It's curtains for the bugs

One of us woke up at 4.30am this morning. Rather surprisingly, it wasn't me for a change. Having woken up and gone to use the bathroom, poor Stuart was then unable to get back to sleep because he started, and couldn't stop, thinking about fly screens and how to make them. Eventually he threw the towel in and got up at around 5.15am to go downstairs and read his book (not about fly screens).

I hauled myself out of bed at around 6.30 to do some running up and down the drive by way of exercise, then it was back to the house for shower, breakfast and booting up the computer. We each spent about an hour working - me doing office work and Stuart continuing with his tidying and doing some measuring up - before heading out for a trip to Obi and the Comune office.

As we were driving towards Obi, Stuart asked me if I would like to go to Decathlon (a large sports store for those who are unfamiliar) to get an exercise mat. Would I heck! Yes!!! Despite having acres of land here, there are precious few spots that are suitable for doing any exercise that involve putting any part of the body on the ground. Most of the flatter areas are gravelled (so burpees/planks/press-ups are too painful on the hands) and the only non-gravelled flat bit is either concrete (not so comfortable for lying on to do abs) or grass mixed with gravel (and wildlife). A mat will thus help to make my exercises more varied.

I'd never been into a Decathlon before. Oh wow. I was like a kid in a sweet shop. But like a kid in a sweet shop who's been told they aren't allowed any sweets. It was torturous wandering round looking at all the shiny things and knowing that I no longer have the available funds to indulge in buying exercise clothes, trainers (they even had women's trainers in my size for goodness sake!!) and gadgets.

Still, I put on a brave face and headed for the mats. Found one at a reasonable price and ... oops, next to them were a range of rather pretty-looking kettlebells. I think Stuart must have been feeling sorry for me not having bought any new toys since we arrived (while he's had a strimmer, a hedge cutter, a saw...) and he suggested I get one. Well, you can't have one kettlebell can you? I left the shop with a mat, two kettlebells, oh and a pair of walkie talkies!

The only problem now is that I have less of an excuse when I fail to crack my exercise regime.

You may wonder why on earth we bought walkie talkies - could it be so that Stuart could bark 'go faster', 'jump higher' instructions at me from the comfort of the sofa while I run around exercising outside? No. That would be silly and quite uncalled for. No, the walkie talkies are an idea Stuart came up with the other day to get around the problem of communicating with each other when we are in different parts of the house/garden/land. For example, when one person is in the apartment and the other is in the house, there is no quick way of signalling anything to them (e.g if there's a phone call for them). Likewise, if one is strimming at the end of the drive, that's a whole long way to go to ask a question or let them know dinner's ready (or to yell for help if there's an unwanted piece of wildlife in the house). With no mobile signal here, walkie talkies seemed like an ideal solution, if a little bizarre. What struck me as more bizarre though, was why Decathlon were selling walkie talkies (what sport are they for?).

Anyway, enough of that. We next arrived at Obi, looking for materials with which to construct fly screens for the windows. There are no end of flying things here - some of them bite, some of them don't, but all of them are annoying when they are inside the house rather than outside where they are meant to be. We've holidayed in a number of places over here before that have a frame with a fine mesh across it at the window - meaning that you can happily fling the windows open, safe in the knowledge that it'll be very difficult for those biting nasties to get in. Until now we haven't opened any of the windows in the house for fear of letting creepy crawlies in. There is also still a layer of secondary glazing in each window that the previous owners put in for the winter months. With the house starting to warm up inside, it won't be long before it's unbearable not to have windows open, so getting some fly protection was high on our list of priorities.

We looked at the special kits sold for creating exactly these screens and added up the cost of all the different elements (aluminium for frames, rubber bits, corners, mesh..) and calculated that it would cost around €40 per window (we have six). We then looked at the possibility of Stuart constructing something himself with some pieces of wood for the frame and stapling the mesh onto the frame. We decided this would be a lot cheaper IF he could make it work, so bought the bits he needed and kept our fingers crossed it would work.

We also left Obi with a new curtain pole, a fine mesh curtain to hang at the front door to keep bugs out when the door is open, and a new toilet seat.

Next stop was Pescia town centre to visit the comune office to attempt to find out what we need for our application for residency. We duly went into the office, were directed to the basement, and stood in a queue for what seemed like ages. When it eventually came to our turn, we (I say 'we', I mean Stuart) told the rather unimpressed-looking man behind the desk that we wanted to apply for residency. Without even a hint of a smile (this man really should take some notes from smiley guy at the bank) the man gabbered back at us in Italian at high speed, leaving us floundering. I'm not sure that he really did sigh, but he definitely gave the impression of someone who was utterly fed up with these stupid English people standing in front of him, and not particularly interested in helping us. He seemed to be saying that we would need a translator for the appointment that we would need to make in order to register our request for residency. He also waved a piece of paper in front of us that had a list of the requirements (documents etc.) for said appointment, but then snatched it away again and put it back in its pile. We conceded defeat at that point, but Stuart did manage to ask him to give us the piece of paper so that we could take it away and start to decipher it. I'd say that was the first time we've felt any less than welcome. In the man's defence, there had been a long queue of people before us, and more in the queue after us, and it was nearly lunchtime, so maybe he was just a bit tired and hungry.

By the time we got home it was nearing lunchtime, so we had an early lunch (outside, although it wasn't ultra-warm), then we each went back to our respective posts to work the afternoon through.

While I was hard at office work all afternoon, Stuart was being busy, busy!

By the time I stood up to stretch my legs mid-afternoon, he had put up the new curtain rail, hung the fly-screen-curtain at the door, and started work on the window fly screens.

Thin mesh curtain to keep flying things out.

Now, about a week ago, I mentioned on this blog that my husband has a problem with spending small change, and instead, hoards it - like this:

This makes me want to scream.

Well, I have an apology to make to my dear husband. Just look at the ingenious (and not unattractive) system he found for weighting the bottom of the mesh curtain:

Genius.

He really was on a roll today. A couple of hours later he had completed the first two of our anti-fly mesh screens for the windows:

Just look at the craftsmanship.

You'd never know they weren't the 'real' thing.

A short while later, they were fitted at the two windows in our bedroom and we were able to fling the bedroom windows open for the first time since we arrived. We calculated that each frame had cost roughly €6 to make - as opposed to the €40 it would have cost using the specially designed kit. What a clever husband I have!

Fresh air, sans bugs!

By the time all that was done, it was getting on for 6.30pm - time to have a break and enjoy the evening sunshine on the patio for 20 minutes. It's been a strange day, weather-wise, today - at times it has felt very cool, and at others really quite warm. The day ended with sunshine and blue skies, but a fair breeze and feeling quite fresh.

So things are starting to come together in the house and we have some familiarity and comfort at last.

Recognise that curtain?

We've almost got the living room straight.

As Stuart mentioned, the 'office cave' (which will double up as a second spare bedroom) is still a long way off being tidy though - we need to buy storage solutions to sort out this mess!

We're a while away from being able to have guests to stay in this room, but we'll get there soon!

Our weather app says there is an 80% chance of rain tomorrow, so that might cheer some of you up in the wet gloomy UK. Forecasts seem to be even more hit-and-miss than back in the UK here though - we are in such a position in the valley that it can be fine in one place and raining just 5 minutes up or down the road, so we'll see what tomorrow brings.