Feeling cosy

After a late night last night, it was a late morning for everyone today. Despite my alarm going off, I didn't fully come-to until about 20 minutes later when Lucca and Florence started up their morning protest about having no food left in their bowls. So I got up, fed the cats, took Reggie outside, fed him, emptied the dehumidifier in the apartment and opened up the goose house, before collecting my bits and pieces for a session on the turbo trainer.

Having had such a late start, I didn't finish my exercise session until 9am and, after showering, changing the cat litter, emptying the bins and taking Reggie outside again, it was 10am before I was sitting down with my bowl of cereal and booting up the computer.

It wasn't long after that that I thought I heard the sound of a car pull up outside. Sure enough, Reggie started barking, and Stuart went outside to find the geologist had arrived to drill some holes in our drive and take some samples away. Apparently he apologised for not having come yesterday - on account of the rain. After Stuart had made him a cup of coffee (and brought it into me to check that I thought it was small enough to be the way Italians like it before presenting it to him), he and his colleague went about their business - much to Reggie's consternation. There was much barking at all the noises and voices he could hear from outside.

As midday drew close, I reminded Stuart that we needed to go to the post office to collect a parcel that was waiting there for me. As we were also waiting in for a re-delivery by DHL (who had 'tried' to deliver to us yesterday, but since we weren't standing at the gate at the exact time at which they arrived, they had concluded that we 'weren't in' and had said that they would re-attempt delivery today after 11am), Stuart offered to go to the post office while I waited at the house in case DHL turned up or phoned.

15 minutes or so later, Stuart returned, empty-handed. He said the post office was busy, so he'd come back to collect the empty gas bottles and get them re-filled at Frateschi's before trying the post office again. After another 20 minutes or so, he returned again - this time with a new gas bottle, but still no parcel. He said the post office was still busy, so he'd try again later. By this time, it was getting on for 1pm and since the post office closes at around 1.30pm, I offered to go down myself as I knew I would have more patience to stand in the queue and wait.

So I hopped in the car and trundled down the road, where I found just two people in the queue at the post office. I waited my turn, then presented the chap behind the desk with the little official note that had been left on our door, bearing a consignment number and all the details. He studied it briefly then looked up and asked when it had been left. I said yesterday, then corrected myself to say it was actually Monday. He disappeared off into the back room, muttering something about there not being anything, but came back with a small box in his hand. He then rattled something else off - it seemed there was some sort of problem somewhere - whether it was that the number on the form didn't match the number on the parcel or what, I've no idea, but he spent ages punching things into his computer and muttering things to me that I simply couldn't understand. It seems that trips to the post office are not helpful to my morale - I always seem to come away on the verge of tears feeling frustrated and ignorant for my lack of ability to understand and communicate. Anyway, thankfully he did finally seem satisfied with all of his paperwork, asked me to sign (twice) for the parcel and handed it to me.

I got back in the car feeling fragile and deflated, but my mood was marginally uplifted when I realised that the package was the anti-stress supplements that I'd ordered for the cats to help them through the stress of adjusting to a dog in the house (and the added stress of having a second dog here for the week next week). After having ordered them, the confirmation email had told me not to bother expecting them to arrive for another two weeks from now, so it was a relief to receive them now - I hope they have some positive and calming effects!

By the time I got home, it was nearly 1.30pm, so we sat down for a lunch of hummus and boiled eggs - the last of the ones we'd collected from Sue's chickens last week - before I went back to the office for an hour or so's more work.

When it reached 4pm and there had been no sign of (nor call from) the courier, we decided we would have to go out anyway - Reggie needed his walk, and we wanted to call in at the vet's to try and arrange for him to have the booster jab that we'd been told he would need on 20th December.

So, after putting the geese to bed and rounding up the cats, Stuart, Reggie and I piled into the car and headed down the road. It wasn't until we were the other side of Pietrabuona that I realised we hadn't remembered to bring the paperwork that showed the vaccinations he'd already had, so once we reached San Lorenzo we did an about-turn and headed back up the hill to home so that I could dash in, pick up the paperwork and dash back out again.

When we finally made it to Pescia, we parked up in the main square and left Reggie in the car while we popped into the vet's to ask about getting him his jab. The vet said he could do it tomorrow morning - so that, along with a visit to Andrea's office to sign the paperwork for the 'amnesty' payment will be tomorrow morning taken care of!

We then retrieved Reggie from the car and walked around town for half an hour or so before heading back up the hill. The house felt positively cosy when we opened the door - the fire had been blazing for a few hours and had done its job of heating up the house very nicely. Even though the weather isn't particularly cold at the moment, it's amazing the difference it makes being able to walk into a warm house.

We then settled down to write the blog, wash up, prepare dinner and play referee between Lucca and Reggie - the cats starting to feel a little more bold and venturing downstairs seems to be just a little too much for Reggie to cope with in a controlled manner and things soon descend into chaos and trauma for the poor cats. Will we get there eventually with Reggie and the cats?? I hope so!