Burn baby, burn

We woke at 5.30am this morning as day was breaking – there are no curtains or shutters at any of the windows in the house, so when the sun decides it’s time to get up, there’s little you can do to avoid being disturbed by the stream of daylight. Of course, we put significant effort into trying to ignore it and go back to sleep, but eventually conceded defeat sometime around 7.30.

After a slow morning of breakfast and catching up on yesterday’s blog posting, we got ready to go out shopping – on the list for this morning’s shopping trip: vacuum bags for a Henry hoover, a garden incinerator, a strimmer, a gas lighter and a fly swat.

We were heading for ‘Obi’ – the Italian equivalent of B&Q which we knew was in a complex of shops on the outskirts of Montecatini Terme. Unfortunately, we didn’t know exactly where near Montecatini the place was, and thanks to some very ambiguous signage we took several wrong turns before we finally found our way there. That was frustrating, but it was on one of our many wrong turns that we stumbled across this stunning place – we’re not sure yet what it is/was, but it’s very beautiful:

This is where a wrong turn takes you!

 

We finally found Obi and soon found ourselves standing in the strimmer aisle facing a baffling array of different makes and models . As strimmer novices (we had an electric garden strimmer back at home, but nothing as heavy duty as the ones we were looking at here), we felt ill-equipped to make any informed decision. Of course, the fact that the labelling was in Italian didn’t help matters, but that was probably the least of our difficulties. We eventually decided on a middle-of-the-range petrol-powered model and were about to pick up the box when a helpful assistant interjected, horrified at our choice (apparently that one was ‘no good’), and instead guided us to a different model which he assured us was much, much better. It was roughly €20 more expensive, but still among the cheaper of the ones on offer.

So, strimmer in trolley (along with the essential safety  mask, petrol can and oil for the motor) we started to look for the other items on our list. Unfortunately, other than a fly swat, Obi was unable to help us with anything else, so we paid for our goods and headed back to the car.

Next, we tried Euronics for vacuum bags for the Henry hoover that we had inherited at the house. Euronics failed us there, as did another electrical shop (when we showed the shop assistant a photo of a Henry on my mobile phone to help with the description of what we were after, he looked gobsmacked – almost as if he had never seen a hoover with a face on it before…).

We also drove round and round (and round) trying to find shops selling hardware and/or garden supplies to attempt to find a garden incinerator, but again, the shop assistants we asked (and showed photographs to) seemed baffled by the idea of a container in which to safely set light to garden waste.

We did manage to pick up a gas lighter though - I should explain that we wanted one of these because the gas oven at the house seems rather temperamental in deciding whether or not to produce an ignition light. While cleaning the hob on Friday I managed to get electric shocks off the thing twice (despite having thought that it was disconnected from the mains) - it seems as though the whole thing is live, yet producing an ignition light is a hit-and-miss affair...



The voltage detector pen lights up when it nears the top of the oven.

Eventually it got to lunch time so we called time on our search for the elusive hoover bags and incinerator and retired to the house for a snack and the obligatory glass of wine (who am I kidding, the obligatory bottle of wine – well, it is still the weekend…).

Over lunch, inspiration came to Stuart: we could burn things in the concrete construction that looks like it was at one point a barbeque. So once the food and wine glasses were cleared away, I got busy with some weeding and Stuart got busy starting a fire.



Man at work.

 

The former barbeque ended up working very well as a means by which to dispose of tired and unwanted wooden furniture (er… and some shrubbery on the wall above it). 

The pile is slowly diminishing.

Once the burning was under control, Stuart got to grips with his latest toy power tool and set about strimming the tall grass that was growing in the middle of the track all the way along the drive and making a start on the garden area in front of the house.
 

New toy.

 

Man still at work.

 

Overall, it's been another tiring day - a little frustrating and somewhat less productive that I had been hoping for, but we there are some small improvements to show for it.

We both made the amateur mistake of working in the garden this afternoon without thinking to apply sunscreen.  With so much to get on with, we managed to completely overlook the fact that the sun was blazing down on us and even though it didn’t seem as if we were out in it for all that long ,we both have rather pink arms and shoulders. Won’t be doing that again, Factor 30 from now on.

Having said that, tomorrow is due to see a change in the weather, with some cooler temperatures coming in and some rain expected either tomorrow or Mon/Tue (it will almost be like being back in the UK!), so tomorrow may be a day for concentrating on the holiday apartment and on trying to get our website finished.