The plan for today had changed somewhat, due to unforeseen vehicle-related circumstances. Getting the car looked at was now number one priority, and yet again the geese were put on hold. (Sigh.)
After yesterday's six-and-a-half-hour non-stop strim-a-thon, I slept like the dead last night and snoozed my new alarm clock for over an hour - way beyond the start of Helen's workout. Once I was up, I emailed Sue to ask for the number of the nice mechanic that had helped them out a while back, to see if I could get the ball rolling.
After breakfast, I took the keys to the car to try it one last time before trying to call someone out to look at it - I didn't want to look like a fool for dragging someone up here and it starting straight away. It was a good job I did try it, as that is exactly what happened! While this was great news in some respects, Helen and I had both actually been hoping that it wouldn't start, as that would have an easily identifiable problem for a mechanic to spot ('the car doesn't start') and attempt to rectify. Instead, what we faced now was the task of attempting to explain that, while the car starts some of the time, some other times it won't start, and that we know it isn't a problem with the battery because that is new, that the starter motor turns over happily but the engine won't start - and on top of that, that when driving it, it sometimes gets a bit jerky as if we've filled up with kangaroo juice instead of methane. Quite a mouthful, and certainly way beyond our Italian language skills.
For now though, we needed to concentrate on the last few jobs that needed finishing to get the apartment ready for guests. Having thought we would be car-less this morning, we had downgraded our previously planned supermarket shopping trip to a trip instead to Amanda's alimentari (by bicycle) for the bare essentials to go into the guests' welcome pack: bread and milk. Although we now had a working car, we decided to stick with the plan of putting off the full supermarket shop until another day, and just popping down to Amanda's instead. Just as we were getting ready to leave, our new friend Donatella (who lives a little way up the valley from us) messaged Helen. She had read last night's blog post and wondered if we knew that Amanda's husband is a very nice mechanic! Serendipity? Call it what you like, it was incredibly well timed, that's for sure, and all thanks to Donatella reading our blog!
We therefore drove to the alimentari, acquired the necessary supplies, and had a chat with Amanda who gave us Enrico's number and directions to his garage. Enrico's garage turns out to be the place we drive past on the way to Lucca and Monte Carlo that has an orange car on its roof by way of signage - we'd noticed it several times and wondered what it was, now we know!
So we got home, finished the apartment preparations (putting fresh linen on the bed, towels in the bathroom, a final vacuum, and adding the bread and milk to the welcome basket) and locked the door to the apartment. Helen then switched on her PC to start work and I decided to attempt to make a few calls to sort some of our other 'issues' while we waited for our arrivals just after lunch.
First I was going to try calling Telecom Italia. The phone (land line) has not been working for about 3-4 weeks now, which is both inconvenient and becoming a problem as we can't give out an Italian phone number to anyone - for example when we order anything, or take anything to a mechanic for repair. We have 3 phone numbers here now: a mobile (no signal at the house), the landline (which does not work again) and our new Skype phone (which has a UK number, so doesn't make sense to ask Italian-based folk to use it). After half an hour of searching the Telecom Italia website, I couldn't for the life of me find a number to call to report a problem. There were 10 numbers for other things, but no number to report a problem with the line - other, that is, than 187, the customer services number (all well and good if your phone works!).
Before I lost my mind (and my temper), I diverted my attention to our long-lost strimmer and hedge trimmers that I had left with Norberto at the strimmer shop/workshop. I decided to put in a call to the shop, rather than make the trip there, hoping I would be able to communicate adequately and explain that they had my tools in for repair. The phone was answered by a lady who understood me and transferred me to Norberto, my contact and mechanic. When I asked him if the tools were fixed, he said 'tutto pronto' (all ready) - BRILLIANT! I couldn't quite believe it, I had been fully expecting to send them both to the garden machinery graveyard, so I hopped in the car and headed off to collect them.
It was nice and quiet when I arrived, so I got straight to Norberto who brought out the now functioning tools and demonstrated them. When I asked what the problem had been, he said 'Miscela' - fuel mixture. This I couldn't believe. I confirmed with him that a ratio of 1:50 was correct, and told him I'd tried re-mixing the fuel two or three times without success. He just shrugged his shoulders and handed me the tools, telling me he'd replaced the carburettor. As we walked to the car to load them, I asked how bad these brands of equipment were (Hitachi being one of them) - he pointed at them and simply said 'Cinese' - Chinese.
We went into the office so I could pay the bill. Norberto asked how Seattle had been, and what I had been doing there. I managed to tell him it was OK, but too far away, that it was a conference for Helen's work, that it only takes place one week a year, and that each year it alternates between the US and Europe. All of this was in rubbish Italian of course, but I was very pleased with myself for having what felt like almost a normal conversation in Italian. The high won't last long though, I'm sure.
When I got home it was time to turn my attention to sorting our mobile phone out. I need to register the SIM on the Lycamobile website so that I can top it up online - the nearest shop selling Lycamobile credit is in Montecatini Terme, and it's just not practical to keep going back there for a top-up voucher each time we need to top the phone up. However, in order to register the SIM online you have to enter your mobile number and your date of birth, and then a code that is sent to you via SMS. We've tried this countless times since buying the SIM. Since we have no mobile signal at the house, it's often 3 or 4 days before we can pick up a code sent by SMS, and each time I've entered such a code the website has responded with 'please try again later'. This game of cat and mouse has been going on for weeks, and each time I've called the multi-cultural English-speaking customer services department for help, I've received varying degrees of help, but no success.
So today I decided to call again. First, I got through to an Indian chap who couldn't quite understand what I was saying - far be it from me to criticise, what with my poor grasp of Italian, but I soon hung up on him and called back hoping to get to speak to a different person, which I did.
After sorting the initial confusion as to which country I was currently in (as I was calling from our Skype phone, which shows a UK phone number), and assuring the support guy that I was actually using the correct version (Italian) of their website, he asked me to go through what happens when I try to register. He asked me to do it again while he was on the phone so that he could guide me through it. I put in my number and date of birth, then he asked 'have you received the text message with the code?' At which point I had to remind him that I had no signal and that I would need to drive two miles to get some. At this point, he seemed to fully understand our predicament and was very apologetic, but said that I would need to go and retrieve the new code or call again from an internet café with mobile signal. To me, this seemed like a great excuse to go to the wine bar in town and use the free WiFi, but Helen was still working, so out I went to go and drive down the road and hopefully pick up the SMS.
Well, I got as far as the car - which wouldn't start again. I gave up after two attempts this time and went back indoors.
Since this was the second time within the space of 24 hours that the car had refused to start, I decided I really should call a mechanic. First on the list was Sue's mechanic as she said that he had come out to see them within two hours - that's the kind of service we needed! When the phone was finally answered, it wasn't Gasperini on the other end but Marco. Nevertheless, I proceeded to tell him that our car wouldn't start. He seemed to understand, and I got as far as giving him my address - it seemed like we were but a step away from him coming out to us, but then he asked something else which I didn't understand at all (too many new words), we both got completely confused and he decided to deal with the situation by raising his voice and talking faster, then pausing for me. I gave up, told him not to worry and hung up.
An hour later I went out to try the car again - and this time it started, so I shouted up to Helen that I was heading out to see Enrico at his crazy garage and would hopefully pick up the mobile code at the same time.
When I got to Enrico's garage, I opened by telling him I knew his wife - which seemed to do the trick immediately! I explained the problem, he opened the bonnet and tinkered, muttered 'hmmm metano' (methane), clarified with me that the starter motor was working OK, then went to have a look in his diary. He said what I thought was to leave the car at Amanda's for him to take - when I tried to clarify this, he took out his mobile and called Amanda, then passed the phone to me so that she could tell me to leave the car with her - next Wednesday - when Enrico will take it for testing. I thanked both Amanda and Enrico and headed home. I hadn't received the SMS code though.
When I got home I went back to the Lycamobile website to get it to re-send the code, then headed back out again in the car to try and pick it up. This time it arrived, so as soon as I got home I got straight on the phone. This time, I got what must have been an Italian tech support guy on the phone - he was clearly confused by the (UK) caller ID number he was seeing, and asked me if I was trying to register a UK SIM or a French one. I told him it was Italian! He immediately explained that all SIM cards must be registered with ID documents (identity cards or passport) in Italy, and that I needed to do this first! He also told me that there was a local shop selling Lycamobile tucked away in Pescia!! Someone really should tell their website that.
So tomorrow's first job is to head down to the newsagent to try both to buy more credit and to register the SIM card. Having a working mobile has suddenly become quite important since the car started misbehaving - I realised that I could easily have got stuck up in Lanciole yesterday evening, in the middle of nowhere and with no way of telling anyone!
We'll also look into hire cars tomorrow, as the last thing we want to happen is for our car to decide it's not going to start when we need to drive to Pisa to collect Helen's parents from the airport, or for it to misbehave next week when we want to use it to take them out and about.
So that pretty much sums up our day - it's been like fire-fighting on a rollercoaster (or so I would imagine).
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