Taking stock

Sitting here on Wednesday morning with a thick fuzzy head, I'm struggling to remember what happened yesterday.

From memory, I woke up fairly late again - around 9am-9.30am, having made the decision a few days ago that my alarm is not going to get any use this side of 2015. Of course, by then, Helen had already been out, taken Reggie to the toilet, fed the cats and the dog, let the geese out, emptied the dehumidifier in the apartment and even started some work.

We were expecting Dr Minetti, the geologist, to arrive towards the end of the morning today to do whatever it is that geologists do when checking that it's safe to build with regards to seismic activity. 

That tied us to the house for the morning, so Helen busied herself with office work as per usual and I busied myself with a book ('The Moneyless Manifesto' by Mark Boyle) and a puppy.

After lunch time had come and gone, we decided that Dr Minetti had missed his chance and we went into town to walk the dog and pay a kind of council tax - which was due today.

Of course, we knew when we went out at just after 2pm that it was right in the middle of lunch time, but we thought that by the time we'd walked Reggie around town, the shops would be opening again. So, after an extensive walk around the streets of Pescia, it was 3pm and we found just one tabaccheria open - at the top of the main square. I went into the shop and queued in line to pay while Helen stood outside with Reggie. When I finally got to the front of the queue though, I was told that I couldn't pay the bill as it wasn't in my name. So I went out, and Helen went in, while I held Reggie outside. She queued in line, until it was eventually her turn to be served - at which point the man told her that he could only take payment in cash. So out she came, relieved me of another €60 to add to her €50 in cash, then she traipsed back into the shop to queue up once again. When she finally got to the front of the queue again, she was asked for her codice fiscale (fiscal code), a signature and a telephone number before finally - after almost half and hour of to-ing and fro-ing - being able to hand over the money and walk away with a receipt. Poor Reggie waited patiently but must have been wondering what on earth was going on in that shop!

When we'd finally sorted the bill out, we headed home to light the fire that so far we'd put off doing until after the geologist had been and we'd been out to pay the bill.

The fire didn't get much of a chance to heat the house today though, as at 5pm we were heading out again - Helen has her weekly Italian lesson with Sue, and I'd offered to help Chris with a website and Henry with Excel for a test he was having at school today.

Sue had kindly offered to cook us a sausage casserole for dinner after she and Helen got back from their Italian lesson, so it turned into a lovely relaxed evening (Reggie came along too - he's starting to think the Phillipses is his second home!) of delicious food, wine, and taking stock of the last seven months as we end towards to end of the year and into the thick of our first winter here.

We got home just before the car turned into a pumpkin (about 11.45pm), put Reggie to bed (he went to sleep without a single complaint after his late night), and we subsequently crashed out ourselves after giving the cats some TLC in the bedroom.

An unremarkable day by our standards - for my part at least. There isn't a huge amount I feel I can get my teeth into this close to Christmas without causing disruption at a time when we should be slowing down - or at least that's what I'm telling myself, as I sit here struggling to find some motivation.