First off, I had decided last night that I might give myself the day off exercise today, and that at any rate, if I did decide to exercise, I would definitely allow myself a mini lie-in and not get up at the crack of dawn to do so. However, Lucca blew that plan out of the water when, at 5.45am, he simply couldn't wait any longer to wish me a happy birthday and started clawing at the bottom of the bed to try to wake us up. I dutifully got up, fed the cats and got back into bed - but then lay there wondering if I should actually get up as well. So in the end I got up at 6am and went outside for my usual routine.
By the time I got back inside Stuart was already up, so after I'd showered and changed, we drank coffee together on the patio in the fresh morning air. The sky was blue and it looked like it was going to be a lovely day.
Our apartment guests had knocked on our door last night to let us know that they would be setting off in the morning and aiming to leave at around 9am, and sure enough, as we drank our coffee we heard the sounds of them doing their final packing up and preparing to leave. We felt really sad for them that it was the end of their holiday, as well as rather sad to see them leave - we'd got quite used to them being there and enjoyed having them to stay.
After waving the guests off we had another coffee and I opened birthday cards and presents. I felt very loved and very lucky, and must admit to shedding a couple of tears at all the lovely, thoughtful cards and gifts that family and friends had sent/brought all the way from the UK. There's nothing quite like a birthday for making you think about loved ones and miss them!!
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| I feel blessed to have such lovely family and friends. |
After that, we decided to go to the apartment to strip the beds, turn off the fridge and collect up towels for laundering. We were thrilled to find, pinned to the noticeboard, a beautiful watercolour painting that Lorenzo had done of the house during his stay here. We were also very touched to find that each member of the family had left a lovely message in our guest book. The fact that the place was virtually spotless as well was the icing on the cake. We would love to have them stay with us again.
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| We will be getting this framed and hung on the wall! A lovely surprise. |
After a little while catching up with emails and birthday messages, and making a start on the pile of laundry that has accumulated from two weeks of apartment rental plus two weeks of house guests, we decided to head out for the day to do some sightseeing. We thought we would go and have a look at Colle di Buggiano, which we'd heard was worth a visit, and then go on to Montecatini Alto (driving there this time, rather than going via funiculare), where we thought we'd have a more thorough walk about and maybe have a light lunch and a glass of wine in the piazza there.
So, we got ourselves ready, grabbed the camera, loaded some rubbish into the back of the car to drop off at the bins on the way down... and then nothing. The car wouldn't start. The battery was as flat as a pancake. We weren't going to be going anywhere at all any time soon!
Well, we've had enough curve balls thrown at us now for me to find this slightly amusing. Of COURSE the car wouldn't start on my birthday-day-off, I mean, why on earth would it?!
Looking at the positives, it meant that I could get another load of washing in the machine and, in fact, the simple fact that I was ignoring both office work and household chores (with the exception of the laundry) for the day, AND the sky was as blue as anything AND the sun was shining (and HOT) meant that I felt very relaxed and happy, and very much in holiday mode.
Stuart hooked the car's battery up to a small battery charger in the man cave to slowly try to dribble some charge back into it, and in the meantime we set the table for lunch - not quite the lunch out we'd envisaged, rather more of the same as we've been eating day in, day out for the last couple of weeks, but very enjoyable nonetheless. Plus, there was the added novelty of a glass of chilled wine. Now it really DID feel like I was on holiday!
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| Birthday/holiday lunch. |
Over a leisurely lunch, we talked some more about geese, and where we might put them, and what sort of work would be involved in making preparations for them (building an overnight house for them, erecting predator-proof fencing and so on). We then spent a couple of hours looking on eBay and wavering ... between geese and puppies! While a dog wouldn't supply us with eggs or keep our grass short, it would provide us with a little bit of a sense of security (also meaning we would be able to put one of those terrifying 'attenti al cane' signs on the gate) - but in order for such a crazy plan to work (anyone who knows us well knows that, for several reasons, we have our feet firmly in the cat camp when it comes to cat vs. dog), we would need to get a puppy rather than an adult dog, so that the cats could get used to it (and vice versa) while it was small. Hence spending an hour or two looking at photos of every shape and size of puppy in our vicinity on Italian eBay.
While we were still pondering, I heard the clunk of a car door and lo and behold, Chris, Henry and Erik (the cavalry!) appeared with an ENORMOUS battery charger, AS WELL AS a birthday card and a bottle of Prosecco for the birthday girl! What a sight for sore eyes! They didn't stay long, as they were heading off to Sorana to do some strimming work, but we had a quick chat and an overview of how to operate the monster of the battery charger.
As soon as we'd waved them off, Stuart unhooked the car battery from the weedy little charger and hooked it up to the monster machine.
We spent another hour or so pottering about with washing/social media/eBay/etc. before Stuart decided we should give the battery a try. Off he went to the car, and I waited with baited breath. Just moments later he was giving me the thumbs up! Success!!!
By now it was 4pm, but we decided that we would head out for a long-ish drive to try to charge the battery up some more, so I grabbed our bags, phones and camera and went to the car for take 2.
This time, we made it to the end of the drive, made it out onto the road, and we were off! We stopped at the bins to dispose of the rubbish we'd accumulated, but made sure NOT to switch the engine off while offloading, then headed towards Pescia. Stuart pulled over outside the shop that had sold him the headlight bulb the other day - leaving me in the car with the engine running - and ran in to ask 1. if they had any jump leads (just in case) and 2. if they had any roof racks (as he's decided we need one). He came back out with neither, but with a scrap of paper with the name of another shop scribbled on it, where they had said we might be able to find said items.
After that, we drove towards Montecatini and then doubled back to head towards the little mediaeval village of Colle di Buggiano, which we'd heard was worth a visit. We eventually found what we thought was Colle di Buggiano, but later worked out that in fact it was Buggiano Castello.
We parked the car on a slope, facing downhill just in case it didn't start again, and got out to discover what Buggiano Castello had to offer. It turned out to be a delightful little village that we enjoyed walking around - some beautiful houses and church towers as well as stunning views.
By the time we'd finished walking the pretty streets of Buggiano Castello and got back to the car, it was 5.15pm, so we decided to leave Colle di Buggiano for another day. We got into the car and held our breaths as Stuart turned the key in the ignition. To our relief, the engine sprang into life!
We headed towards home, but decided we would call in at Chris and Sue's on our way back. We found Sue home alone, busy with her tomatoes, as Chris and the boys were still out, so we sat with Sue, drank coffee/tea and chatted - as always, a lovely way to spend an afternoon. She asked us about our geese vs dog quandary and put the idea into our heads that maybe we should have both - the geese for the eggs and a dog for the guarding. Hmm, I can see this farming lark getting quite time consuming!
When Chris and the boys got home we realised that time had marched on a fair bit and it was time for us to go back and check on the cats and decide whether to go out for a birthday dinner or simply relax at home. I was shocked to find that it was 7.40pm by the time we left. I swear that Chris and Sue's house is in some sort of time warp and time goes at double speed when we are there. It's certainly a true sign of being in very good company and having a good time.
We thus arrived home shortly before 8pm. By this time, I was feeling a little tired and overheated, and decided that an evening in was probably the most sensible option at this point, so Stuart offered to cook some dinner while I sat down to write this birthday blog.
I can smell something delicious coming from the direction of the kitchen, so I shall leave you here. A somewhat different birthday to what I/we had envisaged, but a truly enjoyable one nonetheless.
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