We had a slow start to the day today. Helen got out for some exercise at 7.30am, while I had breakfast, then cleaned out the geese and gave them fresh bedding and tried to finish the blog. We still had no internet though - the weather was a bit damp and misty after last night's storm, but certainly no longer stormy, so we would usually have expected the internet to have sprung back into life by now. This meant that we still couldn't post our late blogs from Saturday and Sunday, we couldn't check the weather forecast, and Helen couldn't check in on her work emails! We were glad the landline had been fixed last week, otherwise we'd have been without communication of any sort today.
Jill and Mike came up to the house at about 9.30am, having had a good night's sleep in the apartment, and it wasn't long before we all hopped into the '182 bus' to head for Montecatini Terme. We needed to pay a quick visit to Decathlon in pursuit of a waterproof walking jacket - in the 3am darkness yesterday morning, Jill had accidentally left hers behind in Bristol, and the weather forecast (as we'd last seen it when we last had internet!) for the next few days suggested that a waterproof would very much be in order!
We went into Decathlon, unsure as to whether they stocked this kind of gear, but sure enough they had a whole aisle of it. After trying a couple on, we left with one new coat for Jill and the tantalising prospect of some hiking on the near horizon - the first we will have managed since arriving here.
Next, we went into OBI to buy some rope - 50m to be exact - to aid the felling and cutting of trees at home. I had almost bought 25m of climbing rope in Decathlon but thankfully was dissuaded by my wife who suggested that we might be able to find rope that was less expensive elsewhere. In OBI, we managed to buy something less fancy, but with a 550kg breaking strain, for half the price!
Shopping done, we all hopped in the car to go home for lunch and to plan our afternoon. The car, however, had very different ideas. It decided it quite liked where it was and wouldn't start... Again.
I think all our hearts sank in unison. I'm sure I almost even heard them sinking.
We decided to go and have a coffee and then try the car again, as on previous occasions it has started again after being left for a little while. So we went into the main shopping mall and found a coffee shop where we had coffees and cake. To prolong the process (and give the car a little more time to have a think about whether it would really actually like to go home), Helen and I had a second round of cappuccino al ginseng (we think Allison is going to be addicted to these next week - watch out Allison!) before I headed out to try the car again, leaving everyone else in the café.
Yet again, nothing. There was no chance of it starting, it really was happy where it was. So I trudged back into the shopping mall, keys in hand.
We walked the length of the mall, then did a circuit around the outside, managed to buy some more of Helen's migraine tablets from the pharmacy, and then went to try the car again. Yet again, nothing.
Mike suggested we have some lunch at the shopping mall to give the car another hour to think about things. There were about four different outlets selling food, which we compared before deciding on the café at the COOP supermarket. I'm pretty sure that conjures a rather sad, depressing image in your head, right? Wrong! It had all the ingredients to be poor: it was in a shopping centre, it was a supermarket cafe, McDonalds was across the road, etc., but they not only had their own pizza ovens, but they were cooking pasta to order as well! Jill and Mike each had large sandwiches (panini), while Helen and I shared a pizza. The pizza was advertised as 60cm - large, yes, but manageable? Er... nope! We barely managed to finish half of it - thankfully the lady was happy to put the other half in a bag for us to take away, so the rest will be tomorrow's lunch! So that was an enormous pizza, a proscuitto and rocket sandwich, a breaded chicken sandwich, three bottles of water and a beer all for €24, and the pizza was made fresh!
After lunch, we walked slowly back towards the car. Jill and I popped back into OBI partly to delay the agony of going back to the car, but also to buy some more coat hooks for the apartment.
We then all trudged towards the car, wondering what our plan would be when it didn't start again - whether we could get a taxi, a bus, walk into the centre of Montecatini... But to our enormous relief, the car started!! Hallelujah!! We have decided not to use it again this week - at least not until it has been fixed properly!!
When we got home we had a cup of tea and then decided that we should split up: the boys would make a a start on cutting and moving the oak trees previously felled by Chris, while the girls would don some appropriate clothes and go walking up the old donkey track with a camera, map and GPS to try and find the edges of our land.
A couple of hours later, Mike and I had given in, both soaked to the skin in sweat. We'd cut and moved almost half the four oaks, but with just a bow saw and treacherous conditions under foot, we gave up. We were soon called from somewhere beneath the driveway - Jill and Helen had made it almost as far as the terrace beneath the house, picking their way through brambles, acacias and other undergrowth, but were unable to scramble back up to the drive. Mike and I rigged up a ladder and some ropes to help them climb back up into the car parking area.
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| The boys go to work. |
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| The girls go exploring. |
I think, while we were all shattered, we'd all enjoyed our impromptu afternoon's activities, and as we headed to the house the heavens opened and the thunder came with it. We'd timed that well! Jill and Mike ran for the apartment, while Helen and I put the Geese back in their house - although they seemed quite happy standing in the rain, and rather less happy about going to bed early.
We still had no internet - it had been down for nearly 24 hours by this time, so I had to resort to calling Brad, the installer. It seems that the LNB is broken and has been the cause of our slowly degrading service over the last few weeks so another will be heading our way very soon by Italian post. (The LNB is the box on the end of the satellite dish, so it will be a case of a simple DIY swap and we should be back up and running - but we do have to wait for Poste Italiano to deliver it first!)
This meant that we would be without internet at least until the end of this week. In sheer desperation, we resorted to trying the old Telecom Italian router. It still works! For the first time since arriving here, we have actually benefited from the slow speed at which the Italians do things. The Telecom Italia internet service should have been cut off (and our bills reduced) weeks ago - so for now were not worrying about it!
So, thanks to Telecom Italia (didn't think I'd be saying those words), we are 'back in the game'!
The plan for tomorrow is to venture a bit further afield and get our walking boots on. The forecast is soggy, but hopefully we'll dodge most of it!
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