We spent most of Friday working in the office and in the apartment - Stuart getting the plasterboarding and shelving in the apartment to such a state that it now only needs a couple of coats of paint. While it clearly looks unfinished at the moment, you can tell that it is going to look really, really smart when it it all finished - and should hopefully sort out the damp wall problem once and for all (at least for a good while).
Stuart also took a trip out to Chiesina to talk tractors with his contact Nicola, and came back armed with much more detailed information about the second-hand tractor he has seen on sale there, and he joined me in the office in the afternoon sorting through piles of paperwork.
At the end of the day we decided at the last minute to ditch our plans of going supermarket shopping in favour of spending an hour relaxing in the sunshine on the patio. We knew it was going to be a busy week ahead so decided to savour the sunshine and put off the chores until the morning.
We duly both got up at 7am yesterday and, after seeing to the animals, we were on the road by 7.45 and in Esselunga by 8am. In a new record, we were heading back out of town by 8.40am! This was inevitably helped by the fact that we couldn't do 'the double' yesterday as Lidl was closed. Yesterday (25th April) was Liberation Day in Italy - the anniversary of the end of Nazi occupation - which is a national holiday. Unlike in the UK, where our bank holidays are always shifted to the closest Monday possible (with the exception of Easter Friday and Christmas/Boxing day), in Italy the holidays fall on the date, no matter what day of the week it is (which kind of makes more sense, although it's a bit rubbish if it falls on a Sunday!). Anyway, we'd checked the night before to make sure that Esselunga would be open, so after our dash around the shop, we left with the car laden with enough shopping for five people for the week.
We decided to make a quick stop at San Lorenzo to give Reggie a mini-walk. He'd missed out on a walk again yesterday and we knew he wouldn't be able to have a proper walk until the afternoon as we had airport pick-up duties in the middle of the day.
The three of us therefore did part of what we have now coined the 'reverse San Lorenzo' walk - heading away from the hotel and up the quiet road that climbs the hillside above Pietrabuona.
We came across a group of cats sitting around - about 5 of them when we first approached. Reggie, of course, wanted to run over to them and chase them, but he was utterly baffled by the fact that these cats simply sat where they were and stared at him. They didn't take fright and run off. This seemed to unnerve Reggie and his hackles went up and he gave them a good bark, pulling on his lead in desperation to go and make them scatter. They simply stood (or sat) their ground though.
After a short walk we continued on up the valley to the house where we had a bowl of cereal for breakfast on the patio before beginning the mammoth clean-a-thon. Stuart took the apartment while I took the house and between us we spent until lunchtime cleaning.
After a quick bite to eat for lunch, Stuart dashed off to the airport while I carried on finishing off the cleaning. When I'd done that, I decided to give the terraces a quick strim. Nothing by Stuart's standards, but just enough to get the long grass down on the path leading to goose island.
Not long after that, Reggie and I heard a car draw up, heralding the arrival of our guests: Stuart's Mum (Sheila), aunt (Helen) and uncle (John). Reggie gave them his usual barky welcome reception, but seemed to calm down quite quickly. We wondered whether the fact that they arrived with Stuart made him feel more at ease with their presence. Who knows, but we were glad that he seemed to accept them relatively easily.
First job for our guests then: to sit on the patio and drink tea/beer/wine, nibble on bread, cheese and meat and have a good catch up while looking at our beautiful view!
We sat on the patio for an hour or two before all going off to change shoes and take Reggie out for his promised walk. We decided to drive up to Stiappa where we did the walk to the little old mill and back.
Reggie, of course, had a lovely time. The poor boy got a thorn in his paw at one point, but while I held him still, Stuart was able to pull it out and he ran off without so much as a thank you! On the return leg of the walk Reggie found a new game - hurtling through mud at the speed of light, then turning and hurtling back through it the other way. He seemed to think it was brilliant fun and must have thought it hilarious that in the process he managed to splash mud over all of our shoes and trousers. He was quick literally a mucky pup by the end of it:
After the walk, we headed into Pescia to show Helen and John our little town and reacquaint Sheila with Bar Poulter and Aperol spritz! We sat outside Bar Poulter for a quick round of drinks before heading back to the house to cook up some dinner, open some wine and spend an enjoyable evening eating, drinking and catching up.
No comments:
Post a Comment