Mercolodi maltempo

The thunder woke us both up - actually all four of us, cats included - at around 4.30am this morning. It had been gently rolling around the hills for a while prior to that, but then made its presence rather more obvious. If it wasn't a room-illuminating flash of lightning it was a crash of thunder that jarred each of us away from our slumber, and just as we thought it was rumbling off into the distance it would do another overhead crash as if to make sure we hadn't drifted off to sleep. It persisted for some time - at least an hour or so. The rain also drummed on the skylight, which was soon added to by the drip, drip of water coming through said skylight. Helen directed me to where she'd left the tupperware rain-collection devices and I placed them beneath the leak to catch the drops. Lucca jumped back onto the bed with us, Florence settled on the sofa in our room, and we all tried to get back to sleep. It came to us all at some point - but not before 5.30am, that's for sure.

The next thing I remember was Helen coming back into the bedroom post workout around 8:50. She had obviously been late for her exercise today (who can blame her?), and came inside looking rather bedraggled. While the canopy I'd strung up the other week over the exercise/bike repair area works well as a sun shade, and is protective against light rain, it really doesn't stand up to the sort of downpours that we'd had overnight (and continued to have this morning), and she looked quite drenched.

Damp morning.

It was getting on for 9.30am by the time I'd showered and, with the rain was still pouring down, I took the rare opportunity to sit and hone my razors and subsequently treat myself to a shave. It's been about six months since I was last cleanly shaven - I've been relying on beard trimmers since arriving here as my razors were blunt.

Honing.

One satisfying shave later, the clock had ticked on to nearly 11am. The rain showed no signs of abating, so I decided it would have to be another day in front of the computer.

After sending scans of our latest Telecom Italia bill to Andrea the geometra, I sent a pile of 'before' and 'after' photos of the apartment to Holiday Lettings to try and clear up some Trip Advisor reviews that are still being displayed against our advert from when the previous owners were in charge of the apartment (a long story).

Lunch today was taken not only indoors, but at our respective desks - Helen can now see the light at the end of the tunnel with regards to her conference work, and I think she's pushing on in the hope of some time outside next week before we head off to Seattle.

After mulling over the idea for a while over the last few months, I decided I would spend some time today making an attempt to sell my services as a web designer here in Italy. This isn't new ground for me, and I have a little bit of previous form, but I do have my limitations. However, after four months of frustration in trying - and failing - to find information or things we need in the local area on the internet, I decided that there has to be a market for cheap, two-, three- or four-page websites for local businesses. After having been given a business card by the owner of the local hardware store last week - displaying not only his name and phone number, but also his email address and a website (neither of which work - in fact the domain name is up for sale), I decided I would start there. I'm not at all sure how easy a sell this is going to be (businesses around here don't really seem all that interested/bothered about being on the internet), but I figured that if I don't at least try, I'll never know. So my plan is to create a website for the lovely Davide at the hardware store, gratis, and get him to tell his friends where to come for their own.

By the time 6pm arrived, I'd got a basic, but smart-looking site ready for the sales pitch. I just need to upload it to my server and go and see Davide with a web address - and hopefully he'll get on board and become the first of our sales force. From little acorns...!

By now the rain has stopped. The sun never really got a chance to make an appearance today, but we managed to sit on the patio for an hour or so, watching the low cloud swirl around the village and the mountains opposite us, along with a small glass of red wine. When I was with Sergio last week he told me that until recently his Dad, at 86, had been responsible for pruning and harvesting their 600 olive trees - all made possible, I was told, by a diet rich in olive oil and a glass of red a day. Good enough reason for me.

Helen spoke to Sue shortly before we retired inside, to talk over the possibility of (shhh) going with the Phillipses to the Orrido di Botri gorge up in the Garfagnana tomorrow (that's right, not working!). However, the trip all depends on the weather (if it's too wet, the gorge is closed to visitors), so we won't know until the morning whether or not the trip is on. If we do make it, we're sure to have some photos for you - the gorge is due to close for the winter at the end of this month as the wetter weather makes it dangerous (it's only open between June and Sept), so we're keen to see it before it closes!

So another brief blog (by my standards at least), and now it's time to relive Helen of my sharp knife so I can take over the preparation of a mushroom risotto while she edits the rambling words I've just laid down.