Time for a change

12th November 2023

After the wild weekend, the sun returned on Monday and we were once again able to leave the door open for Bella and Harry to potter in and out – at least between the hours of 10.00 and 3.00, by which time the sun had moved away to the side of the house lowering the temperature not a little.

It was still heading towards its zenith when Mario drove down the hill and parked the tractor on the road. Stephen had stopped on his way to work to let him and Luigi know about the sheet of corrugated iron that had blown away from the top of the barn and he was here to collect it. It being more than a one-man job, I gave him a hand to manoeuvre it over the fence and lay it on the ground by the barn. He then got the ladders and climbed onto the roof. I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do, wondering if I should hang around in case he needed help again, though really, we all know what the outcome is if I get involved with anything practical and it isn’t pretty.

In the end, as he was taking his time examining the area and paying me no heed at all (a wise move) I went in for my delayed shower, needing to make myself presentable, after completing my morning tasks, for my students. What became of the sheet of metal I cannot say. I did spy Mario in the field, walking by our fence as if looking for something, and then a short while after I heard the tractor leave, and that, as far as we were concerned, was the end of the matter – hopefully, turbulent winds permitting.

Tuesday morning, like the week before, we were up earlier than usual, but this time it was because we had an important date at the post office, and knowing from experience that things can take some time, especially if you get in a bit of a queue, we thought we should err on the side of caution as we had several bits of business to sort out. Apart from sending Stephen’s passport application “signed for”, we had a birthday card to post and two items to return to Amazon thanks to the Renegade lacking a tow hook, as we discovered recently.

We had decided that it would be quicker to find a replacement ourselves, despite the small cost involved, but the gods were working against us. Stephen did find what looked like a suitable, universal implement on the site, but when the order arrived we were a little surprised at the size of the packet. No wonder, as when we opened it, it contained a smart phone screen protector. These things have to happen I guess when you are processing such a number of orders. The good thing is that the system is well geared for returns – you say you are sending it back, they send you a code by email and then you just take the item to the Post Office and Paolo, in our case, does the rest.

Can it be so simple? Yes, and just as well as we had the two parcels to return. We reordered the hook, which, despite its universal tag, Stephen was unable to screw into its housing no matter how much he tried. Fortunately, he has since found another which does fit, and also fortunately, when we arrived at the Post Office on Tuesday morning there was only one person ahead of us, at the counter, meaning we made it to Pina quarter of an hour earlier than usual – though the same probably can’t be said for the half-a-dozen people we headed off at the pass and were queuing up behind us as we left.

The weather continued to be its current unpredictable self when the temperature on Wednesday dropped to an admittedly more seasonal 9° at bedtime, and even further overnight as we woke to 5.5° the following morning. Evening fires are now di rigueur, and as it is going dark by 5, it means that we can cosy up. Well, Bella and Harry can on their bed in front of the fireplace. Some of the rest of us are still busy with lessons five nights a week, but I guess you can’t have everything.

I have, though, claimed liberation in one way with the arrival of two new watches and the jettisoning of the Fitbit app from my phone. What, I hear you cry, has prompted this drastic action? The short answer is a decision not to continue being in thrall to a machine, the longer answer is, well, not wanting to continue being in thrall to a machine, especially one that is so quixotic. It helped me lose the weight when the doctor said my cholesterol was too high, encouraging me to get my heart rate up when walking the dogs, and it did make me conscious of how to achieve a decent number of steps per day.

It has, though, become a bit of a dictator, and do I really need to jump up and walk round the room when it beeps to say I haven’t done that hour’s 250 steps? I think not. Nor is it totally accurate, which is a problem for a system that relies on setting and achieving goals. It is less than whimsical when I go to be shortly after 10 and the sleep monitor says I was still awake three hours later, and when, after my morning walk with the dogs following the same route at more or less the same pace, some days it records over thirty minutes in the active zone and others struggles to crack ten.

I’m sure all this is fascinating for you, but if nothing else I have got it off my chest. In the end the deciding factor, if you will forgive me for being shallow, is that I just wanted to wear a nice (traditionally analogue) watch again – or, in this case, three: a Timex with a fabric strap in what the website calls tan but I prefer to think of as army green for every day wear; a black faced watch with a metal linked strap for casual smart, and my old Emporio Armani watch with metal chain mail strap, which Stephen took the jeweller’s near the office for a new battery, the old one having run out several years ago, for smart casual. As for the Fitbit, I have not discarded it totally; I still wear it in the morning when I do my chores, when it doesn’t matter if it gets knocked about a bit, and if it does, well serve it right.

That was about as exciting as it got this week, unless you count yesterday evening’s shopping trip as a thrilling expedition when we took the unprecedented step of stocking up on household basics at Risparmio Casa on a Saturday evening rather than a Sunday morning. Stephen said it somehow didn’t feel right and maybe buying washing liquid in autumnal twilight is not quite the thing. He was slightly cheered, however, by a wander round the Christmas display in Maisons du Monde followed by the all-you-can-eat dinner menu at Diverxo, where the choice was slightly different than at lunchtime and slightly more luxurious as befitted the slightly higher price.

This meant that we were able to hole up at home today, and Stephen spoiled us, or rather Bella and Harry, by lighting the fire this morning - not because it was particularly cold but, as he said, because it was Sunday. And if that wasn’t enough of a treat for a November day, we had our first baked potatoes of the year this evening – with sausages, because we’re all there with our onions when it comes to comfort eating.