Words fail me!

Day 10: Happy Anniversary!

When the alarm woke me up this morning I crawled out of bed, went into the bathroom and held my breath as I turned the tap to see if we still had freely flowing water. We did! The novelty hadn't yet worn off, and I felt another wave of relief.

After tending to my animal duties, I managed a token gesture of an exercise session before coming inside to get showered (yes! the shower still worked!) ready for Sue to come and take me shopping at 8.30. Sue arrived a little early, while I was still upstairs, which set Reggie off into a volley of barking until he eventually remembered that he actually rather likes Sue and switched from barking to licking, but only after seeking reassurance from me as I came running down the stairs. Of course, all the commotion had woken Stuart up, so he got up and had his first shower in 48 hours - I think the feeling of being clean JUST made up for having been woken up earlier than he would ideally have liked.

Anyway, Sue and I set off down the hill for our morning's shopping expeditions, making a stop at the bins on the way to deposit the bags of rubbish we have been accumulating and unable to dispose of without a car.

We did our Esselunga and Lidl duties, stopped off at the discount bread shop (0.90 for what must be the best loaf of bread in town) then made our way back up the hill. When we got to the house we found a tidy kitchen (the washing up done) and a walked dog - Stuart certainly hadn't been idle while we were out! The three of us sat and drank coffee, talked kitchen re-design, and then I went to introduce Sue to the geese as she is kindly going to look in on them for us when we are away.

While we'd been out, Stuart had also been in touch with both Italia Wi-Fi and the car dealer.

The Car:
To recap, late on Friday afternoon - by which time they'd had our car for 10 days (after having had it for 6 days a couple of weeks ago and after telling us on this occasion that it would take a week to fix it) - we were informed that the mechanic felt we needed a new cam belt, and it would cost €340 for him to replace. We said 'no thanks' - all of our to-ings and fro-ings with these people have left us decidedly lacking in confidence in both their abilities and their motives, and if there really is a problem with the cam belt we would prefer to get our own choice of mechanic (either the helpful guys in town who Chris and Sue have used or else Amanda's husband, Enrico) to check it out and do the work if deemed necessary. Next, the dealer called to say that the mechanic won't let us have the car back unless we sign something to say that we've refused to let him change the cam belt and that neither he nor the car dealer will be held responsible if something happens because of it. Feeling very frustrated (and NEEDING our car back), we said we would sign - but only if this agreement really does specifically relate ONLY to the cam belt. Come this morning, we decided that maybe we would capitulate and let the mechanic replace the cam belt and be done with it (thus keeping our warranty intact with no possible quibbles) - but we would HAVE to have the car back on Monday. The dealer came back to say that it wasn't possible for the mechanic to fit a new cam belt in time for Monday (just to reiterate that by Monday he will have had the car for 12 days - and he had the car for 6 days only a couple of weeks ago and failed to notice the problem then). Since we absolutely need our car back on Monday, we reverted to saying we'd sign their agreement, but only if it's in English. SO, we'll see what happens on Monday and whether or not we get a fixed car or even a car back at all...

The Internet:
To recap, our Internet has now been broken for 9 days (apparently due to the supplier having had a malware attack). We were initially told that everything would be back up and running by Thursday 4th June, but on Monday we were sent an official email from EuroConx (Italia Wi-Fi are re-branding to EuroConx) that assured us that all services for all customers would be back online "by the end of the week", and that 24 hours before the reconnection we would be emailed. Having not heard a peep from them since that email on Monday, we decided to send a text to our contact, Brad, to ask if there was any news. Initially we received a very garbled message back from him which didn't make any sense at all, and on asking him to clarify, he came back with the response that it might well take their "security engineers" another week to sort things out, so to be on the safe side, we would be sent a new modem this week (said modems won't be arriving in London until Tuesday and then dispatched from there, so we're guessing that we won't see one until mid-end of the week). We will be asked to return the old modem to EuroConX when the new one has arrived (at our expense)! We have been told that our account will be upgraded to the most expensive package for free (er... but we are ALREADY on the most expensive package) and that we will get one month's free usage (which equates to �85). Presumably, if the new modem is delivered when we're not here to sign for it, that will further complicate matters and introduce a further delay. We have therefore requested that the new modem be delivered to Frateschi's - but haven't received any acknowledgement of our request. So it seems that at a bare minimum, our internet connection will have been down for two weeks, and we can easily imagine it dragging on still further. The knot in my stomach when I think about everything we are losing out on with every day that goes by without connectivity is now so tight that it makes me feel physically unwell. If we had any other option, believe us, we would be taking it. The contract with Italia Wi-Fi/EuroConX ties us in for 2 years, and if we decide to end it, we will be charged 85% of the remainder (we have just completed one year). Not only that, but if at the end of 2 years we don't give notice within 30 days that we want to end the contract, it will automatically renew, tying us in for another two years! Of course, we acknowledge that we signed the contract but to be honest we didn't expect such enormous problems and didn't really have any other options available at the time.

Anyway, back to 6th June - our third wedding anniversary! After an early lunch (I'd not had time to have breakfast before going shopping, so was chomping at the bit for a midday lunch), which we ate on the patio under the shade of the umbrella, we retreated indoors because it was just TOO hot outside. We then spent quite a while floating around aimlessly - it was too hot to go outside and definitely too hot to do any work. If we'd had a car, we would have driven to Montecatini to pick up some bits and pieces and a dongle so that we could set up a makeshift method of using the internet. And if we'd had a car, we could have driven into town to use the free wifi. And if we'd had a car, we could have driven somewhere like the refuge track where we knew it was nice and shady and taken Reggie for a little walk.

Eventually, we reluctantly decided to brave the searing heat and cycle into town with the laptop and our tablet PCs and use the wi-fi at Franco's bar again. At least it would be downhill on the way there, and there was a small chance the temperature would have eased off a little by the time we did the uphill return leg. We therefore packed a rucksack with everything we needed, loaded files onto a USB stick (we needed to send a booking form to someone who has enquired about the apartment and we needed to send driving directions to someone who is due to arrive in two weeks time), and got on our bikes.

The cycle ride into town was enjoyable - the shady side of the road we were cycling on was blissfully cool (relative to the sunny parts) and as we whooshed downhill, the breeze on our faces felt refreshing. Nevertheless, we were hot and bothered by the time we'd reached the square - the temperature reading on the display at the side of the road read 39C as we went past! After locking up the bikes we headed straight for Franco's bar where they were just putting their outdoor seating back out after the morning's market had cleared. We ordered a large bottle of water and a bottle of wine and settled down with the laptop and tablet PCs. I opened the laptop to find it only had 10% battery remaining. I handed it straight over to Stuart to send the emails that needed sending - but it shut down before either email could be sent. Stuart therefore switched to his tablet PC - but it too had no juice left in its battery and shut down before he could do anything! I switched to my tablet PC (from which I wasn't able to send the emails anyway), which was also showing a "battery low" warning! How could we have been so disorganised?!! Thankfully, I managed to upload the blog and download some more work emails, so all was not lost, but we were still cross that we hadn't been able to do some of the important tasks that we'd gone there for!

We did, however, have a lovely bottle of wine in celebration of our wedding anniversary, trying not to think about the car/internet.

When we'd finished the wine and done what little we could do with one tablet PC limping along on low battery, it was time to face the ride home. The temperature by this point had dropped to a "mere" 36C - which was small comfort! We battled our way slowly up the hill, sweat pouring, but I think we were both surprised that neither of us ended up having to get off and push!

When we got back to the house, we continued our anniversary celebration with some prosecco and an evening outdoors - when the sun finally went behind the house it was a lovely (warm) temperature, and when darkness fell, the terraces came alive with little dancing fairy lights as the fireflies went about their evening's business. It felt very special to watch the dancing fireflies: the week of our wedding was the first time we'd ever encountered fireflies, and tonight was the first time this year that they'd really come out and put on a show - magical!

Day 11: Jaded

After a hot night's sleep in 25-26C heat (according to the thermometer on the bedroom wall), I heard Reggie's whining starting up at around 7am, so I dragged myself up and let him out. It was already warm and felt like it was going to be another scorcher of a day.

I left Stuart to sleep in until 9am, at which point he got up, we had some breakfast together on the terrace then mustered up the energy to take Reggie out for a short walk - it was already starting to feel too hot to move, so we quickly headed out and down the road to the Sorana turning. We didn't get very far this time - partly because Reggie already seemed hot and tired, partly because I had forgotten to change into sensible walking shoes and I already had blisters from my flip flops. We therefore did an about-turn and headed back up the hill home for a long cold drink each.

I then settled down to a couple of hours' work in the cool of the office until lunchtime.

Lunch was another hot affair - we put the umbrella up to go outside, but because it hadn't been up already the table was literally too hot to touch. We had eggs, but I'm pretty sure we probably could have cooked them on the table itself and saved us some gas!

After lunch, like yesterday, we had a short period of floating around aimlessly, wondering what to do with the rest of our day. It was just so hot that we couldn't even bear being outdoors. Eventually, though, Stuart decided he was going to bite the bullet and go and do some strimming on the lower terraces. I thought he had lost his mind, especially when he came downstairs in his thick jogging bottoms and steel toe-capped work boots, but I could hardly let him go out and work while I did nothing, could I? Reluctantly, I dragged myself upstairs and changed from shorts into long trousers, socks and boots and then headed outside with the hedge trimmers to join Stuart on the lower terraces.

Once I got going, it wasn't quite as bad as I had imagined - don't get me wrong, the sweat was RUNNING off my face (it was like being in a spin/RPM class), but I found that the satisfaction of reclaiming the terraces from the vegetation that had started to encroach on the terraces again took my mind off the fact that I was boiling alive.

We spent almost two hours strimming and hedge cutting, leaving us with much neater-looking lower terraces once again, before coming indoors for a shower. Today was the first time this year that I have felt the need to turn the mixer tap on the shower to make it COLDER! It certainly felt like a very well earned and refreshing shower, and Stuart followed suit when I had finished.

We spent the early evening sitting on the patio, feeling pleased that we'd put the effort in today - it will allow us to go away for our mini-holiday feeling much better about the state of the place.


Day 12: A sense of humour failure / touched by kindness & generosity

After another hot night's sleep, which included a 1.40am toilet call from Reggie and a 4.30am wake-up call from a pair of deer barking at each other from just beneath our lower terraces, I got up feeling sleepy but optimistic about the fact that we would get the car back at some point today and be going off on our mini (3 night) holiday tomorrow morning. After exercising and showering I started putting together a packing list, thinking about how much we need this break and how much we've been looking forward to it.

After breakfast I headed into the office to start on a bit of work - with having had guests here at the start of last week and having had the internet down for 11 days and the water problems on Friday, I was lagging behind on my work hours and wanted to try and put in a solid few hours today.

By the time Stuart came yawning down the stairs I was ready for a coffee, so I put a pot on and took a break from my work to drink coffee with Stuart on the terrace. It was yet another hot morning.

While we were drinking our coffee, Stuart's mobile rang - it was the car dealer, presumably calling to let us know what time we could pick up the car today. However, as I watched and listened to Stuart's end of the conversation I could tell that all was not well. My heart fell into the pit of my stomach and I waited until Stuart ended the call to hear the news: the car would be ready between 5-6pm tomorrow evening. That's tomorrow as in the day we were meant to be setting off for our short holiday first thing in the morning. I didn't even have the words to articulate my fury and promptly dissolved into tears. We briefly considered trying to arrange a hire car, but quickly realised that it would more than double the cost of our break, which was always meant to be an inexpensive get-away.

To try and make things slightly better, Stuart decided to cycle to the phone shop to try and buy a dongle so that we would at least be able to connect to the internet, albeit in a less than ideal way. I waved him off and returned to my work, trying hard to concentrate on the task in hand and not to think about all the people I would like to hit over the head with a large stick.

After about half an hour, Stuart sent me a text message to say that he had arrived - I was a little surprised as it usually only takes 10-15 minutes to get into Pescia by bike (longer to get back of course!), but I thought that maybe he had bumped into someone on his way and got delayed. When he called me a little later to talk through the options he'd found in the shop, it all became clear though - he hadn't cycled to Pescia at all, but to the iperCoop shopping complex at Montecatini (a round trip of almost 30km)! He had gone to Euronics and found a range of different options, all of which were considerably more expensive than we had hoped, but we both felt that we really needed this, so he ended up buying a device that will cost us €130 over 12 months before setting back off on his way home.

Stuart arrived home just after 1pm. I don't think I've ever seen anyone as sweaty. By this time the temperature was once again in the high 30sC and it was very humid as well. I handed him a towel as he stood in the kitchen, literally dripping all over the floor as he tried to set up the device he had just bought.

After checking that the device worked and ACTUALLY GAVE US INTERNET, we had a well earned lunch outside. It comes to something when Stuart and I start willing the clouds to come and cover the sun - I never thought I would see the day when I wanted cloud cover, but today was that day, the heat really was so intense that it was hard to bear.

After lunch, we both headed into the office to do some long awaited admin and work. Stuart set about sending a couple of important emails that we'd been waiting to send, as well as cataloguing all of the to-ings and fro-ings we have been through with the car before sending a shirty email to the car dealer (to which their response was "what more can we do?" er... how about fix our car properly the first time?). Meanwhile, I was able to open my work email for the first time in over a week and spent the rest of the afternoon fully immersed in work tasks.

One small downside of the set-up was that for some reason we were unable to access certain sites, one of which was our blog - so STILL unable to post updates!

I worked on through until 6pm, by which point Stuart had gone outside to try to entertain poor Reggie who had gone without a walk again today. While he was doing so, Keith came over for a chat with him and told him that he and Jacqui would like to take us out for dinner this evening! When Stuart came up to tell me, I was so touched I could have cried - the kindness and generosity of people since we arrived here has been quite overwhelming, and time after time we have been blessed with guests who are genuinely lovely people.

We therefore washed and brushed up and at 7.30pm, we all piled into Keith and Jacqui's rental car for the short drive down to the trattoria in Pietrabuona. We'd never eaten at Da Nerone before - we've had coffees in the little cafe attached to the restaurant on many an occasion, and we once had take-away pizzas from there, but we'd never actually dined at our closest restaurant. It proved to be a gem of a little place. We were initially seated in the outdoor area underneath a large canopy, but no sooner had we sat down than we started to see forked lightning in the sky and hear rumbles of thunder. We stayed put until large splats of rain started falling and the waiter gave us the signal to move indoors - conveniently we had just finished our starters, so we grabbed our glasses and the bottles of wine and water and dashed inside. Almost as soon as we and the other diners had got over the threshold, the wind whipped up and the rain lashed down - we'd only just made it inside in time!

The rest of the meal was less eventful but very enjoyable. Keith and Jacqui are great company and we thoroughly enjoyed our evening with them, finding out a bit more about them and vice versa. It was such a lovely gesture on their part and we're really not sure it was deserved after we'd subjected them to a week of dog barking, no water for almost 24h and no internet all week! By the law of averages we must be due some less wonderful guests some time soon, we really can't believe how lucky we have been with the lovely people who've stayed with us so far!

We ended our meal with coffees and limoncellos before braving the dash out to the car - by this stage, the lightning was flashing, the thunder was banging and the rain was lashing down, making the drive up the hill against the tide of water running down it a challenging one! We thanked Keith and Jacqui for a lovely evening before dashing to our respective abodes.

Stuart and I stayed up for another half an hour - we'd opened all the windows to try and get the air flowing through the house, but the noise of the rain and the crashes of thunder were so loud that we had to turn the volume up on the TV! In the end, when we went to bed I resorted to an eye mask and ear plugs in an attempt to get to sleep, although even then I could hear the thunder crashing around. Fingers crossed it will at least have cleared the air a bit!


Day 13: Car back?????

Nope, it turns out we aren't getting the car back today. Apparntly it should be ready tomorrow evening. What's more, after last night's storm, we've lost mobile signal at the house, so we are back to not having any internet - or any phone for that matter. Posting this update from the lovely Chris and Sue's after cycling down here to let them know they are relieved of cat and goose sitting duties as we won't be going away...