What goes up, must come down... and go back up again!

I can't type those words without singing the words to the old Superfresco wallpaper advert for those that remember it.

Anyway, it was early to bed last night, with lights out before 11pm in the end and I slept very well. I was dreading waking up though, as I realised when I got into bed last night that, in the sleep-deprived early hours of yesterday morning, I had forgotten to take my thyroid pill (for the first time) and I wasn't sure what effect that would have.

Helen went out as usual at about 6:45am. I barely remember her leaving the room before I woke with a start an hour later. I jumped out of bed as I needed to be out of the house by 9am to go strimming in the village up the valley, and I still needed to make myself some lunch and gather my tools and jerry cans.

Come 9am, I said farewell to Helen, and headed up the road towards Lanciole - only to be stopped by a couple of guys making a mess of the road in diggers.

Tsk. Blimmin road works!

They didn't hold me up for long though, and soon I was bouncing along the track to the house. I didn't stop at the first house along the lane to collect the keys (as I usually do), as I had been told that friends of the owners were using the house so would have the keys, and they were expecting me. I wouldn't have believed it from the padlocked chain around the gate when I arrived though. So what to do? Start bibbing the horn in an uncouth manner, or bounce back along the track to the other house for the keys? I selected option B, only to be told that the people staying at the house had the keys. So I did a u-turn and sat bibbing at the gates, for 20 minutes! There was a hire care there, and the house isn't so far away from the gate that they wouldn't be able to hear me, so I started to think that maybe there were two sets of friends and they had got up early to go out, leaving one car there.

After several fruitless horn beeps, I called Gary near Siena, who is managing the place. He then called the owners in Dubai, who then tried the occupiers' phone number. No joy. They either got an engaged tone or it would just ring out. By this time it was 10.30am, and I reasoned I'd stayed more than long enough, so I told Gary I'd come back on Monday, giving him a couple of days to sort the access issue out, and headed home.

Once home, I put a pot of strong coffee on the stove then dived headlong into my conference design work, with Helen beavering away at her own work at the desk next to me. We had lunch at our desks today - not something we'll be making a habit of, but Helen was expecting a call from Allison a little later, and wanted that to be her lunch hour. I continued working through lunch too, as I'd managed to formulate a creative plan and was now on the crest of a creative and productive wave that I wanted to ride to shore until it broke.

There followed a solid afternoon's work for both us - and in fact, I estimate that I only need to spend a couple more hours on this work before I can forget about it until we start packing for Seattle. As we leave two weeks Monday, that isn't long, but it does mean that I can concentrate on harvesting a bit of fallen wood - hopefully with the help of our friend Chris and his chainsaw - and on getting ready to welcome some geese onto the hill.

We clocked off just after 5pm in order to vacuum, tidy, and do the washing up. Our geometra, Andrea, was due to come round at 6.30pm to talk over a few things and we didn't want him thinking we live in a hovel! All previous meetings have been on his turf, but as we wanted to investigate the possibility of building an extension, he thought it best to come to the house. As it happened, he didn't even cross the threshold as we all sat and chatted on the patio, but it felt good to have done some tidying and cleaning inside nevertheless.

Just prior to his arrival I had a Skype call with my friend Granville (Paul) to talk over dates for him, his wife Marie and their pug Nero to visit. It was great to chat as, other than the odd message via electronic means, we've not talked since our leaving party in April! He seems keen to have a look at our three-wheeled cultivator when he gets here to see if it will ever work again. While I won't let him spend much time on it (they'll be holiday after all, and I don't think Marie would thank me for it), it will be good to at least know whether I should be wheeling it down the drive and disposing of it via the scrap man or dedicating a little effort to getting it working again.

Andrea arrived only 7 minutes late looking ridiculously tanned - he'd been to Corsica on holiday and, by the looks of it, done nothing more than lie down in the sun.

First, we chatted about the extension to the house. There is currently a special provision in this part of rural Tuscany which allows you to extend your property by 20% of its total square meterage. This was initially a one-year-only offer in 2012, which was then extended for 2013 and then into this year. Andrea seems confident that it will be extended for another year, as this was largely a scheme to try to create work in the area - creating work for builders during the economic crisis (and, since Italy's economic crisis is ongoing, he thinks it's unlikely they will revoke the special provision next year). It's great news if that really is the case, as it means we won't have to rush into breaking ground before Christmas.

There is a question now as to whether the additional 20% will include the part of the house that has 'made way' for the extension or not (a tumbled down storage area that would originally have been used for storing wood, hay, etc,). Andrea has gone away to seek clarification from the council and intends to go armed with old photos showing the old building when it was still standing, as apparently the rules change once it has been completely demolished. Nice to know he's fighting our corner!

This is what used to stand on the side of the house. (Picture from before previous owners moved in.)

Now it's a little more like this.

That all seemed fairly straightforward, but we didn't let him escape that easily! We also asked about our ongoing Telecom Italia problems (one of the geometra's tasks in the house purchase process is to arrange for all of the utilities contracts to be changed over to the new owners - but we are still receiving bills addressed to the previous owners), asked for a copy of the contract from our house purchase, asked him about the rules on cutting down trees, the rules and possibility of installing some solar thermal panels (which he seemed unconcerned by), and finally about obtaining permission to cut down the enormous fir trees that stand in front of the house.

When we first arrived here, we arrived with the firm intention of trying to get these six fir trees cut down - they shade half of the house and, from a holiday-maker's point of view, we imagined you would want as much sunshine as possible (or at least the option of it), as well as the best, most uninterrupted view possible. However, it didn't take us long to realise that shade is not only precious here during the hot summer months, but it makes the outside bearable on really hot days - and the fir trees provide welcome respite from the sun, as well as pretty good shelter from rain when the heavens do open! We had thus completely forgotten about this idea - and in fact had become quite attached to the trees. It was only when Sergio visited last week and pointed out how dangerous he thought they were that we all of a sudden had a rethink. Fir trees are protected here, as a native species, but the second we mentioned the idea to Andrea, without even getting out of his seat, he agreed they were pericolo and said he would approach the council for us.

So we had a very productive meeting and a great finish to the day. We were both pretty chuffed that virtually the entire meeting had been conducted in Italian, and while we're sure Andrea was speaking more slowly and clearly than he would usually do, we were thrilled by how much we had understood. It is tiring though, and you can't let your mind wander even momentarily! We waved goodbye to Andrea (once we'd managed to get Florence off the roof of his car) and retired to the patio to share a beer and kick start another weekend!