After an early breakfast, I headed out in the car to Pescia. That makes it twice this week that I've driven on my own and, with the exception of a bit of wheel spinning on the soggy drive (on both occasions), I've managed the drive quite happily. Hopefully this is the start of me no longer giving driving a second thought and being as comfortable with driving a car on the 'wrong' side of the road, with the steering wheel on the 'wrong' side of the car, and a car that's the size of a small bus, as I was driving my little C2 back in the UK.
I turned up at Sue's at about 8.30am. We were girls on a mission today: we were to visit the CUP and get me (at least) registered with a doctor/for healthcare, with the hopes that I might be able to get Stuart registered as well. Sue was coming along for moral support and better Italian comprehension/speaking.
Unlike the last time Stuart visited the CUP, back in September, it was all but empty when we walked in, and we went straight up to the counter. After whispering to Sue to ask what I needed to say, I strolled confidently up and said 'vorrei registrare per dottore'. The man behind the desk understood me, and asked to see my documents. That's when things started to get a bit complicated as I didn't already have a 'tessera sanitaria' (health card). I started pulling various bits and pieces of documentation out of my bag - the translated version of my UK freelance contract, my Italian national insurance registration, my tax registration... It all got a bit complicated, and Sue had to step in to help - I really don't think I could have managed it without her, nevertheless I was pleased to realise that I understood at least some of what was going on. In my somewhat flustered state, I managed to tell the man that Stuart was my wife (idiot!), which made us all laugh - I realised my mistake as soon as the word had come out of my mouth. The chap behind the desk was actually very friendly and joked with us as he went about his business of looking at papers, photocopying documents, talking to his colleague, talking on the telephone, and finally producing two pieces of paper: one showing my registration with a doctor in town and the other a photocopy mock-up of my tessera sanitaria - the actual card will come in the post within the next month, as it has to be processed and sent out from Rome.
When we'd done all that, we asked if I could also register Stuart. The man told us that he will need to come and register in person, but he gave me a form for him to fill in, so that when he does come, it should be a pretty straightforward process for him to get his tessera sanitaria (and register with a doctor) as well.
Phew, we walked out of the CUP feeling very pleased with ourselves and went to the café in the main square to celebrate with a cappucino each and a good long chat. It was great to have a proper catch-up with Sue - between school work, HelpX-ers, birthdays, visitors, Italian lessons and work, we've haven't really had the chance to talk properly for what feels like weeks, and it felt great to have a good old natter.
After our coffee, I left Sue in town then walked back to their house to pick up the car and drive home - stopping at Amanda's on the way to pick up some more bread.
I got home just in time for the HelpX gang's coffee break - they'd already shipped a load of wood from the donkey track down the drive ready for processing. I sat with them (and Stuart) on the patio, before they headed back off up the drive, Stuart headed back into the garden to carry on with the archway he has been building to go into the puppy-proof fence that will surround the garden, and I headed to the office to do some work.
Not long after that, it was time for lunch - today the weather was mild enough and dry enough for us to have lunch outside on the patio. Spicy carrot and lentil soup today - I think that's my favourite one so far!
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| Atmospheric misty views - at least the weather was dry and mild today! |
After a leisurely lunch, Tess, Nick and Kathryn headed back to their wood-collecting duties and Stuart went back to concreting in fence posts. There was nothing else for it but for me to head back to my office work.
After another hour though, I decided to put office work on hold in order to make the most of the remaining hour of daylight, and head back out up the terraces to continue the bramble clearing I'd started yesterday. I reasoned that I could come back to office work once it was too dark to work outside.
I therefore spent an hour with the hedge trimmers, rake and pitch fork, gradually making inroads on the brambles to widen the terraces above the house.
The hedge trimmers ran out of fuel at about the same time as the sky started to get a little darker, so that seemed like a good time to call it a day and pack up. Stuart was also packing up his tools at that point, so we headed indoors.
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| Stuart has grand plans of training jasmine to grow around the archway. |
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| I'm told that the horizontal pieces are just to hold it in place while the concrete sets... |
When we went in, I was thrilled to find that Tess had been up (after they had been stood down for the day) and done the washing up of the lunch dishes - what a star! Apparently the three of them had washed up all of the dishes from last night after they'd finished their breakfast this morning as well - talk about striking gold! Our wood pile v 2.0 is also really starting to take shape thanks to their hard work:
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| The beginnings of wood pile 2.0. |
After putting the geese to bed and calling the cats in, we settled down for the evening to write the blog, light a fire and prepare dinner (mushroom risotto this evening). I can't quite believe that Friday has nearly come around again - I don't know where this week has gone! Tomorrow we will be sorry to say farewell to Kathryn, who will be heading back to London where she starts a new job on Monday. We are also hoping to receive some more news on 'Jeremy' tomorrow so that we have an idea of when and where we will be able to collect him. We have already started preparing the cats for their new house mate by placing their food bowls out of puppy-reach on the work top that still exists in the office (this room was the original kitchen) - it's taking them a little getting used to, but they're getting there!
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| Slightly confused cats - they thought they weren't normally allowed on work tops... |
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