Consequently, we were not quite as rested as we probably should have been when the alarm clock went off this morning. I dragged myself out of bed at 6.45am to go and run around outside, and shortly afterwards I was met on the drive by Stuart, all Lycra-d up wheeling his bike along the drive to head off up the valley. He returned, some 45 minutes later, having made it as far as Vellano, the next village up from us. It was a shorter ride than the one he did last week, but the road is *much* steeper. I don't know how he does it!
After showers and bowls of cereal, it was off to work - me in the office and Stuart continuing with his librarian duties, hanging pictures in the upstairs bedroom, re-wiring the water heater plugs so that we can use them with UK timer switches, and various other jobs. Unfortunately, this meant that I as I worked, I was showered with little bits of dust and grit that come down from the ceilings whenever any heavy work is done in the room above. Note to self: must remember to cover the top of my glass of water next time.
A little while later, I was convinced I could hear talking, and realised that Stuart had been on the phone outside. Turned out he had called the previous owners and after a long conversation had got a few answers to some of our mysteries, including finding out that they had apparently left the payment of bills in the hands of Andrea (the geometra), saying that they had been into the bank to sign a form to give Richard power to withdraw money on their behalf in order to pay them. That was all a bit confusing, as it's the first we've heard of it, but we'll ask Richard about it when we next see him.
Come midday, we decided to have an early lunch and planned to get to the bank for shortly after it opened - so we ate on the terrace before heading back to the office/upstairs for another couple of hours of work.
At 3pm we headed out into Pescia. Confident we knew what we were doing, we negotiated the finger-print-recognition air lock one by one, and headed straight for the 'waiting corridor' outside the bank manager's room. It does feel a little like you're sitting in line waiting to see the headmaster, but thankfully feeling a little less trepidation as Marco (the bank manager) is a friendly, smiley chap.
We waited for our turn, and eventually were welcomed in with a warm handshake. We explained that we wanted our documents back - when we first applied for our mortgage, Marco had needed original copies of various documents, including my birth certificate, which I duly couriered to him. We now need these back in order to start the application process for residency. Our question was met with a look of confusion, followed by a load of gabbled Italian. We *think* he said that all of our documents were sent off to another branch in the application process, and we *think* he said they would not be returned for 30 days. He also said a load of other stuff, all the while looking really friendly, but neither of us had a clue what it was all about. He ended by saying that we should go back in one morning with Richard (at least that's what we think).
We left with big smiles, but heavy hearts - it seems an impossible mountain to climb to get on top of the language, and every time we think we are getting somewhere, something happens to make us we feel as if we've been set back (in fact, sometimes nothing happens to make us feel as if we've been set back - simply not using the language/not encountering it for a couple of days is enough to set us back). This is particularly the case for me - my 'day job' is so involved, so utterly surrounded by English words, English grammar and working out what on earth people are trying to say in English, that I barely have time to even think about Italian language. There's simply no free head-space to try to consolidate any learning I've done in the odd 20-minutes I've managed to grab with an online lesson here or there, or from the odd weekend when we've been out and used a bit more language. My perception of the situation thus far is that Stuart has been on fire with his language skills - ALL of our major accomplishments to date have been almost entirely down to him and his willingness to throw himself into it and have a go. However, today, even he admitted to feeling a bit left behind on the language front, and as if he hasn't progressed for a while.
After the bank we headed for Cinzia - the garden centre we had been to a couple of weeks ago, where they seemed to have a lot more on offer than the places we popped into yesterday. We managed to find a very sad-looking chive plant (sold to us at the discounted price of €1), which we're hoping we might be able to breathe new life/new growth into, a sage plant, a red/orange 'lanturna' and a pink hydrangea. I've been hankering after a hydrangea or two since before we arrived - we see so many pretty ones in all different shades and colours in and around the little villages we visit, I decided that it would be nice to have one or two to brighten up the guest patio, and concluded that there were so many around, they must be sold everywhere. Not so! We saw one slightly sad-looking blueish one yesterday (not my favourite of the colours they come in), and another sad-looking white one, so when we saw a healthy-looking pink one, it was a no-brainer: got to have it! Hopefully next year we will be able to shop for them earlier in the season and we can branch out into some of the more interesting dusty pinks and greens.
Anyway, after the garden centre we decided to have another quick stop off in town at what seems to have become our new local (Bar Pulter - an establishment that sells ice cream/pastries//coffee/beer/wine/pizza...), where the lady now recognises us and is very friendly. Once again, we sat surrounded by Italians of all generations passing the time of day, and talked about how frustrating we're finding our slow uptake of the language, how difficult the whole residency process is proving to be, and other little niggles (and slightly bigger niggles).
After our drink in the square we headed home with our plant purchases. On emptying the boot, we found we'd got slightly more than we bargained for and a cheeky little lizard had hitched a ride from the garden centre to our house! Lizards are fast-moving little creatures and I was quite convinced that we wouldn't be able to chase it out of the car and it would end up setting up its little lizardy home in the back seat of the car (goodness knows there must be enough flies and spiders in there by now to keep it well fed, with the number of piles of rubbish we've ferried to the bins). Thankfully, though, with Stuart doing a bit of lizard herding, he managed to get it onto the handle of an umbrella and lift it gently out of the car - at which point it did a star jump off it and dashed into the undergrowth.
That made us smile, but we had even more reason to smile once we got in the house: I had finally received an email with news of Lucca and Florence - the courier is hoping to bring them to us by tomorrow evening!!! The thought of being reunited with our furry-faced friends is both a very happy one and a slightly anxious one (we are quite sure that they will NOT be happy to see us, and we are prepared for it to take quite a while for them to come around and be friendly with us again - plus we have some concerns about their ability to adapt to the countryside way of life and all of the new dangers that lurk in the undergrowth - in fact, we've both had stressful dreams about them over the last couple of nights!). Overall, though, we are veeery excited to see them. The poor little things were picked up from Mum and Dad's on Saturday spent Sunday in Surrey, and have been on the road in Europe since Monday. It seems as if they will be the last to be dropped off on the trip through Europe, after having visited Geneva, Monaco and Perpignan along the way - their travelling companions are two other cats and two dogs, as can be seen in the blog update the courier posted (these are not the most flattering photographs of them, but it's nice to know they really are coming to us and getting closer!).
That cheery news spurred us into a quick round of weeding and tidying the garden and planting the new herbs before retiring indoors to prepare dinner. Tomorrow we will have to put a spurt on with the last of the tidying that needs doing in the house, to make sure things are all calm and as stress-free as possible when the cats arrive.
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