrazzo, but would, on previous experience, be wandering in and out as the whim took them.

Obviously, I couldn’t operate my usual doorman act, bobbing up and down like a yoyo to open and close the door not being really very professional. The solution was, for the first time this year, to leave the door open, which was a very pleasant thing indeed – at least during the first lesson. By the time the second was coming to a close the sun had gone round the corner and it was, without it, starting to feel a bit on the chilly side so I think it will still be some time before we need to hang up the fly curtain.

At some, at that point, unidentified time on Monday night I became vaguely aware that I was sort of awake and feeling the bed shake and hearing a bit of a clinking sound. As it is when you are in that twilight zone between sleep and consciousness, I wasn’t absolutely sure what was going on, but it seemed very much like a bit of an earthquake. When I did a search the next morning, though, I wasn’t able to find any reference to it on the Internet. I mentioned it to Stephen when we WhatsApped, saying that I was starting to think I had imagined it, and he, of course knew nothing about it.

Later, however, he sent me a link showing that there had been a quake shortly after 1a.m. just west of Macerata, so not far away at all. It was relatively minor, at 3.8, but was less then 9 km below the surface, which is why it was felt so significantly as, according to the MSP grapevine that reaches all the way to Milan, all the village felt it. Some even felt a second one the next night, but that was weaker and I’m happy to say that my sleep wasn’t interrupted two nights on the trot, and neither it nor the first one caused any discernible damage.

Wednesday, as mentioned, I paid Claudia a visit for a check-up, including the periodic x-rays to see what was happening inside the gums. That was all fine, as was nearly everything else except for a small spot on one of my molars which needs attention, meaning I will be back at the beginning of April. Thursday was a busy day, with three lessons, a visit from the gasman to fill the tank, and a rescheduled chat with Marco, who had not been able to meet the previous day as, with it being the start of Lent, his choir commitments demanded his presence in church.

And that was it, all over bar the shouting – as evinced when Stephen, taking his usual overnight stop in Bologna on his way home to check what was hot and what was not in the shops, found himself in the middle of an anti-war demonstration. As he pointed out, they know how to do a demonstration in Bologna, very civilised with a police presence only for the look of the thing. He made it back safely to Civitanova yesterday evening, and I picked him up from the station and brought him and his suitcase of washing home.

When that will be done – or more importantly, dried – is up for debate as the weather has changed. Friday was a little warmer, but we all know what that means at this time of year – more cloud and, yes, rain. We woke to rain this morning and it has continued all day, slackening off just enough to raise hopes before again persisting it down. What washing Stephen did manage to do is hanging limply, sheltered by the overhang from the terrazzo, and given the forecast, is likely to remain there for the foreseeable future. Just as well we have enough GPL to keep us warm, a log fire to cheer us up, and a full family complement once again.