Where does the time go?

I just love it when the weekend rolls around - that sense of release knowing that, as it's the weekend, you're allowed to sleep a bit longer, stay up a bit later, spend time doing things that aren't entirely work or chore focused, and generally take life at an easier pace.

Of course Lucca started clawing at the mattress to put his breakfast order in at a ridiculous time of the morning (I think I caved it at around 5.40am this morning), but after that he let us sleep on and I didn't actually get out of bed until about 7.45am. I still went to do my morning's exercise, but it was altogether easier with an extra hour's sleep under my belt AND the knowledge that once I'd finished, the day was our own, rather than being tied to a computer screen.

After I'd showered, changed and we'd both had breakfast, we decided it was time to go out and complete a whole list of errands, not least of which would be paying the Telecom Italia bill. We almost put the trip off until the afternoon as the heavens opened while we were getting ready, but we decided we would risk getting rained on.

Our first stop was Pescia - since Saturday is market day, we parked in a car park opposite the old flower market. All of the shops we wanted to visit were on that street in any case.

We noticed as we walked through town that the rioni flags have gone up. The rioni are the four quarters of the town (Rione Santa Maria in the south east part of town, Rione San Michele in the south west, Rione San Francesco in the north east and Rione Ferraia in the north west). Rather like Siena, Pescia has a palio. This one doesn't involve horses, but it does involve competitive flag throwing between the four quarters of the town. The palio is on next weekend - and we are hoping to get down and experience some of it - and it looks like the town is already preparing for it.

The flags of Rione San Michele.

Our first and most pressing errand was to pay the previous owners' outstanding telephone bill, so we went straight into a tabaccheria and paid the bill. (When we last checked the telephone still wasn't working, but we might need to fax them the receipt to prove that we've paid the bill, which is a job for tomorrow/Monday.)

Next, we went into the tiny toy shop that we first visited several weeks ago in search of a couple of keyrings for the apartment keys. On that occasion, the owner had asked if we were on holiday and when we explained that we were living in the area he had produced a loyalty card - the type where you collect a stamp each time you buy something, and when you've filled the card you get a discount, or a free something (to be honest I'm not entirely sure what!). Anyway, at that time, I thought how nice it was that he'd done that, but that we were pretty unlikely to go into his shop again to collect any more stamps. How wrong could I be? Both Kerys and Ben made purchases in the shop when they were staying, and today we collected another three stamps as I bought small gifts for my nephew and nieces. I reckon that by the time we've done a bit of Christmas shopping we'll have filled the entire card!

Talking of nieces and nephews, today is my dear nephew Joseph's 10th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Joseph!!! I visited Joseph in hospital on the day he was born (not arriving until the evening, and not having long to get to know him on that day, but it was a day I'll never forget), and for most of his birthdays since then I've managed to get to see him, if not on the day itself then certainly at the weekend closest to it. So it felt strange today, knowing that all of my Bristol/Glocs family would be celebrating and I couldn't be there. I hope that he had a fantastic day.

Anyway, after the toy shop, we popped into a picture framing shop with a bag full of pictures we wanted to get framed. There was a lovely poster-style present from my sister that she gave me for my birthday, the beautiful watercolour that our first apartment guests had left for us, and a photograph of the rolling Tuscan hills that we had bought in San Gimignano on our honeymoon (two years ago!). The man in the shop had a smattering of English and between us we very easily chose the mounts and frames - he then told us they would be ready around mid-week next week, and bade us farewell (without taking our name, number, a deposit or anything!).

Three jobs ticked off the list, we headed back to the car. The next challenge was to attempt to find a shop that sells the Lycamobile SIM cards that Stuart had researched and worked out were a FAR more cost-effective and fair way of operating a pay-as-you-go mobile than our current Vodafone tariff. We'd used the Lycamobile website to search for retail outlets in our area and it had come up with several in Montecatini Terme, so we'd printed out a map and headed for our ritual weekend trip to Montecatini.

We're getting pretty good at this now, and managed to navigate to exactly where we wanted to be. We parked the car and did the rest of the journey on foot. Sure enough, we came to a tiny lotto-come-tabbacheria-come-off-licence shop with a Lycamobile sign in the window. We went in and asked to buy a SIM and the woman behind the counter didn't bat an eyelid, just asked for our documents (passport), which she photocopied, then handed us the SIM for the grand total cost of €5. Seemed way too easy!

We walked back to the car, and then headed off in the direction of the retail park - it's been a few weeks since we last paid a visit to Obi, so I'm sure we were both having withdrawal symptoms. However, it wasn't Obi we were heading for. Instead we paid our second visit to Decathlon, the Aladdin's cave of a sports shop. There's something about the rubbery smell of new trainers/swimming hats/tennis rackets/bikes that I find intoxicating and that shop has it in bucketloads! In my new life as a cash poor farmer/editor though, I had to stay focused ('do NOT look at the fitness equipment, do NOT look at the trainers, do NOT look at the pretty sports clothes....') - we were there for one reason only: bikes. I'd decided a couple of weeks ago that I would use the money that my family and friends had so generously given me for my birthday to buy us a pair of 'pub bikes' - relatively inexpensive mountain bikes that we can hop onto to cycle down the road to the local shops or a little further into town maybe to visit a bar or friends (hello Phillipses :-)). We'd had a couple of discussions over how much we should spend on said 'pub bikes' and in the end Stuart capitulated and the two bikes came in bang on budget. Whether I will live to regret not having put a bit of extra cash towards buying slightly higher spec bikes remains to be seen - I know for certain that I will never be able to utter a word of complaint about these bikes within earshot of my husband - but my reasoning is that we already have higher spec road bikes for longer days out on the bikes, and these are only meant for short trips into town and back...

Anyway, as we wheeled the two bikes out of the Decathlon shop to the car, I felt very excited - it felt like having an old friend back in my life. Bizarrely the difference between a mountain bike and a road bike really does make that much difference to me!

Oooh, pretty!

Stuart had brought some tools with him in case we needed to take the front wheels off the bikes, but our amazing 182 bus was plenty big enough to fit both bikes in, fully intact.

Two bikes? NO problem!

The final stop for the morning's run of tasks was to visit the Euronics shop in the same retail complex as Decathlon. I realised recently that when we go to the States next month for the VB conference, I won't have access to my emails and other important information, as I work with a desktop PC rather than a laptop. After giving it some thought we decided that buying a tablet PC would be a good solution - and, importantly, one that should be tax-deductible at that. We thus went into the Euronics shop, picked a mid-priced tablet and asked a chap in the shop if we could please buy it. The guy was wearing a badge with a union jack background and the words 'I speak English'. We still spoke Italian to him (who am I kidding Stuart still spoke Italian to him, while I wished I had the confidence to do so), but when we got a bit stuck he switched to English. Turned out he had spent 6 months in London working in a bar and a steakhouse in the Paddington area, and kept saying how much he loves London. We politely agreed with him, but we were both thinking we'd rather be here than in London any day!

All purchases safely loaded into the car, it was finally time to head home - by this time it was nearing 1.30pm and lunch was definitely overdue! It was wet again by the time we got home, so outdoor dining was off the menu. Instead, we had our spread of cured meats, cheese and bread on the sofa watching a documentary (thanks iPlayer) about a guy who had been held as a prisoner of war in Auschwitz. Pretty sobering stuff, and an incredible story.

After lunch, we felt the need (or I did, at least) to go and do something 'useful', so we headed out in the car to look for a place Stuart had found online that sells portable gas fires - we've decided that, while it would be lovely, putting a log burner into the apartment would be just too difficult (based on where the flue would have to be places) and expensive, but there are some quite attractive portable gas fires that we could just stick a gas bottle into for whenever the apartment is occupied in the cooler months. We also wanted to have a look in an agraria (agricultural shop/garden centre) to see if we could find some fence posts and chicken wire for constructing the fence for Goose Island.

First, we navigated our way to the road where the good old internet had said the gas fire shop was. Hmm. There was nothing even vaguely commercial on the street, just a lot of residential houses. Whether the shop has moved, or maybe even no longer exists, we're not sure, but we're sure it isn't on the road we thought it was on!

Next we headed for the large agraria near to Santa Lucia - we've driven past it several times, and it always looks very promising in terms of the range of items it sells... but it turns out that it's closed on Saturday afternoons. Hmm. We then decided to head for Borgo a Buggiano, where there was another agraria Sue had suggested might sell what we were looking for - but, yes, it too was closed on Saturday afternoon.

We headed home, tails between our legs. Although we had wasted time and fuel driving around, I reasoned that on the bright side, we had found out that the gas fire shop isn't where we thought it was and we had found all of the agricultural shops, so would know where to come when they are open...

By the time we got home it was getting on for 5.30pm. I have no idea where the time went today, and I look around the house and wonder when on earth I'm going to have a day when I say 'I know, I'll do a bit of cleaning today...' rather than the fire-fighting type of cleaning that happens at the moment!

Anxious to make some productive use of the day, I decided to head out with the power tools and rakes and clear some more of Goose Island, while Stuart opted to tinker with the new bikes, tweaking the gears, fitting mud guards and so on.

I strimmed and sawed and chopped and raked until the light started fading and there was a distinct autumnal smell in the air. I headed back to the house after deciding the light was no longer good enough to properly see what I was doing (especially with the visor on which kept steaming up). Stuart was just packing up his bike maintenance tools as well, and the cats were going potty in desperation for someone to give them their dinner. I was shocked to see that it was 8.25pm!!

So as Stuart finished tidying up outside, I went in for a shower then he started dinner while I started writing this blog. If I've timed it right, my mushroom and pancetta risotto should be just about ready just about now. It certainly smells delicious.

It'll be a late night tonight (not eating before 10.15pm!), but there will be no alarm clocks tomorrow morning and the chance to have a proper lie-in. Weather permitting we might cycle into town on our mountain bikes for a coffee. How civilised!