Sunshine, drugs and a clean car but no new one?!

After kicking myself all morning yesterday for not going out for a ride, I managed to drag myself out of bed this morning, not long after Helen had, to do just that.

Having only ridden up to Vellano once so far, I decided that would be my destination, if not a bit further, so off I set straight into the climb - the walk along the driveway is all the warm-up you get when heading to Vellano, not as much as I'd like, but better than nothing.

My GPS seemed to think it was only around 6% average up to the village. It felt like more than that (and looks it too), but who am I to argue?! After making it to the edge of the village in good time, I decided to push on past to see if I could reach the next little hamlet before turning back. Now I was hitting 8%-9% gradients - not steep by Tour de France standards, but it was like that for two and a half miles and after already having done three and a half to Vellano, I was feeling the burn! However, I kept grinding away, safe in the knowledge that at any point all I had to do was do a u-turn and freewheel all the way home! It's great to know that you can climb and climb until your legs give in, knowing you can still manage the return journey - not that I'd got to that limit/distance! 12 miles later, I was home and feeling pleased with myself.

After breakfast and replying to a lengthy message from my friend Dodge back in Abingdon, I went out with a fully laden car. First stop the bins to unload most of the car's contents. Next stop the pharmacy in Pietrabuona to attempt to try to get some more Thyroxin. I went armed with a few scribbled sentences and my nearly empty packet of tablets to help me along, and asked if it was possible to buy more of my tablets. The lady said she didn't have any, but scribbled down the name of the brand in Italy and sent me to a farmacia lavorini in Pescia. Feeling slightly hopeful that I might get somewhere, I parked in the square and went into the first farmacia I could see. There was no sign for it being a 'farmacia lavorini' but I decided to ask anyway - at the least they could direct me to one.

While the chap in front was being served I admired the vast display of wooden drawers which made up the wall behind the counter - lots of drugs in here, I thought! My day dreaming was cut short when I was asked what I wanted. After having apologised for my poor Italian (always seems like a good ice breaker), I asked to buy more Thyroxin. She looked at my packet of pills and the scribble from the other farmacia, went to a drawer and handed me a packet. Just like that!! So I chanced my arm and asked for another packet. No problem! €5.18 later, I walked out with 100 tablets - enough to keep me going for over three months, by which time I should have my residency and be able to get easy access to a doctor. Another enormous worry sorted. I wish I'd tried earlier, but I really didn't expect it to be so easy - its a prescription-only drug in the UK (it might be here for all I know), and was expecting to need one from an Italian doctor (which, technically, I shouldn't be able to have access to without residency).

That sorted, it was off to Obi yet again. I  needed more fly screen mesh and a bit more timber, and I'd decided to take back the broken hedge trimmer along with the receipt to see what they said _ I could only hope they would either fix or replace it, it was under warranty after all.

I was seen to buy a guy who spoke no English, but it was clear the trimmer was not working (the starter cord is stuck in the out position), and I left with a list of repair shops in Tuscany and his name and number on the bottom - so it seems that is how they deal with this scenario here. The nearest repair shop is over near Lucca - not very far away, but a job for another day. That sorted and materials procured it, was off home for lunch, it was already noon!

We ate lunch under the protection of the umbrella as it was scorching hot today. I think Helen was a touch reluctant to go back inside, she'd had no idea it quite so nice outside. We ate the first small crop of our own home-grown tomatoes, some Datterino and Super Roma variety.

The cats managed to find a shady spot to keep cool.

After lunch, I fitted the fly screen to the apartment and did a couple more little inconsequential bits and pieces.

The plan later this afternoon was to go to the car dealership at around 5.30pm, collect the car, dash to Pisa (Ikea), buy the kitchen (fitting it all into the back of our spacious new car), and get home at a reasonable time. I had emailed the car dealer just after lunch to make sure 5.30pm was OK I didn't want to make the assumption, as they had muttered 'Thursday morning' at one point.

Anyway, I caught the phone ringing mid-afternoon: it was the dealer, calling to say that the car now won't be ready to collect until Friday! (It has to have the methane bottle/connection checked over.) This throws a small spanner in the works, as I'm sure Jeff was planning to leave us first thing on Friday to get a full day's driving in. Thus it looks like we're faced with renting a car for 24 hours Friday to Saturday so that we can let Jeff get on his way. It won't be an enormous expense, although it's one we could do without, but we must also keep in mind that getting this car now, before our residency is sorted, is saving us a couple of thousand. Let's just hope that Friday doesn't turn into Monday!!

So at about 5.30pm we headed to Pisa in the little Citroen - for the last time in our faithful little workhorse. We'll be sad to see it go, it's been reliable and has saved us a lot of money in fuel over the years, we're hoping our next one will be the same.

We arrived home just before nine, having managed to pick up the carcasses of all of the kitchen cupboards so that I can make a start on assembling them (the rest of the bits will have to wait for another trip), plus some guest towels, a roller blind and some more bed linen. An easy dinner is in order tonight as the cats and the plants need feeding and watering, and we're both feeling more than a little weary, with a busy day ahead tomorrow, a busy weekend ahead, and a busy couple of weeks ahead!!