After two long weeks of visitors and making merry and having no routine over the festive period, to say that the first full week of 'back to normality' came as a shock to the system would be an understatement. As much as we were in need of things returning to something resembling normality and a quieter life post-Christmas, we felt as if we'd gone from zero to 100mph overnight and found ourselves facing the sort of routine that we haven't experienced in quite a while. I say "we", but my week, while busy, was not so different from normal: office work every day. Stuart, on the other hand, embarked on a week of hard labour - leaving the house at 9am and returning at 5:30pm and doing manual work all day. When you have a dodgy thyroid that's quite a feat.
Our friends Mara & Franco are turning an old lean-to at the end of their house into a one-bedroom apartment which they hope to offer for holiday lets. A while ago they asked Stuart if he would help with the work, which he was only too pleased to agree to. Since the project had stalled a little pre-Christmas, Stuart was keen to get going straight after new year and to throw himself into it - eager to do a good job for our friends. Of course, doing this sort of a project is something he hasn't done in quite a while, and the long days of manual work are not something he's had to contend with since his more recent thyroid issues. He did a sterling job of it though, and made it through the week feeling tired, but coping well.
On Monday evening we embarked on a new venture: our first "Aperitivi Inglesi" at the local village club (Circolo) in Pietrabuona. Stuart had suggested the idea to the club's owner, Emanuele, a few weeks ago as a way for us to help to try to encourage people to come to the club - inviting anyone who wanted to come and practise their English in a relaxed atmosphere, with a drink to put money in the till and to help lubricate the conversation. The whole idea may sound a bit Anglocentric, but we often meet Italians who say they wish they spoke better English, or who simply say that they would like the opportunity to practise their English, so we decided this would be a good chance to offer a service, to support our local club, and indeed for us to meet more people in our local community.
Our great friends David, Sarah, Paul, Kathy and Donatella had all said they would come along to give us moral support and to help swell numbers - it was a good job they did, as there were vanishingly few "takers"! In fact, we had a small handful of people turn up, and while Stuart and I did our best to try and help the lovely Illaria (a friend of Donatella's) with her English vocab (I'm not sure either of us is a born teacher), the rest of the gang chatted to Sandra and Alessio (friends of Donatella's and acquaintances of all of us) in English, so it was mission accomplished, even if not quite on the scale we had envisaged. We were pleased overall with the way the evening had gone though, and decided to repeat it on a fortnightly basis, hoping that a little later into the year might bring in more faces.
Through the week, Stuart worked long days at Mara & Franco's and I spent long days home alone without speaking to another soul (Reggie is not the greatest conversationalist: he tends either to remain silent, giving me doleful eyes when I fail to stop what I'm doing to rub his tummy, or else to let himself out into the garden to shout at the top of his lungs - to such an extent that throughout the week I kept receiving messages from Stuart to tell me he could hear Reggie from the other side of the valley!).
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| Can you hear Reggie barking through the mist? |
We did have a couple of breaks in the working week: one for our weekly group Italian lesson with Johnny along with David & Sarah, and I also had a lesson with Samantha on my own (as Stuart was busy working). It has been a long while since I last had a lesson on my own and it was good for me to put my brain into full gear - it was the most Italian I've spoken in a long while and it was a good reminder that I can do it when I try (and, more importantly, when I feel at ease). Our Italian lessons are so important to us, not only because they provide the opportunity to see friends, which is always lovely (and as well as our fellow students, we are lucky enough to be able to consider both of our teachers as friends), but more importantly because we know that the one thing most likely to cause us to fail in our attempt to make a life for ourselves here is failing to get a grip on the language. It's already fully evident that the language is the one piece of the puzzle that is still lacking, which makes everything much harder, and it's the one thing that still frustrates us and still brings us (OK, me) to tears. Therefore we value our lessons immensely and force ourselves through the drudgery of doing the (actually rather small amount of) homework we are set. It's not always a barrel of laughs, and it's a weekly expense, but for us it is such an important investment - it has become blatantly clear that we can't put a price on learning the language of the place in which we live.
On Sunday, after having had a coffee and gone to Obi to buy a particularly hideous but practical piece of wipe-clean table cloth material that we can put on the sofa when Reggie has a piece of meat to eat (and it's not outdoor-eating weather), we called in at one of our local gyms in Pescia, and this happened:
Yes, I signed up to join our local gym.
You may consider joining a gym to be a luxury - it is, of course, and it is only thanks to a generous Christmas gift from my lovely parents that I have been able to do this (last year I treated myself to a chainsaw, this year a gym membership...). However, for me, the joining of a local gym goes way beyond the simple idea of wanting somewhere to train - after all, I've kept my hand in with exercise, albeit on a far reduced scale, ever since we arrived in Italy and I still do a short exercise session (with the help of some classes downloaded from the Internet) six mornings a week.
For me, the joining of a gym represents something much, much bigger (and scarier, but hopefully in the end far more valuable): it forces me to go out, to interact with people and use the language, and it gives me something to do for myself, on my own, thus rediscovering a little of my independence. Since moving here life has changed dramatically in countless ways, and while I always love going places and doing things with Stuart as a couple, I do find that I have lost something of my independence - having only one vehicle is one contributing factor, as is my working from home (and often going for six days without leaving the house/property), but perhaps the biggest thing is abject fear of having to talk to real, live Italians on my own (something I desperately need to get over - my written Italian is decent, but I'll never get anywhere if all I can do is write it!). So 'Project: Gym Membership' is actually 'Project: Build Confidence, Independence, and Speak Italian'. Needless to say, the idea of actually going to the gym fills me with the utmost fear and dread, but I'm pleased to have taken the first step (I think).
We also managed to get around to doing a little bit of outdoor work at the weekend - first we dismantled the wood shelter in preparation for the large fir trees above it being cut during the week, and then we spent half a day cutting up more small pieces of wood to add to our kindling pile.
As the weekend wore on, it was clear that Stuart's energy levels were spiralling downwards, signalling the start of a somewhat quieter second week. While he just about managed to get to work on Monday, the rest of the week was pretty much entirely written off thanks to the misbehaving thyroid.
Thankfully, we had an appointment with an endocrinologist lined up for Wednesday morning - Stuart had made the appointment five weeks ago, and we were pinning a lot of hope on being able to talk to someone who had been recommended to us by Samantha and Amanda, both of whom are registered under this specialist's care for the same thyroid problem.
Unfortunately, it transpired that something had got lost in translation and we realised (just as we were about to set off for the appointment) that the appointment had been for the previous day and we'd missed it. What a disaster. Just as we were starting to think we were managing to get by in Italian, with enough language (albeit sketchy) to cover just about every eventuality, this came as a stark reminder that we're nowhere near "there" yet. So, while Stuart headed straight back to bed, I sent a plaintive message to Samantha, relating the sorry tale, and a matter of a few hours later she was phoning me to tell me she'd rung the doctor's office and arranged for him to squeeze us in the following day! Another reminder, but this time of just how fortunate we are to know such kind, generous and helpful people here, and to be able to count them as our friends.
Thursday was, therefore, a fully packed day. At 8:30am, the three guys arrived to start cutting the enormous fir trees that stand in front of our house; Donatella also arrived at the same time to attempt to take Reggie out with me as a means to get him away from the noise and confusion going on at the house; in store for the afternoon was a trip to Pistoia for the appointment with the specialist, and for me, the evening was to be my first venture into the gym in Pescia for a spinning class.
The tree cutting went very well - having had terrible weather in the first part of the week (high winds and heavy rain), the morning dawned dry, bright, and mercifully still. The guys got straight to work and trimmed each of the six fir trees that were towering taller than the roof of the house. The idea is that, by taking the tops off the trees, they become less likely to catch the wind, and therefore safer, yet because we haven't had the whole trees taken down we retain both the privacy and the shade they afford us. As last time, the guys worked efficiently and tidily and by 1pm - just as the first few drops of rain were beginning to fall - they had completed the job and left some very neat (if very large) piles of fir branches stacked up in the drive.
Reggie's morning was also a great success: in the end, Donatella and I decided to take him just as far as our upper donkey track where we could try some search-and-find with him. After tying a piece of chicken wing to a piece of string, Donatella dragged it along the ground then hid behind a tree - the first time allowing Reggie to see what she was doing, and on subsequent occasions not letting him see her do it. Then we let Reggie pick up the scent and go and find her. He was brilliant! And he seemed overjoyed each time he found her. A great start and something we hope to repeat.
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| After a hard morning's searching Reggie slept through much of the chainsawing going on outside - result! |
The day continued on a positive note with the trip to Pistoia and the visit to the specialist, who was prompt, friendly and, most importantly, thorough. He explained things very clearly and we left feeling a lot happier, better informed, and less worried. He suggested that Stuart alter the dosage of his thyroid medication once again, and that in a couple of months' time, he have another blood test and told us simply to send him the results either via email or via WhatsApp and that he will respond with advice - what a great service!
The final activity for the day for me was the spinning class. If I'm honest, I had been worrying myself sick about it since the moment I booked the class at the weekend, counting down the days, evenings, hours with mounting dread. So the fact that Thursday was such a packed day was quite a blessing, as it kept me and my mind fully occupied, leaving me far less time to worry about it than I'd had on all the preceding days.
I am happy to report that I survived. Although only just. I found the class incredibly hard - it's been so long since I last did a proper, live, spinning class on a spinning bike, with real people and a live instructor that I was utterly spent after 10 minutes, with another 35 minutes still left to endure (for the last 3 years I've been following classes that I've downloaded onto my tablet PC and using my road bike attached to a turbo trainer - and it turns out that a road bike on a turbo trainer is very different from a spin bike, and that as hard as I might think I'm pushing myself on my own, it's nothing compared with how hard I push myself when there are other people in the room!). I did find myself wondering whether I might pass out at any point - it was so hot in the tiny, dark room (another aspect of spinning I'd conveniently forgotten about), the music was so loud, and I was so puffed that I had visions of ending up in an embarrassed, crumpled, sweaty, English-speaking heap on the floor... But, as I say, I was thrilled to have got myself there (and home again), to have made it through the class, and even to have had some dialogue with other class members. Now I just have to make it back again next week, and the week after.
At the end of the week Stuart managed to get himself over to Mara and Franco's for just a couple of hours' of work on Friday afternoon - despite having felt uplifted by the consultation with the endocrinologist, the effects of increasing the dosage of his medication take a few days to be felt, so once again he had to make his apologies for not feeling up to working in the morning. While he was working there, I was busy preparing dinner for them, as well as a lunch for the following day as not only were Mara & Franco due to come round for a curry on Friday night, but we had scheduled a 'community day' for Saturday (to start at 9am) to help us clear up some of the mess left after the cutting of the trees.
Despite almost having a nervous breakdown over the cooking of about 7 different dishes all at once, I managed to put everything together in time and we had a great evening with Mara & Franco - time to pay them back not only for their hospitality over the festive period but also for providing lunch for Stuart each time he works at their house.
Thankfully it wasn't too late a night on Friday, meaning we were able to get up early enough on Saturday to get ourselves ready for the community day gang: Donatella, Paul & Kathy and David (sadly we missed Sarah on this occasion as she is currently working away). After coffees all round we embarked on a long morning's hard work: Donatella and Kathy started a bonfire in the car park area to burn through the enormous piles of fir tree branches; David and Paul headed off into the woods with their chainsaws to log some of the many fallen trees that are dotted around in the woods; Stuart and I re-stacked the wood piles in the quarry at the end of the drive to make room for a new wood pile and then collected and stacked the logs that Paul & David had cut up.
We were thrilled with the work that, together, everyone got done - Donatella and Kathy had managed to get through more than half of the fir branches (battling with very damp branches thanks to the previous day's rain, and consequently a very smoky fire), David & Paul logged enough trees to load a full two pallets' worth for next season's burning, and Stuart and I finished re-stacking the old wood pile and stacking the new one. After all that hard work we settled down to a veg chilli and egg custards before everyone headed off to soak their aching limbs and get the smell of smoke out of their hair. We continued with the burning for a couple of hours after they left before calling it a day ourselves and relaxing in front of a film for the evening.
On Sunday, before starting any serious work, we headed out for our weekend coffee ritual and followed that with a little drive around an area we don't know so well: just off the Lucca road there is an area that is littered with grand villas - most of them faded glories today, but still grand enough to be able to imagine the world of opulence that they must have hosted in their heyday.
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| Villa Torrigiani |
The afternoon consisted of re-constructing the wood shelter and doing another 4 hours' worth of burning on another very smoky fire. By the time darkness fell, we'd managed to clear the path down to the apartment, with just another two smaller piles still left to burn.
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| By this stage Kathy and Donatella had already burned more than half of what had been piled up. |
It was then time to spend the evening relaxing and recharging batteries for what we are hoping will be a productive week ahead.
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