This and that

29th October 2023

With fourteen lessons, my week was a bit on the full side but there was still some of time for other things. Unfortunately, most of those were domestic chores and preparation, but hey, next week will be quieter thanks to the public holiday on Wednesday and a lot of people extending it to the weekend by way of a two-day bridge.

What there has been a lack of, though, is any sight of anyone or whiff of a communication from the Comune, but that didn’t stop Stephen having an impromptu confab with Mario and Luigi on Monday on his way home for lunch. They asked if we had been to the Comune and seen il sindaco. Stephen said yes to the first and no to the second as the mayor wasn’t there. They said that we all need to go weekly, banking on the nuisance effect, I suppose, before suggesting that we could get Loris (of the water pipes) to work on the road in the interim.

Stephen thought that wasn’t such a good idea as if we pay for some repair work, it then gives the Comune a get out of jail free card, throwing the blame for anything further that happens on our intervention. What Mario and Luigi did seem interested in, however, was Stephen’s suggestion that we offer to buy the road for €1. It would, obviously, then cost an awful lot more to get it in a decent state, but at least we would then be in a position to maintain it rather than it being left to degenerate again.

There was a visitor to LCDDB on Friday who managed to get back up the road, but maybe not in a way I care to recommend. It was a bit of a stealth visit, as when I came back up the path with Bella and Harry after our lunchtime walk there was a white van backing slowly down the hill. My assumption that the driver had not managed to make it all the way up was correct, cue the sinking feeling that it would be another job for Thunderbird 2 equipped with Pod 7, The Tractorvator. My fears were needless. The van used the entrance to our drive to perform a three-point turn, leaving its back doors facing up the road and ready to introduce an elegant variation.

By this time I was by our gate, and the driver wound his window down to hail me. Rather than bemoan the state of the road, he told me that he had been to check our fire extinguishers, and then reversed all the way to the top. It is quite a feat, and one that maybe only a confident and competent driver who does such a thing for a living can accomplish – at least that is what you need to tell the Comune if they should ask, otherwise they’ll think it’s a feasible low-cost solution to the problem.

The rest of the week was pretty nondescript, if you discount the use of weapons of mass destruction that is. Weapons might be pushing it a bit, as there were only two and as we bought them from the ferramenta on Tuesday morning and came in the shape of two aerosol cans, they were not likely to rock the world as we know it to its core. They did, however, decimate the extensive (as it turned out when I had to sweep up the debris and victims from the path) hornet nest that had again been built in the dovecote at the end of the house. As last time, Mario did the dirty work, shinnying up the ladder on Thursday afternoon, so hopefully that will not only protect his bees but also stop us having to dodge them buzzing around the terrazzo of an evening, attracted by the lights.

Thursday afternoon was when I had yet another new lesson to add to the week’s total, but this one was maybe even more crucial as it was with Stephen’s colleague, Cecilia, and Bertrando’s wife, so no pressure there, then. They were both very nice, and as the lesson was at the office in Montegranaro, it gave me my first glimpse of where Stephen works. I’m not sure how to describe what it was like to be in a hub of international fashion and shoe production, where vital decisions are made and high-level meetings take place, but I’ll try. It was… an office; white desks, white walls, a white board, some white chairs, a couple of computers… I think you get the picture.

Friday night, as a treat after my 7 o’clock lesson finished, we went to the pub for a burger, it being some time since we’d been. Originally, we had thought to go to Pomod’Oro, somewhere else that has been absent from our radar, and Stephen messaged Maddalena to see if she and Marco wanted to join us. She would have loved to but she was already booked, meeting up with thirty-odd old school friends for a reunion, at Pomod’Oro. We thought a strategic re-evaluation of the situation was in order, and burger and beer was a fine substitute.

As for the weekend, that has been spent at home. There has been enough galivanting recently, and it gave Stephen time to give the grass another last cut of the year - surely this time it will be, but if this strange weather continues, who knows. Apart from a half-hour the other week we have still to resort to any form of heating, and I’m continuing to walk the dogs in the morning with just a T-shirt by way of upper body wear. According to the forecast, temperatures are due to drop next week, but not much.

Stephen also found time to run up a floor cushion with some material that was going begging at an undisclosed location, a furry champagne coloured fabric that is all the rage for the coming season. We hope Bella will appreciate it as it is meant for her to lie on in the hope of encouraging her to stay with us in the front room, especially when the weather does get colder. She seems to more content to take to her bed after dinner, and we’re wondering if she is finding it a bit uncomfortable to join us on the settee, especially with Harry sprawling out, or maybe it’s her way of commenting on our choice of viewing. Personally, I can’t see what’s wrong with back to back episodes of The Floor Is Lava, but maybe her tastes run to something a bit more high-brow.