Anyway, back to the start of the day, which was decidedly chillier than the middle of the day.
The day started with all the usual animal-related chores and a chilly (4C) turbo training session, swiftly followed by a shower and breakfast before rounding up Stuart and Reggie to head into town - we had two important appointments on the agenda this morning: a meeting at the geometra's office at 10am, and an appointment with the vet for Reggie's vaccination at 10.30am.
Reggie waited in the car while we went into Andrea's office where he (Andrea, that is, not Reggie) presented us with three sets of plans (each in triplicate): one showing the house as it was originally, one showing the house as it is now, and one showing the two superimposed to indicate the 'non-regulation' changes that were made by our predecessors (one window was enlarged and another was added where it didn't exist previously). We then both had to sign each set of plans (in triplicate) as well as some other paperwork and were presented with a bill for €70 that we needed to take to the post office to pay and then return the receipt to Andrea. (Presumably this €70 is the payment we need to make to the comune for the privilege of subsequently being able to pay them €2000+ to get retrospective permission for the changes that our predecessors made. Sigh.) Andrea was keen for us to go straight to the post office (which is just yards from his office) and return the receipt to him when we'd done it, but we had to explain to him that we would have to do it later as we had an appointment to keep at the vet! He was fine with that, asked us which vet we were going to, and told us that Dr Orsi is a very good one (as we have now heard from several different sources, which was encouraging).
We therefore jumped back into the car and drove to Piazza Mazzini to park up and walk the short distance to the vet's surgery. Reggie was happy to walk into the place with us (the waiting room was empty), but a little less sure about walking into the consulting room when Dr Orsi invited us all in. Dr Orsi was lovely with Reggie - very gentle and he spoke to him very softly, as he could see that poor little Reggie was terrified. He soon resorted to the vets' trick of trying to coax Reggie into making friends with him by offering him some treats in his hand. Reggie was torn between wanting the treat and wanting to hide behind Stuart and me, but he eventually found a little courage and started taking treats from the vet's hand.
Dr Orsi asked us lots of questions about Reggie, examined him, weighed him (the heffalump is now 13kg!!) and declared him to be in good health. He gave Reggie the necessary jab (which didn't so much as make Reggie flinch) and made up a record card for him. We also discussed sterilization, diet, parasites, and registering him with the veterinary anagrafe (he is currently still registered in Puglia - which is not helpful when you live in Tuscany as the record systems are region-specific rather than national). Most of the conversation was in Italian, but reassuringly, Dr Orsi speaks excellent English (I also noted that many of his veterinary text books on his shelves were in English). He did switch to English when we struggled, which was helpful, although we tried to stick to Italian as much as possible.
We left the surgery feeling very happy with our choice of vet - Dr Orsi seems a very kind and sensible man - and while Reggie may not have enjoyed the entire experience, he did seem a little more relaxed by the time we left.
After that, we hot-footed it back to park outside Andrea's office once again and head into the post office. We decided to take Reggie out of the car with us this time, since his morning so far had mainly consisted of sitting in the car and being prodded by a strange man in a white coat. This meant that one of us needed to wait outside the post office while the other went in to pay the bill. I offered to go in, since I had the bill in my handbag, so Stuart and Reggie waited outside in the sunshine while I braced myself for a long wait in the post office. We could tell even before I went in that it was likely to be a long wait - the post office (which is a much larger, busier affair than our tiny post office in Pietrabuona) was busy with people waiting their turn. As we've mentioned before in this blog, at this branch you have to take a ticket, rather like you do at a deli counter in a supermarket, except there are four different ticketing systems and you have to specify what service you require to get the right number series (one has numbers preceded by an 'A', has numbers preceded by a 'C', one has numbers preceded by an 'E', and the last has numbers preceded by a 'P'). I duly pressed the 'I want to pay a bill' button and got my ticket: C0034.
Most people in there seemed to be sending or retrieving parcels (ticket numbers with the letter 'P') - not surprising I guess, at this time of year - while there were a few who seemed to be paying into/withdrawing money from savings accounts (the 'A's) and there were only two people ahead of me who were also paying bills. That didn't mean that I was served quickly though. The 'next ticket number please' machine seems to circulate through the different number series at random (it's probably not random, but that's how it felt). Eventually, after a maybe 20-30 minute wait, my number flicked up on the screen and I virtually sprinted to the cashier in case he thought I wasn't coming and pressed his 'next person please' button again. I quickly and easily paid the bill and went outside to reassure Reggie and Stuart that I hadn't done a runner out of the back of the building.
We walked the few yards back to Andrea's office, where I suggested that I hold Reggie while Stuart popped his head in to give Andrea the relevant pieces of paper to show that we'd paid the bill.
Once that was done, we took the very patient Reggie for his long overdue walk along the river.
While we were walking along the river, Reggie made a new friend - a little girl dog. Her owner (an older chap), along with what appeared to be a group of his friends (there were two other older men and a younger lady) started talking to us. This is nothing unusual - lots of people coo over Reggie, ask whether he's male or female, how old he is, and we inevitably remark that he's 'molto timido' (very scared/shy) when he backs away from them. On this occasion, it seemed that his playful little female friend was enough to distract Reggie from the fact that he was standing amongst a group of four tall strangers, and he and the other dog played joyfully while we chatted. When they realised we were not from round these parts, two of the older men started speaking in remarkably good English. Without wanting to generalise... I'm going to do exactly that: it usually tends to be the younger generations that speak English and the older generations that don't know any at all, so it was a surprise to hear such good English coming from these two slightly older gents. They told us that they were hatching a plan for a 'dog wall' (yes, that's wall not walk) along the river in Pescia. The idea is that they will stick up photographs of (local) people's dogs on this 'dog wall' - I think they said next spring/summer - and they invited us to take part. We gave them our email address so that they could send us more information and chatted at some length with this friendly group of dog lovers before eventually heading off with our respective dogs.
After that, we headed back to the car, already hearing the church bells chiming 12pm. We couldn't quite believe the whole morning had gone, but at least we felt as if we had done some useful jobs.
As it was near enough lunch time when we got home, Stuart whipped up some tuna sandwiches and we ate, sitting in glorious sunshine on the patio. Granted I was wearing jeans, a thick jumper and two layers under it, but it really did feel warm! It was a beautiful day.
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| Still speaking to us after his trip to the vet. |
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| Soaking up the sunshine. |
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| The perfect warm spot. |
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| December blue skies. |
It was a struggle to motivate myself to head indoors to the gloomy office after that, but I needed to get on with some work, so that's where I headed while Stuart and Reggie spent a little while longer soaking up the vitamin D.
Stuart busied himself in the afternoon with, amongst other things: turning over the compost in the three-bin composting station, constructing a feline safety ramp that runs from the sideboard to the stairs so that the cats will feel that they can safely run upstairs without having to negotiate 'barky-four-paws' on the way, and bringing more firewood into the house.
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| Is it a plank, is it a slide?... |
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| ...No, it's a Heath Robinson feline safety ramp! |
After Reggie and I had walked to the end of the drive to check the post box, and Stuart and I had put the geese to bed, we all retired indoors and, under Stuart's instruction, I lit my first fire in the log burner. Of course, I can't really take credit, as the whole process was closely overseen by Stuart, but I was pleased that it roared into life quite quickly, and it only took a matter of a couple of minutes before the fan on top of the fire started to spin. With any luck I'll be a dab hand at it in no time.
We ended the day with a glass of wine (well, it is nearly Christmas) by the fire. A satisfying day.
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