The heat has taken its toll on poor Reggie as well - on Monday he didn't get a walk because it was just too hot, and he spent the entire day lying on the kitchen floor tiles looking dozy. Come bed time, however, he found a sudden spurt of energy as it started to cool down slightly outside and was most put out at having to go to bed. He let us know in no uncertain terms that he was hot and uncomfortable in his crate - by whining continually. Eventually, at around 12.30am, Stuart stomped downstairs and dragged Reggie's crate from the office to the living room - which at least would give us peace of mind that he had less chance of disturbing our guests' sleep (the office - Reggie's usual bedroom - is above the bedroom in the apartment) even if we didn't get any peace ourselves. Much to our relief, after Stuart had taken the foam mattress out of the crate and put Reggie back to bed with a very firm hand, we didn't hear another peep from him all night.
You could hardly blame the poor puppy for whingeing though - we're all hot and irritable and he hadn't had any outlet for his energy all day. Anyway, first thing on Tuesday morning, getting the distinct impression from Stuart that Reggie was well and truly in the dog house again, I decided to take matters into my own hands and instead of heading to my usual exercise station I got Reggie harnessed up and set out on an hour-long walk up the road towards Vellano in the relative cool of the early (7am) morning. This was my first solo walk with Reggie, and I enjoyed it - I like to think that he did too. He still wasn't flavour of the month with Stuart when we got home, but at least I knew he'd had a good walk, which should (in theory) help with his behaviour through the day. In the event, our guests told us that they hadn't heard anything anyway!
Tuesday brought us some great news: the Phillipses were back in town! They decided to call in on us in the evening to catch up and take (re)possession of the (new) terrapin - so come 6.30pm the entire Phillips family arrived, looking fresh and relaxed from their holiday with tales of snorkelling, swimming, reading, visiting strange Croatian music festivals, and a wonderful-sounding stop-off in Venice on the way back home. It was great to see them all and to have a really good catch up. We had fessed up about the demise of the terrapin to Sue ahead of their arrival, and she had told Erik - who seemed happy enough with the replacement Terry/Terri, so that was a relief. In the end, a couple of drinks turned into an entire evening and sharing some dinner together - well, after three weeks away, we weren't going to let them escape that quickly!
Another benefit of the Phillips's visit was that Reggie got plenty of opportunity to gallivant around the garden in the cool(er) evening air while we all sat outside, and he even got some play time with Henry and Erik - so by the time we put him to bed, he was well and truly pooped and if he'd had a pillow I think he would have been asleep before his head hit it.
Yesterday it was Stuart's turn to take Reggie for a walk, although by the time they headed out it was mid-morning and already hotting up. We wanted to make sure he had a good walk yesterday as we knew we would be out in the evening, leaving him home alone - so the plan was for Stuart to take him down to the river in Pescia where he can run around off the lead and where there are plenty of opportunities for him to paddle and splash around in the shallow bits of the river to cool off. However, that plan fell through when Reggie refused to get in the car, so instead the pair of them walked up the road to Vellano again.
The rest of yesterday was taken up with work as usual for me, and for Stuart - his only non-working (as in working for someone else) day of the week this week - he headed out on errands to procure a new ball cock for our toilet (in an attempt to stop the cistern from constantly filling) and to collect our new mattress which was ready in Montecatini.
Before we knew it, though, it was time to prepare ourselves for going out and the animals for staying in, home alone. Many months ago, we spotted that Paolo Nutini was on the line-up for this year's Lucca Summer Music Festival, and Stuart's Mum and brother had kindly bought Stuart two tickets for his birthday. Stuart was kind enough to choose me to take with him, so we had a concert to get to! We'd discovered last week that David and Sarah also had tickets for the concert, so we'd arranged to go together and they were picking us up at 6pm.
We duly changed, fed the cats, made sure they were safely shut in the bedroom (in case Reggie were somehow to make it past the somewhat wobbly stair gate and up the stairs), and gave Reggie a juicy bone to get his teeth into before we escaped the house.
We had a really lovely evening. Once in Lucca, we first went to find the box office to collect David & Sarah's tickets, before decamping to the courtyard of a quiet restaurant down a side street and relaxing over some shared pizzas and beers. Before we knew it (the surroundings were lovely, the food delicious, but the service a little on the slow side), the time was marching on for 9pm so we made our way back to the small square where the concerts are held.
The evening's performance started with a set by the Alabama Shakes. We'd only discovered their music a few months ago (knowing that they were on the same bill as Paolo Nutini, we'd got their album - actually another birthday present, from my parents to Stuart this time - to see what they were all about), and loved it straight away. Seeing them perform live was amazing - the lead singer has the most incredible (and powerful) voice and the most engaging stage presence, it was just brilliant. We were all transfixed, and by the time the Alabama Shakes came to the end of their set, we agreed that Paolo Nutini actually had rather a lot to live up to!
There was a short wait while the stage was prepared for the main act, but before long the crowd were cheering and, bam, there was Paolo Nutini singing live on stage in front of us and maybe only about 3,000 other people! His concert was every bit as brilliant as we had expected, and what a treat to see and listen to such fantastic performances in the intimate venue of the Napoleon Square in Lucca, bats swooping overhead, gelato shops open around the perimeter and a wonderful happy atmosphere. Even at 11pm the temperature hadn't dropped below 30+C, which certainly made standing for 3+ hours something of a challenge, but for the ladies in the crowd the plus-side of this was that Paolo Nutini decided to strip off his shirt and perform in a vest. Can't say I blame him - as I slowly melted in the heat, I questioned my decision to wear a pair of linen trousers rather than sticking with shorts.
I really can't recommend the Lucca Music Festival highly enough - other acts that have been on this year or who are coming in the next week or two include: Bob Dylan, John Legend, Los Lobos, The Script, Billy Idol, Elton John, Lauryn Hill, Mark Knopfler, Robbie Williams, Lenny Kravitz and Snoop Dog (yes, Snoop Dog). All really big names who must be more accustomed to playing to tens of thousands of people in the huge stadiums around the world rather than the 3,000 or so in this lovely little square in this beautiful Tuscan city. It seems that the square is open to everyone throughout the afternoon of each concert, and if you time it right, you can be there to listen to the sound checks for each artist (indeed, when we arrived to go to the box office, the Alabama Shakes were just finishing up their sound check), and non-ticket holders only get asked to leave a little ahead of the time of the gates opening. Even during the concert itself, there were plenty of bars and restaurants on the perimeter of the square that were packed with people enjoying a meal with live entertainment. It certainly made us (well, me) consider going back in over the next few days to catch a bit of Elton, Robbie or Lenny from afar!
By the time Paolo had finished his 3rd(?) encore and left the stage for good, it was past midnight, so we hot-footed (literally, we were all roasting) it back to the car. None of this queuing to get out of a performance venue that you'd get in any of the huge stadiums, we were straight out and back to the car and on our way within 10 minutes. By the time David and Sarah dropped us off it was getting towards 1am. Poor David and Stuart were due to report for work in Vellano at 7am this morning, so it was a quick goodbye and thank you to them for a lovely evening and for driving us, before turning in for bed. Definitely an evening to remember.
===Goose news====
(As requested by Rose H, but others might also be wondering):
The news on the geese is that, well, there isn't really any news. Mrs G seems happy enough to get up, stretch her legs, have a splash about in the pool, a bite to eat and a drink of her own accord these days, so we have largely left them to their own devices. We do go up every day(ish) to check the nest, but so far the eggs are still eggs, no sign of the patter of tiny feet. Of course, it could well be that the eggs are all duds and there won't be any tiny feet, but we're continuing to monitor the situation for the time being.
No comments:
Post a Comment