Al fresco dining in December

Who would have thought that one week before Christmas - three days before the shortest day of the year and the 'true' start of winter - the weather would be beautiful enough to even consider, let alone participate in outdoor dining?

Anyway, back to the start of the day, which was decidedly chillier than the middle of the day.

The day started with all the usual animal-related chores and a chilly (4C) turbo training session, swiftly followed by a shower and breakfast before rounding up Stuart and Reggie to head into town - we had two important appointments on the agenda this morning: a meeting at the geometra's office at 10am, and an appointment with the vet for Reggie's vaccination at 10.30am.

Reggie waited in the car while we went into Andrea's office where he (Andrea, that is, not Reggie) presented us with three sets of plans (each in triplicate): one showing the house as it was originally, one showing the house as it is now, and one showing the two superimposed to indicate the 'non-regulation' changes that were made by our predecessors (one window was enlarged and another was added where it didn't exist previously). We then both had to sign each set of plans (in triplicate) as well as some other paperwork and were presented with a bill for €70 that we needed to take to the post office to pay and then return the receipt to Andrea. (Presumably this €70 is the payment we need to make to the comune for the privilege of subsequently being able to pay them €2000+ to get retrospective permission for the changes that our predecessors made. Sigh.) Andrea was keen for us to go straight to the post office (which is just yards from his office) and return the receipt to him when we'd done it, but we had to explain to him that we would have to do it later as we had an appointment to keep at the vet! He was fine with that, asked us which vet we were going to, and told us that Dr Orsi is a very good one (as we have now heard from several different sources, which was encouraging).

We therefore jumped back into the car and drove to Piazza Mazzini to park up and walk the short distance to the vet's surgery. Reggie was happy to walk into the place with us (the waiting room was empty), but a little less sure about walking into the consulting room when Dr Orsi invited us all in. Dr Orsi was lovely with Reggie - very gentle and he spoke to him very softly, as he could see that poor little Reggie was terrified. He soon resorted to the vets' trick of trying to coax Reggie into making friends with him by offering him some treats in his hand. Reggie was torn between wanting the treat and wanting to hide behind Stuart and me, but he eventually found a little courage and started taking treats from the vet's hand.

Dr Orsi asked us lots of questions about Reggie, examined him, weighed him (the heffalump is now 13kg!!) and declared him to be in good health. He gave Reggie the necessary jab (which didn't so much as make Reggie flinch) and made up a record card for him. We also discussed sterilization, diet, parasites, and registering him with the veterinary anagrafe (he is currently still registered in Puglia - which is not helpful when you live in Tuscany as the record systems are region-specific rather than national). Most of the conversation was in Italian, but reassuringly, Dr Orsi speaks excellent English (I also noted that many of his veterinary text books on his shelves were in English). He did switch to English when we struggled, which was helpful, although we tried to stick to Italian as much as possible.

We left the surgery feeling very happy with our choice of vet - Dr Orsi seems a very kind and sensible man - and while Reggie may not have enjoyed the entire experience, he did seem a little more relaxed by the time we left.

After that, we hot-footed it back to park outside Andrea's office once again and head into the post office. We decided to take Reggie out of the car with us this time, since his morning so far had mainly consisted of sitting in the car and being prodded by a strange man in a white coat. This meant that one of us needed to wait outside the post office while the other went in to pay the bill. I offered to go in, since I had the bill in my handbag, so Stuart and Reggie waited outside in the sunshine while I braced myself for a long wait in the post office. We could tell even before I went in that it was likely to be a long wait - the post office (which is a much larger, busier affair than our tiny post office in Pietrabuona) was busy with people waiting their turn. As we've mentioned before in this blog, at this branch you have to take a ticket, rather like you do at a deli counter in a supermarket, except there are four different ticketing systems and you have to specify what service you require to get the right number series (one has numbers preceded by an 'A', has numbers preceded by a 'C', one has numbers preceded by an 'E', and the last has numbers preceded by a 'P'). I duly pressed the 'I want to pay a bill' button and got my ticket: C0034.

Most people in there seemed to be sending or retrieving parcels (ticket numbers with the letter 'P') - not surprising I guess, at this time of year - while there were a few who seemed to be paying into/withdrawing money from savings accounts (the 'A's) and there were only two people ahead of me who were also paying bills. That didn't mean that I was served quickly though. The 'next ticket number please' machine seems to circulate through the different number series at random (it's probably not random, but that's how it felt). Eventually, after a maybe 20-30 minute wait, my number flicked up on the screen and I virtually sprinted to the cashier in case he thought I wasn't coming and pressed his 'next person please' button again. I quickly and easily paid the bill and went outside to reassure Reggie and Stuart that I hadn't done a runner out of the back of the building.

We walked the few yards back to Andrea's office, where I suggested that I hold Reggie while Stuart popped his head in to give Andrea the relevant pieces of paper to show that we'd paid the bill.

Once that was done, we took the very patient Reggie for his long overdue walk along the river.

While we were walking along the river, Reggie made a new friend - a little girl dog. Her owner (an older chap), along with what appeared to be a group of his friends (there were two other older men and a younger lady) started talking to us. This is nothing unusual - lots of people coo over Reggie, ask whether he's male or female, how old he is, and we inevitably remark that he's 'molto timido' (very scared/shy) when he backs away from them. On this occasion, it seemed that his playful little female friend was enough to distract Reggie from the fact that he was standing amongst a group of four tall strangers, and he and the other dog played joyfully while we chatted. When they realised we were not from round these parts, two of the older men started speaking in remarkably good English. Without wanting to generalise... I'm going to do exactly that: it usually tends to be the younger generations that speak English and the older generations that don't know any at all, so it was a surprise to hear such good English coming from these two slightly older gents. They told us that they were hatching a plan for a 'dog wall' (yes, that's wall not walk) along the river in Pescia. The idea is that they will stick up photographs of (local) people's dogs on this 'dog wall' - I think they said next spring/summer - and they invited us to take part. We gave them our email address so that they could send us more information and chatted at some length with this friendly group of dog lovers before eventually heading off with our respective dogs.

After that, we headed back to the car, already hearing the church bells chiming 12pm. We couldn't quite believe the whole morning had gone, but at least we felt as if we had done some useful jobs.

As it was near enough lunch time when we got home, Stuart whipped up some tuna sandwiches and we ate, sitting in glorious sunshine on the patio. Granted I was wearing jeans, a thick jumper and two layers under it, but it really did feel warm! It was a beautiful day.

Still speaking to us after his trip to the vet.

Soaking up the sunshine.

The perfect warm spot.

December blue skies.

It was a struggle to motivate myself to head indoors to the gloomy office after that, but I needed to get on with some work, so that's where I headed while Stuart and Reggie spent a little while longer soaking up the vitamin D.

Stuart busied himself in the afternoon with, amongst other things: turning over the compost in the three-bin composting station, constructing a feline safety ramp that runs from the sideboard to the stairs so that the cats will feel that they can safely run upstairs without having to negotiate 'barky-four-paws' on the way, and bringing more firewood into the house.

Is it a plank, is it a slide?...

...No, it's a Heath Robinson feline safety ramp!

After Reggie and I had walked to the end of the drive to check the post box, and Stuart and I had put the geese to bed, we all retired indoors and, under Stuart's instruction, I lit my first fire in the log burner. Of course, I can't really take credit, as the whole process was closely overseen by Stuart, but I was pleased that it roared into life quite quickly, and it only took a matter of a couple of minutes before the fan on top of the fire started to spin. With any luck I'll be a dab hand at it in no time.

We ended the day with a glass of wine (well, it is nearly Christmas) by the fire. A satisfying day.

Feeling cosy

After a late night last night, it was a late morning for everyone today. Despite my alarm going off, I didn't fully come-to until about 20 minutes later when Lucca and Florence started up their morning protest about having no food left in their bowls. So I got up, fed the cats, took Reggie outside, fed him, emptied the dehumidifier in the apartment and opened up the goose house, before collecting my bits and pieces for a session on the turbo trainer.

Having had such a late start, I didn't finish my exercise session until 9am and, after showering, changing the cat litter, emptying the bins and taking Reggie outside again, it was 10am before I was sitting down with my bowl of cereal and booting up the computer.

It wasn't long after that that I thought I heard the sound of a car pull up outside. Sure enough, Reggie started barking, and Stuart went outside to find the geologist had arrived to drill some holes in our drive and take some samples away. Apparently he apologised for not having come yesterday - on account of the rain. After Stuart had made him a cup of coffee (and brought it into me to check that I thought it was small enough to be the way Italians like it before presenting it to him), he and his colleague went about their business - much to Reggie's consternation. There was much barking at all the noises and voices he could hear from outside.

As midday drew close, I reminded Stuart that we needed to go to the post office to collect a parcel that was waiting there for me. As we were also waiting in for a re-delivery by DHL (who had 'tried' to deliver to us yesterday, but since we weren't standing at the gate at the exact time at which they arrived, they had concluded that we 'weren't in' and had said that they would re-attempt delivery today after 11am), Stuart offered to go to the post office while I waited at the house in case DHL turned up or phoned.

15 minutes or so later, Stuart returned, empty-handed. He said the post office was busy, so he'd come back to collect the empty gas bottles and get them re-filled at Frateschi's before trying the post office again. After another 20 minutes or so, he returned again - this time with a new gas bottle, but still no parcel. He said the post office was still busy, so he'd try again later. By this time, it was getting on for 1pm and since the post office closes at around 1.30pm, I offered to go down myself as I knew I would have more patience to stand in the queue and wait.

So I hopped in the car and trundled down the road, where I found just two people in the queue at the post office. I waited my turn, then presented the chap behind the desk with the little official note that had been left on our door, bearing a consignment number and all the details. He studied it briefly then looked up and asked when it had been left. I said yesterday, then corrected myself to say it was actually Monday. He disappeared off into the back room, muttering something about there not being anything, but came back with a small box in his hand. He then rattled something else off - it seemed there was some sort of problem somewhere - whether it was that the number on the form didn't match the number on the parcel or what, I've no idea, but he spent ages punching things into his computer and muttering things to me that I simply couldn't understand. It seems that trips to the post office are not helpful to my morale - I always seem to come away on the verge of tears feeling frustrated and ignorant for my lack of ability to understand and communicate. Anyway, thankfully he did finally seem satisfied with all of his paperwork, asked me to sign (twice) for the parcel and handed it to me.

I got back in the car feeling fragile and deflated, but my mood was marginally uplifted when I realised that the package was the anti-stress supplements that I'd ordered for the cats to help them through the stress of adjusting to a dog in the house (and the added stress of having a second dog here for the week next week). After having ordered them, the confirmation email had told me not to bother expecting them to arrive for another two weeks from now, so it was a relief to receive them now - I hope they have some positive and calming effects!

By the time I got home, it was nearly 1.30pm, so we sat down for a lunch of hummus and boiled eggs - the last of the ones we'd collected from Sue's chickens last week - before I went back to the office for an hour or so's more work.

When it reached 4pm and there had been no sign of (nor call from) the courier, we decided we would have to go out anyway - Reggie needed his walk, and we wanted to call in at the vet's to try and arrange for him to have the booster jab that we'd been told he would need on 20th December.

So, after putting the geese to bed and rounding up the cats, Stuart, Reggie and I piled into the car and headed down the road. It wasn't until we were the other side of Pietrabuona that I realised we hadn't remembered to bring the paperwork that showed the vaccinations he'd already had, so once we reached San Lorenzo we did an about-turn and headed back up the hill to home so that I could dash in, pick up the paperwork and dash back out again.

When we finally made it to Pescia, we parked up in the main square and left Reggie in the car while we popped into the vet's to ask about getting him his jab. The vet said he could do it tomorrow morning - so that, along with a visit to Andrea's office to sign the paperwork for the 'amnesty' payment will be tomorrow morning taken care of!

We then retrieved Reggie from the car and walked around town for half an hour or so before heading back up the hill. The house felt positively cosy when we opened the door - the fire had been blazing for a few hours and had done its job of heating up the house very nicely. Even though the weather isn't particularly cold at the moment, it's amazing the difference it makes being able to walk into a warm house.

We then settled down to write the blog, wash up, prepare dinner and play referee between Lucca and Reggie - the cats starting to feel a little more bold and venturing downstairs seems to be just a little too much for Reggie to cope with in a controlled manner and things soon descend into chaos and trauma for the poor cats. Will we get there eventually with Reggie and the cats?? I hope so!

Taking stock

Sitting here on Wednesday morning with a thick fuzzy head, I'm struggling to remember what happened yesterday.

From memory, I woke up fairly late again - around 9am-9.30am, having made the decision a few days ago that my alarm is not going to get any use this side of 2015. Of course, by then, Helen had already been out, taken Reggie to the toilet, fed the cats and the dog, let the geese out, emptied the dehumidifier in the apartment and even started some work.

We were expecting Dr Minetti, the geologist, to arrive towards the end of the morning today to do whatever it is that geologists do when checking that it's safe to build with regards to seismic activity. 

That tied us to the house for the morning, so Helen busied herself with office work as per usual and I busied myself with a book ('The Moneyless Manifesto' by Mark Boyle) and a puppy.

After lunch time had come and gone, we decided that Dr Minetti had missed his chance and we went into town to walk the dog and pay a kind of council tax - which was due today.

Of course, we knew when we went out at just after 2pm that it was right in the middle of lunch time, but we thought that by the time we'd walked Reggie around town, the shops would be opening again. So, after an extensive walk around the streets of Pescia, it was 3pm and we found just one tabaccheria open - at the top of the main square. I went into the shop and queued in line to pay while Helen stood outside with Reggie. When I finally got to the front of the queue though, I was told that I couldn't pay the bill as it wasn't in my name. So I went out, and Helen went in, while I held Reggie outside. She queued in line, until it was eventually her turn to be served - at which point the man told her that he could only take payment in cash. So out she came, relieved me of another €60 to add to her €50 in cash, then she traipsed back into the shop to queue up once again. When she finally got to the front of the queue again, she was asked for her codice fiscale (fiscal code), a signature and a telephone number before finally - after almost half and hour of to-ing and fro-ing - being able to hand over the money and walk away with a receipt. Poor Reggie waited patiently but must have been wondering what on earth was going on in that shop!

When we'd finally sorted the bill out, we headed home to light the fire that so far we'd put off doing until after the geologist had been and we'd been out to pay the bill.

The fire didn't get much of a chance to heat the house today though, as at 5pm we were heading out again - Helen has her weekly Italian lesson with Sue, and I'd offered to help Chris with a website and Henry with Excel for a test he was having at school today.

Sue had kindly offered to cook us a sausage casserole for dinner after she and Helen got back from their Italian lesson, so it turned into a lovely relaxed evening (Reggie came along too - he's starting to think the Phillipses is his second home!) of delicious food, wine, and taking stock of the last seven months as we end towards to end of the year and into the thick of our first winter here.

We got home just before the car turned into a pumpkin (about 11.45pm), put Reggie to bed (he went to sleep without a single complaint after his late night), and we subsequently crashed out ourselves after giving the cats some TLC in the bedroom.

An unremarkable day by our standards - for my part at least. There isn't a huge amount I feel I can get my teeth into this close to Christmas without causing disruption at a time when we should be slowing down - or at least that's what I'm telling myself, as I sit here struggling to find some motivation.

The week before Christmas is upon us!

I fed my tiredness with sleep until 9am this morning when I was roused by Helen urging me to get up to go and collect my blood results. So after breakfast I took Reggie with me into town to give him a walk while I collected the blood test results, and to give Helen some long overdue peace and quiet for an hour.

After collecting the results from the misericordia (volunteer ambulance service in case you weren't paying attention last week), I collected Reggie from the car and took him for a lengthy walk around town and along the river before towelling him dry (it was a wet morning) and taking him back home.

Once back home, Reggie and I joined Helen in the office for a little over an hour and I managed finally to finish my Christmas shopping. By the time I'd done that, it was time to head down the road to the village surgery to see the doctor. This time, we both went prepared. I went with my e-reader in hand (I've just started reading a book called 'Gironimo' about a 40-something guy wanting to ride the route of the 1914 Giro d'Italia - by far the worst ever bike race in history - and do it on a bike from the same era - that's over 3,500km on wooden wheels!), as well as my medical records and blood test results, while Helen brought some work to do. With all of this morning's activities, we hadn't yet lit the fire in the house, so it was still quite chilly - as a result, we were both quite looking forward to what we we now knew would be an hour's wait in a very warm room! 'Every cloud...' as they say.

We were the first in the waiting room again, which meant we would be the first to be seen. It seems like if we get there for 1pm, we pretty much get the number one spot (there was once one chap ahead of us at that time but on both the other occasions we've been the first). I've no idea how long the waiting time would work out if we didn't arrive until later on and just joined whatever queue there was, but for now, I made the most of the hour's reading time.

So doctor arrived at 2.15pm and waved us into his room, where he put on his white coat then sat at his desk and looked through the two A4 pages of blood test results. We held our breaths until he started making some encouraging noises and declared everything to be good except for a high LDL cholesterol reading (but not so high that it can't be sorted with a change in diet - it seems after all the cooking for the helpers our reverting to lazy meals of bread and chunks of cheese has taken its toll). With the exception of that, and the (now improving) tiredness and bad moods, he gave me a clean bill of health. So it seems as if I've succumbed to a dose of depression, probably courtesy of my hypothyroidism (or perhaps more likely that, combined with all the stresses and demands - both physical and mental - of the last seven months). The doctor had started me on a course of mild anti-depressants last week, and as of Sat/Sun they seemed to have started working - and yesterday and today have been the best two days (by a country mile) I've had in the last two-and-a-bit weeks. So it seems I'm over the worst of it, and the doctor has suggested I take the medication for a month longer. If this is what 'mild' depression is like, the thought of full-on heavy depression is a scary prospect to say the least.

We got home at about 2.45pm and had a late lunch then I started the fire roaring while Helen went back to the office.

After darkness had fallen and the geese had been put to bed, we resisted the strong urge to lock the door and sit in front of the fire, and instead headed to the supermarket to do the food shopping that we'd put off yesterday.

The supermarket was relatively quiet, so it wasn't too arduous a task and once we'd got home and unpacked, I started writing the blog with the dog curled up next to me on the sofa - but not before a couple of 'time-outs' in his crate for trying to chase Florence. Florence has shown increasing interest in joining us in the living room over the last couple of evenings - it's really frustrating not being Dr Doolittle. I'm sure that if I could 'talk to the animals', all I would need to say to Florence and Lucca is 'don't run off, Reggie just wants to say hello' - we're fairly confident that's all it is, having seen how he behaves around other dogs and cats he sees out on his walks. It would also be good to be able to tell Reggie that if he just kept his mouth shut and approached them slowly, the cats might not run away (although of course, his idea of playing doesn't involve simply sitting still looking at each other, and I don't think the cats would be very accepting of his rough-and-tumble type of play). So for now, we have to just keep a close eye on things and find some comfort in the very small improvements that seem to be being made - we are desperately looking forward to the day (hoping there will be one!) when we can remove all of the dog/cat segregation devices in the house and have all of our furry friends cohabiting happily together. Life would be so much easier and more relaxing if all three of them could get along (we'd settle for them simply tolerating each other!).

I also had a busy Skype session or three whilst typing out this blog post - I've never been so popular and it was nice to see friendly faces from the island we used to call 'home'. 

First, my friend Granville (a.k.a. Paul) called to check in with us before he jumps in his car with wife Marie and dog Nero and heads in our direction for the Christmas week. We haven't seen them since our surprise leaving party in late April, and not only will Helen and I be spending our first Christmas together this year (in 12 years!), but we'll also have the good company of Paul, Marie and Nero. We can't wait for them to arrive.

After that, our good friend Ben rang us - he'd tried calling at the weekend, but we had been out at the Phillipses for the evening. He was just running bath time for his little girls at home, so I got to say 'hi' to Isabel and a now very talkative Erin (the last time we saw the girls, Erin wasn't even talking!), which was really nice.

Last but not least, I got to chat with Mom, who's been a busy little traveller of late, so it was good to catch up with her too.

Once all of my Skype calls were over, we finally got to sit down to a meal of vegetable fajitas and enjoy the warmth of our roaring log fire.

Warm and toasty

After last night's late night, I was hopeful that Reggie would have a lie-in, but no, he started singing and whining at 7.40am. A little later than usual, but not by much. I duly crawled out of bed and took him outside for his morning toilet rounds, gave him breakfast, opened up the goose house and then tried to go back to bed. I dozed a little, but I could hear that Reggie was awake, banging around in his crate, so I got up and went downstairs to sit on the sofa with him and watch a bit of TV. Come 10am we heard stirring from upstairs, and Stuart came plodding wearily downstairs - he looked tired, but actually better than he had done yesterday.

We had pretty much decided yesterday that we would postpone the weekly supermarket shop and give ourselves the day off today, so we spent a leisurely morning on the sofa with Reggie until I remembered I needed to replace the sawdust in the goose house and we realised we didn't have any cat food left - Stuart duly went down the road to Amanda's to buy some emergency sachets of Whiskas while I dealt with the geese.

Not long after we'd finished those jobs, there was a knock at the door and 4 Phillipses in the house. (Not a total surprise - we were expecting them.) Poor Reggie was a little overwhelmed and once we'd managed to stop him barking he kept running to hide behind one of us, but he eventually calmed down and accepted that they came in peace.

In fact, not only did they come in peace but they came to give us a master class in fire lighting/building/maintenance - in other words to teach us how to keep our house warm. While Chris rolled his sleeves up and started cleaning the fire and telling Stuart all about how it works, the boys attempted to play with Reggie outside (he was still a bit too wary to play with them) and Sue and I chatted. As time went on, and Chris put his theory into practice, showing us how to stack the wood up to fill the fire up, which vents to open, when to close them and so on, the temperature in the living room gradually got higher and higher and our visitors even started to take their coats off. The difference in temperature in the house was incredible - after a while, not only did it feel warm throughout the living room, but it felt warm going up the stairs and on the landing and, with bedroom and bathroom doors open upstairs, they too soon started to feel, well, if not actually warm, definitely less chilly and more comfortable. The difference between this and the fires we've been lighting over the last few months was incredible. (Nick and Tess, if you're reading this, the little black magic/Satan fan was spinning so fast it looked as if it might almost take off any second.)

Eventually, after much work, chopping, bringing logs in, stacking the fire, cleaning the fire and all sorts, Chris was happy he had imparted sufficient knowledge to us (well, Stuart at least) to leave us to it. What an amazing gift!!

After the Phillipses had left, we decided to experiment with putting some food on top of the stove to heat up - Stuart had bought some dishes from Amanda that simply needed reheating, so we put those on top of the stove and waited. We only had to wait a matter of a minute or two before we could hear them sizzing and the sauce started boiling! Things got so warm, in fact, that Stuart needed to roll his trousers up. (The idea is that by making the fire this hot, the house itself will start to take on some heat in the walls and start to retain it, making it a much more comfortable temperature overall.)

So hot we cooked lunch on it.

Phew, it's a bit hot in here...

After we'd eaten a late lunch, we took Reggie out for a walk up and down the drive. We didn't really fancy going out anywhere for a walk today and he really didn't look like he was bothered - it seemed that the late night and the excitement of a houseful of strangers were catching up with him and he spent most of the afternoon dozing. For the most part, though, rather than assuming his favourite position on the sofa next to the fire, he curled up in his bed across the other side of the room - I think the fire was simply too hot for him to bear! He enjoyed his walk up and down the drive, but went straight back to his bed when we got in again.

After we'd got the geese into their house for the night, we decided to settle down on the sofa - we'd let the fire die down a little by this point, so it was comfortable to sit there - and watch a film before having an early night. It was the first time in a couple of weeks that I didn't feel the need to take a hot water bottle to bed!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

After getting up to see to the animals at 7.15am this morning, I attempted to keep Reggie outside with me while I did a short session on the turbo trainer as I knew that if he went back inside he would whine and be likely to wake Stuart up. Unfortunately, less than 2 minutes after getting on the bike, it became clear that the set up wasn't going to work - Reggie spotted Lucca sitting on the fence in the garden and sprinted down the steps to chase him before I could so much as dismount from the bike and poor Lucca ran off looking traumatised. There was nothing else for it than to put Reggie back in his crate with a chew and hope that that would keep him quiet for half an hour.

Stuart surfaced a little after 9am looking tired and decided he didn't feel up to the trip into town to collect his blood test results. We should be able to collect them on Monday morning anyway, so we parked that job until then.

In the middle of the morning, I popped down to the post office in the village - I had 4 parcels to send to the UK, plus a parcel to send to Perugia (the old 'LNB' from the satellite dish, which Brad has asked us to return), a letter to send to the electricity company and a bill to pay (for refuse collection). Things didn't look promising when I arrived and parked the car to see people milling around on the pavement - the post office is so tiny that when the queue exceeds three people, it spills out onto the pavement. Anyway, the parcels (Christmas presents for family) were late enough as it was, so I decided to wait it out and duly joined the end of the 6-people-long queue. I waited and I waited. Several times I thought I'd made up my mind that I'd had enough and was going to go home and come back another time, but just as I'd had that thought, it would look as if the person currently being served was finishing up their business so I decided to hang on. Eventually, after about 20 minutes of waiting, I got to the front of the queue.

The man behind the counter said something to me that I didn't understand, and I felt flustered and ignorant. He repeated it, and I thought he was saying something along the lines of 'the parcels are too big' - and telling me I couldn't post them. Just as I started to feel a lump in my throat and tears rising, he beckoned me to go over to the door through to the back of the post office to pass the parcels through to him. He then started shuffling pieces of paperwork, thrust a form at me to fill in for the parcel that was going to Perugia, and started shouting out the costs for each of the parcels going to the UK. I was flustered but it seemed that my parcels were actually going to be sent after all. Once we'd sorted all of that out, and he'd charged me the €64 (yes, €64) for the postage, I reminded him that I had a bill to pay as well  - he'd snatched the bill from me with everything else right at the start and covered it with other pieces of paperwork, so I struggled to get my point across, (in completely rubbish and probably incomprehensible Italian), but pointing at it helped and before long I was leaving the post office with a much lighter purse and feeling a mixture of relief that I'd managed to accomplish what I set out to achieve, along with frustration and disappointment that I'd failed to communicate clearly or understand what was being said. Every time I think I'm making some progress on the language front, I find myself in a situation where I simply don't understand what's being said and my mind goes blank.

Anyway, by the time I got home Stuart was feeling a bit brighter so we had a cup of tea (hot squash for me) while we waited for the washing machine to finish (on a couple of occasions recently there has been a suspicious smell of hot rubber coming from the washing machine so I don't dare leave it going while we are away from the house), then headed out in the direction of Montecatini, with Reggie in tow.

Our first stop was the pet shop - we got Reggie out to come inside with us, but he really doesn't like going into the big, brightly lit shop, so Stuart waited outside with him while I went in. I wanted to see if they had anything at all that would help with calming the cats in this stressful period of getting used to the big barky monster in their house. Over the last week or so we've been giving them some 'Zylkene' - a supplement recommended by vets in the UK that is a milk derivative and which has seemingly magical cat (and dog) calming properties. We'd used it prior to their journey over here and when they first arrived to help them settle in, and it seemed to have some positive effects. However, we only had a little of what we brought over from the UK left - which has now run out, and although I've ordered a new packet, the estimated delivery date for that isn't until 29th December. With not only Reggie to contend with, but another dog coming for Christmas (Granville and Marie's pug, Nero), I wanted to try and find out if there was anything we could give the cats in the interim to help them feel calmer - or even anything like the 'Feliway' plug-ins that we've used in the past that are also meant to help in stressful situations. The pet shop, however, had nothing.

Our next stop was the ipercoop shopping centre, where we dashed in for a cappucino and a pastry - by this time it was 3pm and we hadn't had any lunch, so that filled the gap. Finally, we headed to Decathlon, our goal being to buy some warm clothes - in particular shoes. Since the weather finally decided to turn wintry (and even when it's milder, but wet), we have both realised that we are ill equipped for living this lifestyle in terms of footwear. If we are taking Reggie out for a walk along the river, then my lovely wellies (a Christmas present from my sister a couple of years ago) are ideal, and I am truly getting the most out of them. Likewise, Stuart has wellies and work boots. If, however, we are simply going to the shops or for a walk around town, the only vaguely wintry shoes I had available were a pair of Converse boots (neither warm nor waterproof) or else my old work boots - with heels. I can't even imagine an occasion on which wearing high heeled boots will be appropriate at the moment! Similarly, Stuart felt he didn't have appropriate footwear for this weather.

We therefore went straight to the shoes in Decathlon and I picked out a pair of wool-lined boots, while Stuart found a pair of woolly-topped shoes. We also picked up a warm top and a pair of warm leggings for me. Purchases paid for, we headed back to the car and set off for home - today has been a wet and grey day, so the light was starting to fade even earlier than usual, so we hurried home to get the cats indoors and put the geese to bed before it got properly dark.

Warm footwear!

By the time the cats and geese were safely tucked up for the night, it was around 5pm and we were due at Chris and Sue's at 7-7.30pm. We'd decided we would walk Reggie beforehand, so were aiming to go out a little after 6pm. We therefore decided to watch an hour's programme on TV, and since we were going out, decided it wasn't worth lighting the fire. Boy, it was a chilly hour!

While we were sitting watching TV, with Reggie snuggled up with us on the sofa, chewing on toys, clothes, arms etc., something fell from his mouth - he lost his first tooth (or the first that we know about anyway)! Wow. Thankfully there is no tooth fairy for puppies though. I'm not sure the tooth fairy could afford to pay out for all of those teeth!

With apologies for those who are squeamish, or eating breakfast...

Puppy's first tooth!

When 6pm rolled around, we packed a bag for Reggie. Reggie had been invited to spend the evening at Chris and Sue's (and bring us along with him), so we packed a few toys, some chews, a towel, his water bowl and dinner bowl, some dinner and his lead then set off into town.

We parked the car at Chris and Sue's then headed with Reggie into town. We did a fairly large circuit of the town, taking in the pretty Christmas lights.

After that, we headed back to Chris and Sue's. Reggie looked confused when we opened up the boot of the car and instead of asking him to jump in and get in his crate, Stuart lifted the crate out of the boot. What on earth was going on? We then headed up the hill, laden with doggie paraphernalia, to be greeted by the Phillipses. Reggie was very uncertain about going inside the strange house with strange people inside, but eventually came in once he realised that Stuart and I were going in. Henry and Erik were heading out for their own evening's socialising, so Reggie just had Chris and Sue to get used to over the course of the evening.

We had a wonderful evening, as ever with the Phillipses. Sue fed us delicious home made curries and plied us with mulled wine and prosecco. It was lovely to spend an evening relaxing in great company and having a good catch up and lots of laughs. It was also lovely to spend an evening in a really warm house! Chris has promised us a master class in fire lighting/building/maintaining, so hopefully we too will be able to keep our house toasty warm!

As usual, time flew by, and come 1.30am it was time to take our sleepy puppy home - he had been an absolute angel all night, on his best behaviour, and we were proud of him!

Not much to report

As the title says, there's not a lot to report today - it was another bitterly cold frosty morning, and after I'd finished my turbo training session, showered and settled in the office for some work, I shivered at my desk despite wearing the following (along with a pair of jeans):

• A top (which I used to wear to the climate-controlled office in the UK)
• A body warmer/gilet
• A hoodie
• A thick woolly cardigan
• A woolly hat
• 'Wrist warmers' fashioned out of an old pair of Stuart's socks with the tops cut off (thanks for the tip Mary!!)
• Two pairs of socks
• Slippers

I also nursed a hot water bottle in my lap, but continued to shiver.

In the meantime, Stuart decided that he didn't feel up to going out this morning - not only was it bitterly cold (and without the bright sunshine to lift spirits and temperatures today), but he felt tired and headachey too, so he lit the fire for the day and he and Reggie sat on the sofa feeding the fire every now and then and keeping toasty warm while I sat like Michelin man in the back room.

Needless to say, lunch was indoors today, and I got to sit by the fire for half an hour or so before heading back to the office. In fact, the weather warmed up slightly as the day went on, and we are now due a spell of milder, wetter weather over the next week or so. To be honest though, as harsh as the cold weather is in a non-centrally-heated, non-double-glazed house, I'd rather have cold and dry than mild and wet!

I worked on until about 4pm, when I went out to lure the cats indoors for their evening lock-down then helped Stuart with the geese, who are still being difficult - I keep telling them they'd better buck their ideas up, or at least start laying some eggs, or else they'll be on the table this Christmas!! (How does 'The 12 Days of Christmas' go? Six geese a laying...)

After that, we headed into town with a somewhat stir crazy Reggie who seemed to need to burn off a bit of energy after his day on the sofa. We did a circuit of Pescia with him, stopping off at the cartoleria to buy some cards and admiring the pretty lights and shop displays - the town is looking beautiful with Christmas lights and crib scenes.

Finally, it was home for the evening to cook up some mulled wine and some Tuscan sausages and beans (that is, after Stuart had been out again to buy said Tuscan sausages from Amanda's), and to sit by the most successful and toasty warm fire we've had yet.

We have lots of errands to run tomorrow, but we're feeling glad it's the weekend and we are very much looking forward to seeing the Phillipses tomorrow evening!