We got up a little later than usual this morning - it hadn't been a particularly restful night's sleep, between getting up to Reggie twice (1.30am and 4am) and having Florence decide she needed human warmth and comfort (depsite it being around 24C in the bedroom) and either lying on my legs or snuggling right up next to me, I can't say I slept well!
Despite the forecast for rain and thunderstorms, we got up to a fairly clear morning and once again, Stuart, Chris and I were able to enjoy a leisurely breakfast on the patio together. We decided to head into Lucca after breakfast, saving today's dog walk until the afternoon, so after putting Reggie in his crate we got into the car and headed for Lucca. The sky seemed to get darker and darker the closer we got and when we exited the car park to climb onto the walls, we heard rumblings of thunder. We decided not to push our luck too far and after walking a short section of the walk we headed for the centre of the town, the logic being that there would be more places to shelter from the rain once the heavens opened. As we neared the centre, the heavens did indeed open, and we ran between the raindrops until we reached the Piazza Amfiteatro, where we sought shelter under the canopy of one of the restaurants and drank an Aperol spritz while waiting for the rain to abate.
When the rain finally did dry up a bit, and the rumbles of thunder faded away, we wandered around the streets of Lucca, taking in the San Michele church, Napoleon Square and other sights before stumbling across the wine bar that we'd spotted on several other occasions but never had the opportunity to visit since we'd always had Reggie with us previously. We decided to venture in, and enjoyed some delicious glasses of Brunello along with a platter of meat and cheese to share - it was a very classy joint and both food and wine were delicious. After that though, it really was time to head back to the car and get back home to check on Reggie.
Of course, Reggie was fine, but over the moon to realise that we'd come back home and hadn't left him alone forever, and when we told him we were going for walkies as well, he was beside himself. We decided to do the mill walk from Stiappa for a bit of a change of scene, so drove up the valley in that direction. When we got there, we found the path incredibly overgrown with tall grass and other vegetation - we were surprised how quickly everything had grown as it was only a matter of 5 or 6 weeks since we were last there. Reggie had a great time paddling in the stream when we reached the mill - it was the first time we'd really seen him embrace the idea of being in water and although he stopped short of swimming in the deeper water, he sploshed around in the shallower water with glee.
Walk done, we took the scenic route home (who am I kidding they're ALL scenic around here!) then changed into work clothes and set our guest to work again.
While Stuart used the chain saw to chop up large logs from the wood pile, Chris used the axe to split the logs and I used the chop saw to cut up the smaller pieces of wood - what a team!
After an hour or so of that, though, it was time to stand Chris down (he is on holiday, after all) and retreat to the patio for a glass of wine and to make a start on dinner - home-grown courgette and beetroot quinoa this evening!
Sunday, 14 June 2015
Montecarlo or stuffed
For me, Saturday morning brought a headache, so instead of getting up to exercise, I got up, took a migraine tablet, did my rounds of the animals (which now includes Terry the Terrapin) then sat quietly at my computer for a while.
By the time Stuart and Chris both appeared for breakfast, I was starting to feel human again and the three of us enjoyed a leisurely breakfast on the patio. The day was already heating up though, so as soon as everyone had finished their toast and coffee we headed out with Reggie to give him another run around. We went back to the cava track again, as we know it's slightly cooler and shady for most of the path. We had another enjoyable walk, and this time Reggie made us all laugh by playing the fool jumping into puddles and splashing around, before coming back out to shake himself, each time perilously close to us humans - while we'd each have appreciated a refreshing splash of cool water, we weren't so keen on the muddy stuff.
We then returned Reggie to the house - this time putting him in his crate for everyone's (Florence, Lucca, Terry Terrapin and his own) safety (when we returned after having left him home alone and free to roam on Friday, he had been as good as gold, there was nothing broken, nothing chewed, nothing out of place, we were very impressed - but for a longer stint, and with a guest terrapin staying in the house, I thought it would be prudent to keep him safely contained). With Reggie settled, we headed straight out again, this time for Montecarlo. We had another lovely lunch in La Terazza, marvelling and the panoramic view and at the fact that we had the place to ourselves once again. The food was as good as ever and the staff as friendly as ever.
We all rolled out of the restaurant feeling several pounds heavier than when we'd gone in, but at Stuart's insistence we visited the tiny deli 'La Buca del Norcino' in order to buy some meats and cheeses for dinner. I don't think that either Chris or I could even contemplate eating ever again at this point, but Stuart was insistent. Stuart had visited this tiny, friendly deli when he came to Montecarlo with Lee and Rob last autumn and the lovely couple who run it soon remembered him and - alarmingly - swung into action slicing up pieces of proscuitto and salami for us to taste. I looked on in horror as the proprietor cut three slices of everything (one for each of us). I managed to squeeze down a piece of proscuitto and a piece of parmesan, but after that could barely even look at the stuff! Stuart seemed to find room to taste all of it, but did at least tell the guy to stop! It felt like we did our best to buy up the entire stock of the shop, buying a salami, some blood sausage, proscuitto, truffle infused pecorino, aged pecorino, parmesan, some amazing balsamic pearls (which are a little like caviar pearls that burst in your mouth full of balsamic vinegar, a delicious accompaniment to a piece of cheese), half a melon, a punnet of cherries and a bottle of wine.
Laden with our bags of goodies (but unable to imagine when we would ever feel hungry enough to eat them), we headed back to the car and back up the hill to the house. While Chris went off to the apartment for a siesta (he had just had a hard week's work in Venice and he is here on holiday, unlike us!), Stuart and I took the scythes to the goose enclosure which had started to resemble a jungle. While the geese are great at keeping the grass down, they are not interested in eating bracken, acacia, bramble, or several other weeds, so we spent 20 minutes or so trying to cut as much of it as we could. It really needs a full strim to tidy it up completely, but by the time we'd finished it was a lot better.
We then turned our attentions to weeding the vegetable beds. Our vegetables are really starting to become productive - we've already eaten peas, radishes, beetroot, courgettes, rocket and nasturtiums, and there are potatoes, onions, shallots, broad beans, green beans, lettuces and more well on their way to being ready. Of course, along with the vegetable growth, the weeds have also become prolific, and a thorough weeding session was well overdue. Stuart and I had been weeding for a short while when Chris appeared and came down to join us, and the three of us spent a satisfying hour or so turning the veg beds from a tangled mess of weeds to smart, neat-looking beds.
As 6pm struck on the clock in Pietrabuona, we were just finishing up the last bed, so decided it was time to call it a day. We therefore came back up to the patio to open a bottle of wine - although it turns out that as well as being very satisfying, pulling up weeds it quite addictive, and Chris and I continued by pulling all the weeds off the garden wall before finally sitting down for a break.
We enjoyed a well earned bottle of wine before eventually deciding it was time to get the spread of meats and cheeses out. We were surprised to find that, while not exactly hungry, we did all feel peckish, and in the end we made a fairly sizeable dent in what we'd bought!
As darkness fell, Stuart and Chris got the telescope out to do some star gazing, before coming indoors when it finally got a little too cool.
Today (Sunday) is forecast to be a day of thunderstorms. As I write this, the weather is warm and dry, but there are clouds overhead, so we will wait and see what the day brings.
By the time Stuart and Chris both appeared for breakfast, I was starting to feel human again and the three of us enjoyed a leisurely breakfast on the patio. The day was already heating up though, so as soon as everyone had finished their toast and coffee we headed out with Reggie to give him another run around. We went back to the cava track again, as we know it's slightly cooler and shady for most of the path. We had another enjoyable walk, and this time Reggie made us all laugh by playing the fool jumping into puddles and splashing around, before coming back out to shake himself, each time perilously close to us humans - while we'd each have appreciated a refreshing splash of cool water, we weren't so keen on the muddy stuff.
We then returned Reggie to the house - this time putting him in his crate for everyone's (Florence, Lucca, Terry Terrapin and his own) safety (when we returned after having left him home alone and free to roam on Friday, he had been as good as gold, there was nothing broken, nothing chewed, nothing out of place, we were very impressed - but for a longer stint, and with a guest terrapin staying in the house, I thought it would be prudent to keep him safely contained). With Reggie settled, we headed straight out again, this time for Montecarlo. We had another lovely lunch in La Terazza, marvelling and the panoramic view and at the fact that we had the place to ourselves once again. The food was as good as ever and the staff as friendly as ever.
We all rolled out of the restaurant feeling several pounds heavier than when we'd gone in, but at Stuart's insistence we visited the tiny deli 'La Buca del Norcino' in order to buy some meats and cheeses for dinner. I don't think that either Chris or I could even contemplate eating ever again at this point, but Stuart was insistent. Stuart had visited this tiny, friendly deli when he came to Montecarlo with Lee and Rob last autumn and the lovely couple who run it soon remembered him and - alarmingly - swung into action slicing up pieces of proscuitto and salami for us to taste. I looked on in horror as the proprietor cut three slices of everything (one for each of us). I managed to squeeze down a piece of proscuitto and a piece of parmesan, but after that could barely even look at the stuff! Stuart seemed to find room to taste all of it, but did at least tell the guy to stop! It felt like we did our best to buy up the entire stock of the shop, buying a salami, some blood sausage, proscuitto, truffle infused pecorino, aged pecorino, parmesan, some amazing balsamic pearls (which are a little like caviar pearls that burst in your mouth full of balsamic vinegar, a delicious accompaniment to a piece of cheese), half a melon, a punnet of cherries and a bottle of wine.
Laden with our bags of goodies (but unable to imagine when we would ever feel hungry enough to eat them), we headed back to the car and back up the hill to the house. While Chris went off to the apartment for a siesta (he had just had a hard week's work in Venice and he is here on holiday, unlike us!), Stuart and I took the scythes to the goose enclosure which had started to resemble a jungle. While the geese are great at keeping the grass down, they are not interested in eating bracken, acacia, bramble, or several other weeds, so we spent 20 minutes or so trying to cut as much of it as we could. It really needs a full strim to tidy it up completely, but by the time we'd finished it was a lot better.
We then turned our attentions to weeding the vegetable beds. Our vegetables are really starting to become productive - we've already eaten peas, radishes, beetroot, courgettes, rocket and nasturtiums, and there are potatoes, onions, shallots, broad beans, green beans, lettuces and more well on their way to being ready. Of course, along with the vegetable growth, the weeds have also become prolific, and a thorough weeding session was well overdue. Stuart and I had been weeding for a short while when Chris appeared and came down to join us, and the three of us spent a satisfying hour or so turning the veg beds from a tangled mess of weeds to smart, neat-looking beds.
As 6pm struck on the clock in Pietrabuona, we were just finishing up the last bed, so decided it was time to call it a day. We therefore came back up to the patio to open a bottle of wine - although it turns out that as well as being very satisfying, pulling up weeds it quite addictive, and Chris and I continued by pulling all the weeds off the garden wall before finally sitting down for a break.
We enjoyed a well earned bottle of wine before eventually deciding it was time to get the spread of meats and cheeses out. We were surprised to find that, while not exactly hungry, we did all feel peckish, and in the end we made a fairly sizeable dent in what we'd bought!
As darkness fell, Stuart and Chris got the telescope out to do some star gazing, before coming indoors when it finally got a little too cool.
Today (Sunday) is forecast to be a day of thunderstorms. As I write this, the weather is warm and dry, but there are clouds overhead, so we will wait and see what the day brings.
Saturday, 13 June 2015
Two new guests
Today was mainly dedicated to preparing for the arrival of our friend, Chris. I managed a quick half hour or so of work first thing in the morning, after which we headed into town to do a supermarket shop - the first one we'd done under our own steam (in our own car) for several weeks! We decided to try leaving Reggie at home but giving him the run of the (downstairs) house rather than locking him in his crate while we were out. I made sure Florence (who is STILL on strike and refusing to go out, after having been chased by Reggie two weeks or so ago) was safely shut in our bedroom, and locked the cat flap to prevent Lucca wandering in expecting the coast to be clear, then made sure there were no breakables close to the edge of the kitchen worktop and nervously told Reggie to be good while we were out!
The supermarkets were quite quiet, which was a relief, and once we'd done the shopping we celebrated with a cappuccino in Franco's bar in the square - just the one though, as we didn't want to leave Reggie home alone (and free to roam) for too long. We then carried on up the hill, making a quick stop at Frateshi's so that we could pop the umbrella we had been loaned the other night when it was lashing down with rain back into Da Nerone, and Stuart popped into Frateschi's to see whether any packages had been delivered there for us. We were "expecting" (in the loose sense of the term, since we have lost all faith) a new modem to be delivered to us this week. As we HAD thought we would be away on holiday, we had asked for it to be delivered to Frateschi's (although not received any acknowledgement of that request). Either way, there was no modem at Frateschi's and we haven't had anything delivered here, we are still without our internet service and have not heard a peep from the provider (Italia Wi-Fi/EuroConX) since I emailed him a week ago. Great customer service hey?
So we carried on to the house, unpacked the shopping then made a start on doing some cleaning and tidying, both of the apartment and the house. Just as I was vacuuming down the stairs, we were plunged into silence and darkness - the electricity had tripped. That's nothing unusual, but for the fact that it was only really the vacuum using any more than usual (we didn't have kettles, washing machine or water heaters on at the same time). I moved the sofa to check the consumer unit - and all switches were as they should be. Hmm, odd. Stuart went down to the apartment to check the main meter but came back up again with the news that it was a full-on power outage. That put paid to any more vacuuming!
Since it was around 12.30pm, we decided that it was a good time to stop for lunch and hope that the electricity would come back on again soon, so we had our lunch on the patio, every now and then looking to see if lights had come back on in the house. They flickered back on momentarily, but we didn't even have time to celebrate before they had gone off again. We therefore continued our cleaning and tidying after lunch in darkness and resorting to old-fashioned sweeping instead of vacuuming.
Just as we were finishing up, the lights came back on - and this time they stayed on! Brilliant. It had just gone 2pm by this time, so we'd been in darkness for about an hour and a half. It was just about then that Stuart received a message from Chris to say that he had managed to get on an earlier train from Florence and would be arriving in Pescia at about 3.15pm. We quickly swung into action and loaded Reggie into the car and drove into town to take him for a walk. We parked up on the Lidl side of the river and walked from there as far as the railway bridge. We didn't see another soul for the duration of the walk so Reggie happily ran around off leash, running down to the water to have a sip and back up again, and down again, and up again. We were envious of him being able to cool down in the water - it was scorching and very humid. After we'd finished the walk, it was time to head to the station to collect Chris. His train was delayed, but only by 10 minutes or so, so it wasn't long before we were greeting him and introducing Reggie to our latest guest.
Stuart decided to take Chris for a welcome-to-Pescia drink at Bar Pulter. Reggie refused point blank to get out of the car and because it was such a hot day we couldn't leave him without leaving all the doors and windows open. Although we'd managed to find a parking spot very close to the bar, it wasn't visible from the seating area and I didn't feel happy leaving him unattended unless we could see him. I decided to try a new tack and offered to drive the car around the corner, to a spot where I knew he would get out, and see if I could walk him round to the square and see if he would sit with us outside - as he does sometimes seem happy to do. Today was definitely NOT one of those days though. Poor Reggie knew something was up and every time we even changed direction to head towards the square he took fright. I felt terrible for trying to make him go where he didn't want to go, so we headed back to the safety of the car and, after quick phone calls to Stuart and to the Phillipses, Reggie and I headed to the Phillipses' house.
Once we were parked up outside the Phillipses', Reggie happily jumped out of the car and led me all the way up the hill to their house, where he promptly had a long drink of water then flopped onto the floor underneath the table. A little later, Stuart and Chris (Perkins) came walking up the hill to join us and Chris, Stuart Chris, Sue, Erik and I sat chatting the afternoon away. When we realised the time was getting on for 7pm, we decided it was time to leave and take Chris (Perkins) to see our own house! We collected the Phillipses' house keys, Erik's terrapin, its tank and food (the terrapin is coming to stay with us while the Phillipses go on holiday) and headed off up the hill, with me cradling a saucepan containing said terrapin and trying to make sure he didn't slosh over the edge (I don't know if terrapins can get car sick/sea sick, but it certainly was a choppy ride for the poor little thing)!
On our way home, we stopped off at Amanda's to buy some food for our dinner. Poor Amanda was in darkness - her electricity had gone off at 12.30pm, like ours, but 7 hours later it still hadn't come back on again. We sympathised with Amanda and asked if there was anything we could do to help, but short of re-connecting her electricity supply, there was nothing she could think of. We therefore bought - actually, Chris very kindly bought - what felt like half the shop, before wishing Amanda good luck and carrying on up the hill to the house.
We unloaded shopping and animals. First job was to set up "Terry" (not his real name, but it's what he will be called while under our roof) the terrapin's new home - for now, his tank is living on the edge of the kitchen worktop, although we understand that he enjoys going outside from time to time as long as he doesn't get too hot, so the worktop will be his permanent base, with excursions to the outdoors when weather permits.
After showing Chris to the apartment, we all settled at the patio for a drink and proper catch up, followed by the delicious spread of home-cooked dishes we'd bought from Amanda's. As darkness fell, Stuart lit the fire pit to keep us warm (it was quite a novelty to feel cold, but the novelty soon wore off!), and we were entertained by the most amazing display of fireflies lighting up the terraces. It really was a magical spectacle, and I can well imagine why people used to think they were fairies.
We eventually all retired to bed at a semi-respectable hour. We haven't really decided what Saturday holds in store, other than dog walking, so watch this space.
The supermarkets were quite quiet, which was a relief, and once we'd done the shopping we celebrated with a cappuccino in Franco's bar in the square - just the one though, as we didn't want to leave Reggie home alone (and free to roam) for too long. We then carried on up the hill, making a quick stop at Frateshi's so that we could pop the umbrella we had been loaned the other night when it was lashing down with rain back into Da Nerone, and Stuart popped into Frateschi's to see whether any packages had been delivered there for us. We were "expecting" (in the loose sense of the term, since we have lost all faith) a new modem to be delivered to us this week. As we HAD thought we would be away on holiday, we had asked for it to be delivered to Frateschi's (although not received any acknowledgement of that request). Either way, there was no modem at Frateschi's and we haven't had anything delivered here, we are still without our internet service and have not heard a peep from the provider (Italia Wi-Fi/EuroConX) since I emailed him a week ago. Great customer service hey?
So we carried on to the house, unpacked the shopping then made a start on doing some cleaning and tidying, both of the apartment and the house. Just as I was vacuuming down the stairs, we were plunged into silence and darkness - the electricity had tripped. That's nothing unusual, but for the fact that it was only really the vacuum using any more than usual (we didn't have kettles, washing machine or water heaters on at the same time). I moved the sofa to check the consumer unit - and all switches were as they should be. Hmm, odd. Stuart went down to the apartment to check the main meter but came back up again with the news that it was a full-on power outage. That put paid to any more vacuuming!
Since it was around 12.30pm, we decided that it was a good time to stop for lunch and hope that the electricity would come back on again soon, so we had our lunch on the patio, every now and then looking to see if lights had come back on in the house. They flickered back on momentarily, but we didn't even have time to celebrate before they had gone off again. We therefore continued our cleaning and tidying after lunch in darkness and resorting to old-fashioned sweeping instead of vacuuming.
Just as we were finishing up, the lights came back on - and this time they stayed on! Brilliant. It had just gone 2pm by this time, so we'd been in darkness for about an hour and a half. It was just about then that Stuart received a message from Chris to say that he had managed to get on an earlier train from Florence and would be arriving in Pescia at about 3.15pm. We quickly swung into action and loaded Reggie into the car and drove into town to take him for a walk. We parked up on the Lidl side of the river and walked from there as far as the railway bridge. We didn't see another soul for the duration of the walk so Reggie happily ran around off leash, running down to the water to have a sip and back up again, and down again, and up again. We were envious of him being able to cool down in the water - it was scorching and very humid. After we'd finished the walk, it was time to head to the station to collect Chris. His train was delayed, but only by 10 minutes or so, so it wasn't long before we were greeting him and introducing Reggie to our latest guest.
Stuart decided to take Chris for a welcome-to-Pescia drink at Bar Pulter. Reggie refused point blank to get out of the car and because it was such a hot day we couldn't leave him without leaving all the doors and windows open. Although we'd managed to find a parking spot very close to the bar, it wasn't visible from the seating area and I didn't feel happy leaving him unattended unless we could see him. I decided to try a new tack and offered to drive the car around the corner, to a spot where I knew he would get out, and see if I could walk him round to the square and see if he would sit with us outside - as he does sometimes seem happy to do. Today was definitely NOT one of those days though. Poor Reggie knew something was up and every time we even changed direction to head towards the square he took fright. I felt terrible for trying to make him go where he didn't want to go, so we headed back to the safety of the car and, after quick phone calls to Stuart and to the Phillipses, Reggie and I headed to the Phillipses' house.
Once we were parked up outside the Phillipses', Reggie happily jumped out of the car and led me all the way up the hill to their house, where he promptly had a long drink of water then flopped onto the floor underneath the table. A little later, Stuart and Chris (Perkins) came walking up the hill to join us and Chris, Stuart Chris, Sue, Erik and I sat chatting the afternoon away. When we realised the time was getting on for 7pm, we decided it was time to leave and take Chris (Perkins) to see our own house! We collected the Phillipses' house keys, Erik's terrapin, its tank and food (the terrapin is coming to stay with us while the Phillipses go on holiday) and headed off up the hill, with me cradling a saucepan containing said terrapin and trying to make sure he didn't slosh over the edge (I don't know if terrapins can get car sick/sea sick, but it certainly was a choppy ride for the poor little thing)!
On our way home, we stopped off at Amanda's to buy some food for our dinner. Poor Amanda was in darkness - her electricity had gone off at 12.30pm, like ours, but 7 hours later it still hadn't come back on again. We sympathised with Amanda and asked if there was anything we could do to help, but short of re-connecting her electricity supply, there was nothing she could think of. We therefore bought - actually, Chris very kindly bought - what felt like half the shop, before wishing Amanda good luck and carrying on up the hill to the house.
We unloaded shopping and animals. First job was to set up "Terry" (not his real name, but it's what he will be called while under our roof) the terrapin's new home - for now, his tank is living on the edge of the kitchen worktop, although we understand that he enjoys going outside from time to time as long as he doesn't get too hot, so the worktop will be his permanent base, with excursions to the outdoors when weather permits.
After showing Chris to the apartment, we all settled at the patio for a drink and proper catch up, followed by the delicious spread of home-cooked dishes we'd bought from Amanda's. As darkness fell, Stuart lit the fire pit to keep us warm (it was quite a novelty to feel cold, but the novelty soon wore off!), and we were entertained by the most amazing display of fireflies lighting up the terraces. It really was a magical spectacle, and I can well imagine why people used to think they were fairies.
We eventually all retired to bed at a semi-respectable hour. We haven't really decided what Saturday holds in store, other than dog walking, so watch this space.
Friday, 12 June 2015
A set of wheels
We decided to spare you a blog until there was actually something positive to write about as it all seemed to have been a bit gloomy of late. So you'll be pleased to hear that we finally have our car back - not without another set of frustrations and complications, but we do at least have wheels for the time being.
Wednesday was another frustrating day, which ended with a call from the garage at 6.50pm to say 'the car is ready, can you collect it now?'. I'm not sure how exactly they thought we were going to get there right away (Stuart contemplated cycling there but they closed just 40 minutes later and the journey would have taken him close to an hour), so we told them that it wasn't possible to come 'now' but that we'd collect it in the morning.
Yesterday, therefore, we were helped out once again by the Phillipses and Chris came up to collect Stuart in the morning so that they could head off to the garage. By this time, Stuart had been given some useful advice from Donatella, so when he got to the garage and was asked to pay the €100 for the replaced cam belt he told them he wouldn't pay until he had both an invoice and a letter explaining why it was replaced and why it wasn't covered by the warranty. Apparently he was first asked to wait 45 minutes until the woman who dealt with invoices came back (which he refused to do), then was asked to come back in the morning - to collect both the invoice AND the car! He told them that wasn't acceptable either, and eventually they agreed to let him have the keys and take the car with a promise to return in the morning for the invoice and to pay the €100.
So, after having done a couple of hours of office work, I finally heard the crunch of tyres on gravel at around 1pm - I'd like to say the 'familiar' crunch of tyres on gravel, but actually it feels like it's been so long that it's no longer a familiar sound!
All of the hassles and frustrations with the garage had really mounted up, and rather than being in a celebratory mood, it was rather a subdued lunch and early afternoon. We had also found out, thanks to Donatella, that the insurance on the car had expired in mid-January and that the document the garage had given us which we were led to believe would extend our insurance cover was actually a temporary log book, which itself had expired in mid-February. To recap, we were unable to get the ownership documents for the car when we first bought it because we didn't yet have our Italian residency. You need ownership documents for a vehicle in order to be able to insure it. The garage had therefore put us on their insurance for 6 months (which ended in January). In the meantime, we had sent them our residency documentation in November, asking for them to send us the ownership documents so that we could sort out our own insurance. Nothing happened. When we knew their insurance cover was about to expire in mid-Jan, we hassled them again for the ownership documents and explained that the insurance cover was about to run out and we needed the documents in order to be able to get some cover. That is when they sent the temporary document and told us we would have the ownership documents by the end of the month. Of course, nearly 5 months later we still don't have the documents, despite having asked for them on several occasions. Should we be stopped by the police or the car spotted parked up in town with an out-of-date insurance badge, we would be in for a hefty fine. Needless to say, discovering all of this didn't put us in the best of moods and definitely took the shine off having the car back.
After I'd done a little more work, and Stuart had sent yet another email rant to the car dealer, we decided it was high time we took Reggie for a proper walk rather than just traipsing up and down the tarmac with his as we've had to do for the last two weeks. We therefore drove up to the cava, where we thought it might be a degree cooler and at least fairly shady. Reggie clearly loved being off his lead again, and on the return leg of the walk he went bonkers, tearing off into the woods, thundering uphill through the undergrowth, only to come careering back down again minutes later - he definitely had some energy to burn!
After our walk, we took Reggie back to the house, waited for him to have a long drink and calm down a bit before putting him in his crate while we went out for a couple of hours of "holiday". We drove to Montecarlo and sat at a table outside the little enoteca there where we had a couple of glasses of wine and a selection of snacks. It probably took until three quarters of the way through the first glass for us to start relaxing and forgetting about cars and dodgy car dealers and mechanics (and dodgy internet providers). For a brief spell, we could almost imagine we were on holiday.
On the holiday front, we have made contact with the people who own the farm at which we were going to go and stay this week, and they have very kindly agreed to re-book our holiday (for which we'd already paid in full) for dates later in the year (September onwards). We are very grateful to them for the opportunity - we really loved the look of the place and had been looking forward to going there and meeting them - and it will be something to look forward to, although it's still a big blow to us both that we can't go away any sooner. After having been unsure about whether or not we could justify spending the money on a holiday in the first place, once we'd taken the plunge and booked it, we were both really excited about it and counting down the days until we went. While we have had many adventures and have been surrounded by beautiful scenery and some lovely weather, we realised that we haven't actually had a holiday - a break from routine and proper switch-off - for over two years, and it was only a couple of days ago that Stuart said to me that our holiday couldn’t come at a better time, given the hassles and frustrations of the last couple of weeks. Hopefully, things will start to iron themselves out over the coming weeks and now that we are mobile again we will feel less in need of getting away from routine. (There's nothing like feeling like a prisoner in your own home to make you start resenting being in even the most beautiful of places!)
Anyway, today (Friday), we are set to welcome another guest as our friend Chris Perkins is popping in for a few nights on his way back from a conference in Venice. So this morning will be dedicated to finally doing a supermarket shop under our own steam as well as tidying and preparing (and hassling the garage once again about our documents, and trying to find out whether our internet provider does ever actually plan to reconnect us...)
Wednesday was another frustrating day, which ended with a call from the garage at 6.50pm to say 'the car is ready, can you collect it now?'. I'm not sure how exactly they thought we were going to get there right away (Stuart contemplated cycling there but they closed just 40 minutes later and the journey would have taken him close to an hour), so we told them that it wasn't possible to come 'now' but that we'd collect it in the morning.
Yesterday, therefore, we were helped out once again by the Phillipses and Chris came up to collect Stuart in the morning so that they could head off to the garage. By this time, Stuart had been given some useful advice from Donatella, so when he got to the garage and was asked to pay the €100 for the replaced cam belt he told them he wouldn't pay until he had both an invoice and a letter explaining why it was replaced and why it wasn't covered by the warranty. Apparently he was first asked to wait 45 minutes until the woman who dealt with invoices came back (which he refused to do), then was asked to come back in the morning - to collect both the invoice AND the car! He told them that wasn't acceptable either, and eventually they agreed to let him have the keys and take the car with a promise to return in the morning for the invoice and to pay the €100.
So, after having done a couple of hours of office work, I finally heard the crunch of tyres on gravel at around 1pm - I'd like to say the 'familiar' crunch of tyres on gravel, but actually it feels like it's been so long that it's no longer a familiar sound!
All of the hassles and frustrations with the garage had really mounted up, and rather than being in a celebratory mood, it was rather a subdued lunch and early afternoon. We had also found out, thanks to Donatella, that the insurance on the car had expired in mid-January and that the document the garage had given us which we were led to believe would extend our insurance cover was actually a temporary log book, which itself had expired in mid-February. To recap, we were unable to get the ownership documents for the car when we first bought it because we didn't yet have our Italian residency. You need ownership documents for a vehicle in order to be able to insure it. The garage had therefore put us on their insurance for 6 months (which ended in January). In the meantime, we had sent them our residency documentation in November, asking for them to send us the ownership documents so that we could sort out our own insurance. Nothing happened. When we knew their insurance cover was about to expire in mid-Jan, we hassled them again for the ownership documents and explained that the insurance cover was about to run out and we needed the documents in order to be able to get some cover. That is when they sent the temporary document and told us we would have the ownership documents by the end of the month. Of course, nearly 5 months later we still don't have the documents, despite having asked for them on several occasions. Should we be stopped by the police or the car spotted parked up in town with an out-of-date insurance badge, we would be in for a hefty fine. Needless to say, discovering all of this didn't put us in the best of moods and definitely took the shine off having the car back.
After I'd done a little more work, and Stuart had sent yet another email rant to the car dealer, we decided it was high time we took Reggie for a proper walk rather than just traipsing up and down the tarmac with his as we've had to do for the last two weeks. We therefore drove up to the cava, where we thought it might be a degree cooler and at least fairly shady. Reggie clearly loved being off his lead again, and on the return leg of the walk he went bonkers, tearing off into the woods, thundering uphill through the undergrowth, only to come careering back down again minutes later - he definitely had some energy to burn!
After our walk, we took Reggie back to the house, waited for him to have a long drink and calm down a bit before putting him in his crate while we went out for a couple of hours of "holiday". We drove to Montecarlo and sat at a table outside the little enoteca there where we had a couple of glasses of wine and a selection of snacks. It probably took until three quarters of the way through the first glass for us to start relaxing and forgetting about cars and dodgy car dealers and mechanics (and dodgy internet providers). For a brief spell, we could almost imagine we were on holiday.
On the holiday front, we have made contact with the people who own the farm at which we were going to go and stay this week, and they have very kindly agreed to re-book our holiday (for which we'd already paid in full) for dates later in the year (September onwards). We are very grateful to them for the opportunity - we really loved the look of the place and had been looking forward to going there and meeting them - and it will be something to look forward to, although it's still a big blow to us both that we can't go away any sooner. After having been unsure about whether or not we could justify spending the money on a holiday in the first place, once we'd taken the plunge and booked it, we were both really excited about it and counting down the days until we went. While we have had many adventures and have been surrounded by beautiful scenery and some lovely weather, we realised that we haven't actually had a holiday - a break from routine and proper switch-off - for over two years, and it was only a couple of days ago that Stuart said to me that our holiday couldn’t come at a better time, given the hassles and frustrations of the last couple of weeks. Hopefully, things will start to iron themselves out over the coming weeks and now that we are mobile again we will feel less in need of getting away from routine. (There's nothing like feeling like a prisoner in your own home to make you start resenting being in even the most beautiful of places!)
Anyway, today (Friday), we are set to welcome another guest as our friend Chris Perkins is popping in for a few nights on his way back from a conference in Venice. So this morning will be dedicated to finally doing a supermarket shop under our own steam as well as tidying and preparing (and hassling the garage once again about our documents, and trying to find out whether our internet provider does ever actually plan to reconnect us...)
Wednesday, 10 June 2015
No go!
Day 13: Gutted
This morning was all about making our preparations for going away on our mini holiday. We should, of course, have been leaving first thing in the morning, to make the most of the short amount of time we had, but with the car not being ready yet we were resigned to a later start. We had, however, received an email from the car dealer last night which said "we need to test the car, you can collect it tomorrow morning" - so we needed to give them a call to clarify, and were hopeful that we would actually have the car a little earlier than the 5-6pm we had initally thought. Anyway, the first challenge of the day was that last night's incredible storm seemed to have knocked out our mobile signal. This meant we had no way (at all) of contacting anybody (at all). There was only one thing for it but to cycle down the road until we reached a point at which we picked up signal. However, first things first, we spent the early part of the morning moving pots that would need watering up from the vegetable terraces to the patio, to make it easier for Sue, who had kindly agreed to do some watering as well as cat feeding and geese feeding, refreshing the water in the geese's pond, cleaning out and refreshing the cat litter tray and generally getting things into shape to leave later in the day. We waved goodbye to our apartment guests, Keith and Jacqui, mid-morning. Once again, it felt sad to see our guests go - on every occasion so far we have got to know and really like our guests and it's always sad to see them leave. Jacqui and Keith had been particularly kind and patient with us and we hope they enjoyed their stay.
Once all of our tasks had been completed, we decided we would both cycle down the road - if Stuart went on his own he wouldn't have any way of letting me know what he'd found out and what was happening. So we packed a rucksack with mobile phones and a tablet PC (just in case we ended up having to go as far as somewhere with an internet connection) and set off on our bikes. We got as far as Frateschi's before we picked up a mobile signal, so we pulled over and Stuart called the car dealer. They said they were just talking with the mechanic and would call back, so we decided to stop at the cafe and have a coffee while we waited for their call. No sooner had we sat down than the phone rang. With utter disbelief I heard Stuart say "TOMORROW afternoon????" and when he put the phone down, his face said it all. We weren't going to get our car back until tomorrow, which meant we weren't going to go on holiday. The mechanic had apparently decided to replace the cam belt despite us asking him not to (so that we could get the car back on time) - but we would be charged the 'special price' of €100. We're not stupid enough to ignore the fact that the cam belt needs replacing (we would have taken it to our own choice of mechanic to look at), but are still suspicious that this wasn't picked up on when the mechanic had the car (for a week) 2 weeks ago, and wonder why it wasn't noticed this time until Friday, by which time they'd had the car for 10 days already, and to specifically go against our instructions (and therefore mean we can't have the car to go away) was beyond belief.
With heavy hearts, we decided to cycle further into town to go and deliver the news to Chris and Sue in person - they'd been on standby to take us to the garage to collect the car today and preparing themselves to come and do cat/geese/plant attending duties while we were away, so we needed to let them know they were relieved of all duties. We arrived to find both Chris and Sue in, and they listened to our sorry tale with sympathetic ears.
After a coffee with Chris and Sue, use of their internet and supportive words of encouragement, we got back on our bikes to start the climb up the hill home for some lunch and to see what we could salvage of the day. We stopped off at Amanda's to buy some cheese, some cured meats and some wine, before tackling the steepest part of the climb back to the house. We're getting pretty used to it these days!
Once home, we laid out our spread of food and attempted to feel the holiday spirit, but it was no use, we both felt deflated, tired and numb. In the end, Stuart headed upstairs for a siesta while I went into the office to do some work.
We spent the evening sitting out on our patio in a much more bearable temperature than of late - while the morning had still been hot and humid, even after last night's storm, the temperature had gradually dropped a little over the course of the afternoon, leaving us with a pleasant mid 20sC.
This morning was all about making our preparations for going away on our mini holiday. We should, of course, have been leaving first thing in the morning, to make the most of the short amount of time we had, but with the car not being ready yet we were resigned to a later start. We had, however, received an email from the car dealer last night which said "we need to test the car, you can collect it tomorrow morning" - so we needed to give them a call to clarify, and were hopeful that we would actually have the car a little earlier than the 5-6pm we had initally thought. Anyway, the first challenge of the day was that last night's incredible storm seemed to have knocked out our mobile signal. This meant we had no way (at all) of contacting anybody (at all). There was only one thing for it but to cycle down the road until we reached a point at which we picked up signal. However, first things first, we spent the early part of the morning moving pots that would need watering up from the vegetable terraces to the patio, to make it easier for Sue, who had kindly agreed to do some watering as well as cat feeding and geese feeding, refreshing the water in the geese's pond, cleaning out and refreshing the cat litter tray and generally getting things into shape to leave later in the day. We waved goodbye to our apartment guests, Keith and Jacqui, mid-morning. Once again, it felt sad to see our guests go - on every occasion so far we have got to know and really like our guests and it's always sad to see them leave. Jacqui and Keith had been particularly kind and patient with us and we hope they enjoyed their stay.
Once all of our tasks had been completed, we decided we would both cycle down the road - if Stuart went on his own he wouldn't have any way of letting me know what he'd found out and what was happening. So we packed a rucksack with mobile phones and a tablet PC (just in case we ended up having to go as far as somewhere with an internet connection) and set off on our bikes. We got as far as Frateschi's before we picked up a mobile signal, so we pulled over and Stuart called the car dealer. They said they were just talking with the mechanic and would call back, so we decided to stop at the cafe and have a coffee while we waited for their call. No sooner had we sat down than the phone rang. With utter disbelief I heard Stuart say "TOMORROW afternoon????" and when he put the phone down, his face said it all. We weren't going to get our car back until tomorrow, which meant we weren't going to go on holiday. The mechanic had apparently decided to replace the cam belt despite us asking him not to (so that we could get the car back on time) - but we would be charged the 'special price' of €100. We're not stupid enough to ignore the fact that the cam belt needs replacing (we would have taken it to our own choice of mechanic to look at), but are still suspicious that this wasn't picked up on when the mechanic had the car (for a week) 2 weeks ago, and wonder why it wasn't noticed this time until Friday, by which time they'd had the car for 10 days already, and to specifically go against our instructions (and therefore mean we can't have the car to go away) was beyond belief.
With heavy hearts, we decided to cycle further into town to go and deliver the news to Chris and Sue in person - they'd been on standby to take us to the garage to collect the car today and preparing themselves to come and do cat/geese/plant attending duties while we were away, so we needed to let them know they were relieved of all duties. We arrived to find both Chris and Sue in, and they listened to our sorry tale with sympathetic ears.
After a coffee with Chris and Sue, use of their internet and supportive words of encouragement, we got back on our bikes to start the climb up the hill home for some lunch and to see what we could salvage of the day. We stopped off at Amanda's to buy some cheese, some cured meats and some wine, before tackling the steepest part of the climb back to the house. We're getting pretty used to it these days!
Once home, we laid out our spread of food and attempted to feel the holiday spirit, but it was no use, we both felt deflated, tired and numb. In the end, Stuart headed upstairs for a siesta while I went into the office to do some work.
We spent the evening sitting out on our patio in a much more bearable temperature than of late - while the morning had still been hot and humid, even after last night's storm, the temperature had gradually dropped a little over the course of the afternoon, leaving us with a pleasant mid 20sC.
Tuesday, 9 June 2015
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...
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...
Saturday, 6 June 2015
No Internet, no car, no water
Once again, this update is brought to you courtesy of the free Wi-Fi at Franco's bar in Pescia. The latest on our own Internet service from Italia Wi-Fi (after pestering them for news today, Saturday, having not heard anything since the email we were sent on Monday, which advised us that all services would be up and running again by the end of the week) is that we will be sent a new modem towards the middle-end of next week, so it seems like we are looking at a minimum of a full two weeks without service.
Day 7: Hot hill climb
With our new guests installed downstairs, both Stuart and I got up at 6.40am this morning so that we could manage Reggie and attempt to keep his barking to a minimum. While I headed outside with my exercise kit, Stuart settled down with Reggie on the sofa for a quiet 40 minutes or so.
We had breakfast on the patio in yet more lovely sunshine, before Reggie got wind of the fact that there were new faces downstairs, so while Stuart had a quick chat with Keith, I cajoled Reggie into coming indoors with me to keep him from barking his head off at him and Jacqui. After a quick coffee, we headed out with Reggie for his morning walk. This time, we opted for the Vellano road. We hadn't got far before a vehicle with UK plates came down the road towards us beeping its horn - it was David and Sarah on their way into town. We stopped for a quick chat then carried on up the road. Even before 10am the sun was beating down and we decided not even to go as far as we usually do on the Vellano road - it was just too hot. After just a 40 minute walk, therefore, we arrived back at the house. The plan was to cycle into town for a coffee at Franco's bar where we knew they had Wi-Fi.
After Stuart had sorted out his road bike (his mountain bike being pedal-less at the moment) and we'd packed a rucksack with laptop, phones & tablet PC, we put Reggie in his crate and headed off with our trusty steeds.
The ride into town was very pleasant once again, and we parked our bikes up at the top of the square before walking through the square and down to the Vodafone shop. I wanted to see if we could buy a dongle, but once again, the Vodafone shop was closed - in fact, it's closed until next Monday. We therefore went straight to the bicycle repair shop, where Stuart waved the broken part from his mountain bike at them and was rewarded with a shiny new one. After that, we popped into Esselunga to pick up some Lycamobile top-up cards. We'd eventually worked out that the reason the data facility had stopped working on Stuart's mobile was that he'd run out of credit, so hopefully this would sort it out.
After that, we walked up to the ice cream shop, La Barrachina, where we met up with David and Sarah, who had texted to say that they were still in town if we wanted to meet up. The four of us headed from there into the square and we sat inside Franco's bar with cappuccinos and spent a very enjoyable hour or so catching up with them properly.
When David and Sarah left to go and rescue the shopping that was slowly cooking in their car, we moved to a table outside the bar where the Wi-Fi reception was better and got out the laptop and tablet pc to log onto the free internet and download emails and do a bit of admin.
After we'd done the most important tasks (checking for and downloading some work, uploading our blog posts for the last few days, checking emails and emailing the car dealer to ask WHEN our car would be ready), it was finally time to head off back up the hill to rescue poor Reggie from the confines of his crate.
So, as the temperature reading on the LED display outside the pharmacy in the square read 33C, we climbed onto our bicycles and started the long, hard slog up the hill. I'd been dreading this bit all morning and when my legs started to ache before we'd really even hit anything approaching a steep incline, my fears were amplified. However, I am pleased to say that, in fact, the hill climb went better for me today than it did on Monday, and unlike Monday, I managed it all the way home without having to stop or get off and push (maybe I've still got it after all!). We did both arrive at our gates dripping in sweat and struggling to catch our breath, but at least we'd made it, and in 33C heat to boot!
First things first, we let Reggie out - he seemed very excited to see us, I'm sure the poor boy thought we'd left him home alone for good. After a long cold glass of water each and a few moments to cool down, we both retreated to the cool of the office - me, so that I could start work on some of the work files I had managed to download, and Stuart to do some more tinkering with our website (offline of course).
Come 6pm we'd both had enough - we went into the garden and managed a nice chat with Keith and Jacqui. Although Reggie barked a lot to start with, he quite quickly calmed down and we were able to have a decent conversation across the fence with them. We were very pleased with Reggie, and thankfully our guests didn't seem too alarmed by his behaviour, at least with the safety of a fence in between him and them. So, after that small victory, we celebrated with dinner and a glass of beer on the patio in the warm evening air. We'd been planning to go all week without beer or wine (more of a challenge for Stuart than for me), but after today's exertions we felt we deserved it - and it tasted good!
After dinner, I went to water the seedlings on the vegetable terraces - although our irrigation now does the majority of our watering for us, there are still some seedlings in pots that need our attention each day. I went down with the watering can and wondered why the pipes were hissing, given that the irrigation should have switched off by now (and indeed, the drips had stopped). After watering the pots, the hissing sound came again, from the same spot. On closer inspection I found that the hissing had not come from pipes at all but from (look away now, Sheila) a small snake curled up in one of the crates we'd left down there. I noticed that it didn't have the same markings as most of the snakes we see around here and called Stuart down for a second opinion. After looking, and photographing it, he concurred that it appeared to be a viper. Hmm, not sure quite how I feel about that! One thing's for sure: we will both have to be very careful about wearing gloves and picking things up slowly and carefully from now on - and there will be no more strimming in shorts for me either!
Excitement over, Reggie and I walked along the drive to collect the post from the post box, then we all retired indoors to try and give our guests a peaceful evening outdoors.
Have we heard anything about when our car will be ready for collection? No. Is our internet fixed yet? No. But at least we've topped up our mobiles and downloaded enough work to be going on with for a couple of days.
Day 8: No internet, no car, NO WATER!
From the brief snippets of information we've been able to glean from our patchy internet access via phones, friends and internet cafes over the last week, we understand that the UK has been unseasonably cold this week. We, meanwhile, seem to have been having a heat wave (sorry). I think the temperature has to go above something like 32C to officially be classed as a heat wave, but I would say that today it has DEFINITELY done that. You may be shivering in your UK homes with the central heating turned on, but we are melting here and struggling to get anything done in the energy-zapping heat. Somewhere in between the two extremes is probably the ideal!
Today has been rather more work-focused for me as I'd managed to download some things to work on when we were in town yesterday. After my exercise and breakfast on the patio, therefore, I headed to the office to start my first full day's office work in almost a week - it was still frustrating not having the internet, but at least there were things I could get on with doing.
With our guests having gone out early, Stuart turned his attention to fixing his broken pedal on his mountain bike, before setting off down the hill to the builder's merchant. He came back a short while later, looking bedraggled in sweat after having cycled back up the hill with a rucksack full of ant traps, insect spray, enormous nails and a loaf of bread. He handed me the bag to show me how heavy it was - I almost dropped it, so I've no idea how he managed to power his way up the hill with that on his back!
After a cold drink and gathering his strength, he headed out to the veg terraces to start nailing down the ground cover material. Until now, it had only been held in place with large stones - of which we have plenty, but every time a breeze whipped up, the material would flail around and not really do its job properly.
We each stopped our respective tasks for lunch at around 12.30pm and ate on the patio - today's temperatures were so hot that it was impossible to have any bare skin touching the metal table for fear of third-degree burns!
After lunch I returned to the relative cool of the office while Stuart soldiered on on the terraces, popping back up for a bit of respite from the heat every now and then.
By 4.30pm, I'd come to a stop with my work so I offered to do the last task on Stuart's list for the day, which was going around the electric fence and cutting back anything that was encroaching on it (in order to prevent short circuits). I headed off to the terraces with my secateurs and before I'd even got going I felt the sweat building up. I spent about half an hour walking and cutting and SWEATING. It's not a pretty picture to paint, but the sweat was literally running off my face and down my arms and my hair was plastered to my head - and literally all I was doing was taking a few steps before bending down to cut a few pieces of bramble. I've no idea how Stuart managed to do anything more strenuous in that heat.
By the time I'd finished, I was done in, and the offer of a glass of wine and some freshly podded peas to snack on was hard to refuse!
We sat in the searing heat (even at 6.30pm I found the sun too hot to sit in - and, coming from the heat-seeking, sun-loving person that I am, that's saying a LOT!) and enjoyed our view, while also totting up all the losses and costs we have suffered from the combination of no car and no internet.
Stuart finally heard back from the car dealers at around 6.45pm: the mechanic is STILL WORKING ON OUR CAR (he's had it for 8 days...) and they will let us know when it's ready. We're due to be going away for a couple of nights for a mini-holiday first thing on Tuesday morning, so we NEED to have our/a car (large enough to fit Reggie's crate in it) by Monday evening at the latest! Argghh, another frustration to add to the list.
As for the internet, the communication we had from Italia Wi-Fi earlier in the week advised us that we would be emailed 24 hours prior to the connections being restored - as we haven't heard a peep from them since that email (on Monday), we can only assume that we won't be getting our internet back tomorrow after all...
As if that weren't all enough already, I went to turn the kitchen tap on while preparing our dinner, and only a dribble came out, which slowed to a drip, and then stopped completely. We've had air blockages in the pipes before, but the total lack of water has only ever lasted 10 minutes or so. This time, it seemed like it was gone for good. Stuart checked outside and confirmed that there was no mains water coming up to the house at all. This would be bad enough at any time, but to happen when we have guests just seems like someone is having a joke at our expense (not funny!). After building up some courage, Stuart got the water bill out and dialled the 24h line for reporting faults... only to get a recorded message saying that the number was incorrect or out of service...
I called Sarah up in Vellano just to check that it wasn't a system-wide water problem (Sarah and David were the only people we could think of who were definitely connected to the mains supply), but she reported that they had freely flowing water. Meanwhile, Stuart got out his mountain bike for the second time today and set off down the hill to our water meter, which is located right at the bottom of our land and accessible via a little path behind the back of the pink house on the road in the valley bottom - he came back a little while later bearing a photograph of said meter. The pressure gauge indicated that there was definitely something going in - so perhaps the problem lay somewhere between the meter and the house. With darkness descending, there was nothing else for it than to retire to bed after a quick bite to eat and plan to get up with the lark to start digging out the water pipe.
Day 9: The cavalry arrives
I slept fitfully until 4am, at which point I woke up, and lay there in bed going over and over all the troubles these three "issues" are causing us, while waiting for it to be light enough to get up and go outside. At 5.515am I got dressed, fed the cats, let Lucca out, let Reggie out and then headed to the terraces with a spade. I must have spent a good 20 minutes wandering up and down trying to find a section of pipe sticking up through the soil. But, whereas in winter everything was bare, making it easy to see things, everything is now in full foliage: there was ivy covering the ground, bracken, brambles, nettles, grass - you name it, it was covering the ground and I simply couldn't get my bearings relating to where we'd spotted the pipe back in the winter. I was just about to give up hope - reckoning that it would take us as long to FIND the pipe as it would to dig it out - when I stumbled across an unmistakeable section of black and blue water pipe. Bingo! I started digging. Stuart came out and joined in at about 6.15, and while I dug and traced the pipe up the hill, he did the same heading downhill. Thankfully, in most places the pipe was close to the surface, and with the soft soil it didn't take much to pull it free, but in other sections it was buried deep and we both worked up a sweat well before 7am. I guess we can be thankful that this didn't happen before we'd cleared (most of) the terraces below the house - bearing in mind that up until January we hadn't even found the septic tank, I wouldn't have fancied our chances of finding a water pipe underneath 6ft brambles! Having said that, of course, we did eventually reach a point at which the vegetation was so voluminous that I had to head back up the hill to grab the hedge trimmers and we had to cut before digging and repeat.
Eventually, Stuart decided to give up on the digging and instead cut his way through the jungle of brambles as far as the very bottom of the hill and the water meter - he wanted to check the meter again, to make sure that it really was working and we weren't digging for nothing. The meter was indeed working, so after a bit of breakfast and some suggestions via text from Chris and Sue, Stuart headed back out to attempt to fit a stop cock on the meter. I suggested he should maybe take some shampoo and shower gel with him as it was bound to be very wet - the tap to shut the water off at the meter had ceased up completely so he was definitely going to get wet! He came back a little later looking drenched but this time with water rather than sweat (not that you could really tell the difference) and having managed to fit the tap. Next, it was a quick phone call to Chris and Sue who had offered to come up to lend a hand, to ask if they could pick up 100m of water pipe and bring it up - the theory being that if we (Stuart) connect the new pipe to the water meter at one end and the house at the other, we should have flowing water again...
Chris and Sue arrived, and while Stuart and Chris headed off down the hill to the water meter (this time in the car), Sue and I sat in the cool of the house. To cut a VERY long story short, the solution to the water problem proved not to be so easy, and Stuart and Chris spent all day traipsing up and down the terraces with pipes, spanners and power tools - the problem, it seemed, was that we didn't have enough pressure to get the water all the way up the hill to the house. The pair of them were run ragged - in heat that must have been hitting the high 30s today, and finally caved in to come indoors for a very late lunch at around 3pm. By this time, Sue had left to go and teach a couple of her English classes and I was catching up on a bit of work, so when the boys came in I sat with them while they ate their lunch. They had pretty much discounted the idea of us getting any water flowing today. They had tried everything, including connecting an old pump - which proved not to work. We therefore sat and discussed what we could offer our apartment guests - one night (and day) without water is bad enough, and they have been amazingly understanding and patient with us over this hiccup (although hiccup doesn't seem quite a strong enough word to use!), but we really couldn't let them go for two nights without running water, so we mulled over the options of where we could offer to book them a room for the night (or more).
While Chris and Stuart ate their lunch, we also talked about unreliable internet service providers and incompetent car dealers. We still had heard nothing from Italia Wi-Fi regarding our internet being reconnected (which had been promised "by the end of the week"), and while we were talking the car dealer phoned to say that the mechanic wouldn't let us have the car back unless we paid for him to replace the cam belt (or else signed something to say we wouldn’t hold them responsible if something happened to the engine because we hadn't instructed him to replace it). There was still no news on when the car will be ready either. We have told them that we MUST have the car back by Monday at the latest, as we will be going away for a mini-holiday the following day. Given that they've had the car now for 9 days, and given that they had it for 6 days just a couple of weeks ago, you would have thought that any problem with the cam belt would actually have been picked up and conveyed to us sooner than this...
Anyway, come 4pm, Sue returned, this time bringing Erik and Henry with her. So, while Chris and Stuart went out to try one last thing before heading off in the car with the old pump to either try to get the old pump fixed or buy a new one, Sue (the voice of reason) and I considered our options for re-homing our guests whether for one night or the rest of their stay. Between us, we agreed that the San Lorenzo hotel would be the best option - it's only just down the road from here, easy to find, a very nice place, and easy to book by the night (the other option that Stuart and I were considering was asking around to see if any other folk in the valley who have guest accommodation would be able to take them). Once this had been decided, Henry very kindly telephoned a friend of his to ask him to look up the phone number for the San Lorenzo hotel and text it to us, which his friend kindly did straight away, then Henry telephoned San Lorenzo to find out the cost of accommodation and what availability they had. Thankfully, San Lorenzo had a suite available, and at €82 per night, we thought that was a reasonable cost (Stuart and I, of course, would be picking up the bill). It was a relief to have that option available, so we just had to sit tight and wait for Keith and Jacqui to return before conveying the bad news that the water still wasn't on, and then offering to book them into the hotel for a night (or more).
It was shortly after Henry had finished his fact-finding calls that we heard a strange banging and gurgling. I knew EXACTLY what that meant and ran to the kitchen tap. There was still nothing coming out of it, but then I remembered that I'd opened the tap in the office as well, and on running into the back room realised that the tap was in full flow and the saucepan I'd put underneath it to catch any drips was about to overflow! Sue and I did a little victory dance - it was SO exciting. There's nothing like a full day of having no running water (and a scorching hot day at that, and with guests to boot) to make you appreciate the simply things! I have never been so thoroughly delighted to hear the familiar banging and clanging of the water pipes!
It wasn't long before the kitchen tap started gushing water as well, and Sue, Erik, Henry and I ran around putting saucepans, frying pans and any vessels we could find underneath the taps to collect the precious water coming out. There was still no water coming out in the bathroom though, so the message came through from Chris and Stuart to turn off all the downstairs taps and see what happened in the bathroom. Sure enough, the toilet cistern began to fill and water came gushing out of the taps. What utter, utter joy! Having worked like trojans all day long, Chris and Stuart's heroic efforts had finally paid off and they had fixed the problem! (I hasten to add that they seemed quite surprised - I'm sure they had already written it off).
High on relief and a sense of victory, Chris and Stuart decided that now was the time to move the water tank that sits behind a tree in the car park (a back-up water tank) from where it had sat for several years to a better position on the terraces above the house - so that, should the same thing happen again, we would have a back up and at such a height above the house, there would be enough pressure to get the water to the taps. After emptying the dregs out of the bottom of the tank therefore, they manhandled the thing (which looks a little like a brown baby elephant but is called "maialino" - or piglet) from the car park to the first terrace, from the first to the second terrace, second to third terrace and so on, until they got it above the goose enclosure. We will plan to wash it out with bleach, as it has been sitting around with standing water in it for several years, and then fill it so that it's on standby for emergencies.
As the boys were doing this, our guests returned from their afternoon out and I was able to tentatively deliver the good news that the water was back on. Of course, we hadn't checked the taps in the apartment, but with it being the lowest point in the house, the theory was that they would have better pressure there than in the rest of the house - and since the water seemed to be back to normal pressure in our part of the house by this time, we thought that it should be fine in the apartment. Had they returned just half an hour earlier, I would have been delivering very different news, and potentially booking them into the hotel down the road!
Of course, we had to celebrate Chris and Stuart's victory with a little drink - and after all the back-breaking work and support we'd had from the Phillipses the VERY least we could do was to cook them all dinner. We therefore proceeded to have a very enjoyable evening with plenty of wine, a big bowl of vegetable pasta, great company, and the happy knowledge that we only had to turn a tap on to access clean running water. We had been without running water for a total of around 21 hours, but it certainly made us appreciate the simple things and put everything into perspective.
After the Phillipses had left, we headed for bed, exhausted, but relieved. I don't like to imagine in what state we would have ended the day if it hadn't been for Chris and Sue coming to help, but I don't imagine it would have been a happy one!
The car and the internet are battles for another day (er.. tomorrow).
Day 7: Hot hill climb
With our new guests installed downstairs, both Stuart and I got up at 6.40am this morning so that we could manage Reggie and attempt to keep his barking to a minimum. While I headed outside with my exercise kit, Stuart settled down with Reggie on the sofa for a quiet 40 minutes or so.
We had breakfast on the patio in yet more lovely sunshine, before Reggie got wind of the fact that there were new faces downstairs, so while Stuart had a quick chat with Keith, I cajoled Reggie into coming indoors with me to keep him from barking his head off at him and Jacqui. After a quick coffee, we headed out with Reggie for his morning walk. This time, we opted for the Vellano road. We hadn't got far before a vehicle with UK plates came down the road towards us beeping its horn - it was David and Sarah on their way into town. We stopped for a quick chat then carried on up the road. Even before 10am the sun was beating down and we decided not even to go as far as we usually do on the Vellano road - it was just too hot. After just a 40 minute walk, therefore, we arrived back at the house. The plan was to cycle into town for a coffee at Franco's bar where we knew they had Wi-Fi.
After Stuart had sorted out his road bike (his mountain bike being pedal-less at the moment) and we'd packed a rucksack with laptop, phones & tablet PC, we put Reggie in his crate and headed off with our trusty steeds.
The ride into town was very pleasant once again, and we parked our bikes up at the top of the square before walking through the square and down to the Vodafone shop. I wanted to see if we could buy a dongle, but once again, the Vodafone shop was closed - in fact, it's closed until next Monday. We therefore went straight to the bicycle repair shop, where Stuart waved the broken part from his mountain bike at them and was rewarded with a shiny new one. After that, we popped into Esselunga to pick up some Lycamobile top-up cards. We'd eventually worked out that the reason the data facility had stopped working on Stuart's mobile was that he'd run out of credit, so hopefully this would sort it out.
After that, we walked up to the ice cream shop, La Barrachina, where we met up with David and Sarah, who had texted to say that they were still in town if we wanted to meet up. The four of us headed from there into the square and we sat inside Franco's bar with cappuccinos and spent a very enjoyable hour or so catching up with them properly.
When David and Sarah left to go and rescue the shopping that was slowly cooking in their car, we moved to a table outside the bar where the Wi-Fi reception was better and got out the laptop and tablet pc to log onto the free internet and download emails and do a bit of admin.
After we'd done the most important tasks (checking for and downloading some work, uploading our blog posts for the last few days, checking emails and emailing the car dealer to ask WHEN our car would be ready), it was finally time to head off back up the hill to rescue poor Reggie from the confines of his crate.
So, as the temperature reading on the LED display outside the pharmacy in the square read 33C, we climbed onto our bicycles and started the long, hard slog up the hill. I'd been dreading this bit all morning and when my legs started to ache before we'd really even hit anything approaching a steep incline, my fears were amplified. However, I am pleased to say that, in fact, the hill climb went better for me today than it did on Monday, and unlike Monday, I managed it all the way home without having to stop or get off and push (maybe I've still got it after all!). We did both arrive at our gates dripping in sweat and struggling to catch our breath, but at least we'd made it, and in 33C heat to boot!
First things first, we let Reggie out - he seemed very excited to see us, I'm sure the poor boy thought we'd left him home alone for good. After a long cold glass of water each and a few moments to cool down, we both retreated to the cool of the office - me, so that I could start work on some of the work files I had managed to download, and Stuart to do some more tinkering with our website (offline of course).
Come 6pm we'd both had enough - we went into the garden and managed a nice chat with Keith and Jacqui. Although Reggie barked a lot to start with, he quite quickly calmed down and we were able to have a decent conversation across the fence with them. We were very pleased with Reggie, and thankfully our guests didn't seem too alarmed by his behaviour, at least with the safety of a fence in between him and them. So, after that small victory, we celebrated with dinner and a glass of beer on the patio in the warm evening air. We'd been planning to go all week without beer or wine (more of a challenge for Stuart than for me), but after today's exertions we felt we deserved it - and it tasted good!
After dinner, I went to water the seedlings on the vegetable terraces - although our irrigation now does the majority of our watering for us, there are still some seedlings in pots that need our attention each day. I went down with the watering can and wondered why the pipes were hissing, given that the irrigation should have switched off by now (and indeed, the drips had stopped). After watering the pots, the hissing sound came again, from the same spot. On closer inspection I found that the hissing had not come from pipes at all but from (look away now, Sheila) a small snake curled up in one of the crates we'd left down there. I noticed that it didn't have the same markings as most of the snakes we see around here and called Stuart down for a second opinion. After looking, and photographing it, he concurred that it appeared to be a viper. Hmm, not sure quite how I feel about that! One thing's for sure: we will both have to be very careful about wearing gloves and picking things up slowly and carefully from now on - and there will be no more strimming in shorts for me either!
Excitement over, Reggie and I walked along the drive to collect the post from the post box, then we all retired indoors to try and give our guests a peaceful evening outdoors.
Have we heard anything about when our car will be ready for collection? No. Is our internet fixed yet? No. But at least we've topped up our mobiles and downloaded enough work to be going on with for a couple of days.
Day 8: No internet, no car, NO WATER!
From the brief snippets of information we've been able to glean from our patchy internet access via phones, friends and internet cafes over the last week, we understand that the UK has been unseasonably cold this week. We, meanwhile, seem to have been having a heat wave (sorry). I think the temperature has to go above something like 32C to officially be classed as a heat wave, but I would say that today it has DEFINITELY done that. You may be shivering in your UK homes with the central heating turned on, but we are melting here and struggling to get anything done in the energy-zapping heat. Somewhere in between the two extremes is probably the ideal!
Today has been rather more work-focused for me as I'd managed to download some things to work on when we were in town yesterday. After my exercise and breakfast on the patio, therefore, I headed to the office to start my first full day's office work in almost a week - it was still frustrating not having the internet, but at least there were things I could get on with doing.
With our guests having gone out early, Stuart turned his attention to fixing his broken pedal on his mountain bike, before setting off down the hill to the builder's merchant. He came back a short while later, looking bedraggled in sweat after having cycled back up the hill with a rucksack full of ant traps, insect spray, enormous nails and a loaf of bread. He handed me the bag to show me how heavy it was - I almost dropped it, so I've no idea how he managed to power his way up the hill with that on his back!
After a cold drink and gathering his strength, he headed out to the veg terraces to start nailing down the ground cover material. Until now, it had only been held in place with large stones - of which we have plenty, but every time a breeze whipped up, the material would flail around and not really do its job properly.
We each stopped our respective tasks for lunch at around 12.30pm and ate on the patio - today's temperatures were so hot that it was impossible to have any bare skin touching the metal table for fear of third-degree burns!
After lunch I returned to the relative cool of the office while Stuart soldiered on on the terraces, popping back up for a bit of respite from the heat every now and then.
By 4.30pm, I'd come to a stop with my work so I offered to do the last task on Stuart's list for the day, which was going around the electric fence and cutting back anything that was encroaching on it (in order to prevent short circuits). I headed off to the terraces with my secateurs and before I'd even got going I felt the sweat building up. I spent about half an hour walking and cutting and SWEATING. It's not a pretty picture to paint, but the sweat was literally running off my face and down my arms and my hair was plastered to my head - and literally all I was doing was taking a few steps before bending down to cut a few pieces of bramble. I've no idea how Stuart managed to do anything more strenuous in that heat.
By the time I'd finished, I was done in, and the offer of a glass of wine and some freshly podded peas to snack on was hard to refuse!
We sat in the searing heat (even at 6.30pm I found the sun too hot to sit in - and, coming from the heat-seeking, sun-loving person that I am, that's saying a LOT!) and enjoyed our view, while also totting up all the losses and costs we have suffered from the combination of no car and no internet.
Stuart finally heard back from the car dealers at around 6.45pm: the mechanic is STILL WORKING ON OUR CAR (he's had it for 8 days...) and they will let us know when it's ready. We're due to be going away for a couple of nights for a mini-holiday first thing on Tuesday morning, so we NEED to have our/a car (large enough to fit Reggie's crate in it) by Monday evening at the latest! Argghh, another frustration to add to the list.
As for the internet, the communication we had from Italia Wi-Fi earlier in the week advised us that we would be emailed 24 hours prior to the connections being restored - as we haven't heard a peep from them since that email (on Monday), we can only assume that we won't be getting our internet back tomorrow after all...
As if that weren't all enough already, I went to turn the kitchen tap on while preparing our dinner, and only a dribble came out, which slowed to a drip, and then stopped completely. We've had air blockages in the pipes before, but the total lack of water has only ever lasted 10 minutes or so. This time, it seemed like it was gone for good. Stuart checked outside and confirmed that there was no mains water coming up to the house at all. This would be bad enough at any time, but to happen when we have guests just seems like someone is having a joke at our expense (not funny!). After building up some courage, Stuart got the water bill out and dialled the 24h line for reporting faults... only to get a recorded message saying that the number was incorrect or out of service...
I called Sarah up in Vellano just to check that it wasn't a system-wide water problem (Sarah and David were the only people we could think of who were definitely connected to the mains supply), but she reported that they had freely flowing water. Meanwhile, Stuart got out his mountain bike for the second time today and set off down the hill to our water meter, which is located right at the bottom of our land and accessible via a little path behind the back of the pink house on the road in the valley bottom - he came back a little while later bearing a photograph of said meter. The pressure gauge indicated that there was definitely something going in - so perhaps the problem lay somewhere between the meter and the house. With darkness descending, there was nothing else for it than to retire to bed after a quick bite to eat and plan to get up with the lark to start digging out the water pipe.
Day 9: The cavalry arrives
I slept fitfully until 4am, at which point I woke up, and lay there in bed going over and over all the troubles these three "issues" are causing us, while waiting for it to be light enough to get up and go outside. At 5.515am I got dressed, fed the cats, let Lucca out, let Reggie out and then headed to the terraces with a spade. I must have spent a good 20 minutes wandering up and down trying to find a section of pipe sticking up through the soil. But, whereas in winter everything was bare, making it easy to see things, everything is now in full foliage: there was ivy covering the ground, bracken, brambles, nettles, grass - you name it, it was covering the ground and I simply couldn't get my bearings relating to where we'd spotted the pipe back in the winter. I was just about to give up hope - reckoning that it would take us as long to FIND the pipe as it would to dig it out - when I stumbled across an unmistakeable section of black and blue water pipe. Bingo! I started digging. Stuart came out and joined in at about 6.15, and while I dug and traced the pipe up the hill, he did the same heading downhill. Thankfully, in most places the pipe was close to the surface, and with the soft soil it didn't take much to pull it free, but in other sections it was buried deep and we both worked up a sweat well before 7am. I guess we can be thankful that this didn't happen before we'd cleared (most of) the terraces below the house - bearing in mind that up until January we hadn't even found the septic tank, I wouldn't have fancied our chances of finding a water pipe underneath 6ft brambles! Having said that, of course, we did eventually reach a point at which the vegetation was so voluminous that I had to head back up the hill to grab the hedge trimmers and we had to cut before digging and repeat.
Eventually, Stuart decided to give up on the digging and instead cut his way through the jungle of brambles as far as the very bottom of the hill and the water meter - he wanted to check the meter again, to make sure that it really was working and we weren't digging for nothing. The meter was indeed working, so after a bit of breakfast and some suggestions via text from Chris and Sue, Stuart headed back out to attempt to fit a stop cock on the meter. I suggested he should maybe take some shampoo and shower gel with him as it was bound to be very wet - the tap to shut the water off at the meter had ceased up completely so he was definitely going to get wet! He came back a little later looking drenched but this time with water rather than sweat (not that you could really tell the difference) and having managed to fit the tap. Next, it was a quick phone call to Chris and Sue who had offered to come up to lend a hand, to ask if they could pick up 100m of water pipe and bring it up - the theory being that if we (Stuart) connect the new pipe to the water meter at one end and the house at the other, we should have flowing water again...
Chris and Sue arrived, and while Stuart and Chris headed off down the hill to the water meter (this time in the car), Sue and I sat in the cool of the house. To cut a VERY long story short, the solution to the water problem proved not to be so easy, and Stuart and Chris spent all day traipsing up and down the terraces with pipes, spanners and power tools - the problem, it seemed, was that we didn't have enough pressure to get the water all the way up the hill to the house. The pair of them were run ragged - in heat that must have been hitting the high 30s today, and finally caved in to come indoors for a very late lunch at around 3pm. By this time, Sue had left to go and teach a couple of her English classes and I was catching up on a bit of work, so when the boys came in I sat with them while they ate their lunch. They had pretty much discounted the idea of us getting any water flowing today. They had tried everything, including connecting an old pump - which proved not to work. We therefore sat and discussed what we could offer our apartment guests - one night (and day) without water is bad enough, and they have been amazingly understanding and patient with us over this hiccup (although hiccup doesn't seem quite a strong enough word to use!), but we really couldn't let them go for two nights without running water, so we mulled over the options of where we could offer to book them a room for the night (or more).
While Chris and Stuart ate their lunch, we also talked about unreliable internet service providers and incompetent car dealers. We still had heard nothing from Italia Wi-Fi regarding our internet being reconnected (which had been promised "by the end of the week"), and while we were talking the car dealer phoned to say that the mechanic wouldn't let us have the car back unless we paid for him to replace the cam belt (or else signed something to say we wouldn’t hold them responsible if something happened to the engine because we hadn't instructed him to replace it). There was still no news on when the car will be ready either. We have told them that we MUST have the car back by Monday at the latest, as we will be going away for a mini-holiday the following day. Given that they've had the car now for 9 days, and given that they had it for 6 days just a couple of weeks ago, you would have thought that any problem with the cam belt would actually have been picked up and conveyed to us sooner than this...
Anyway, come 4pm, Sue returned, this time bringing Erik and Henry with her. So, while Chris and Stuart went out to try one last thing before heading off in the car with the old pump to either try to get the old pump fixed or buy a new one, Sue (the voice of reason) and I considered our options for re-homing our guests whether for one night or the rest of their stay. Between us, we agreed that the San Lorenzo hotel would be the best option - it's only just down the road from here, easy to find, a very nice place, and easy to book by the night (the other option that Stuart and I were considering was asking around to see if any other folk in the valley who have guest accommodation would be able to take them). Once this had been decided, Henry very kindly telephoned a friend of his to ask him to look up the phone number for the San Lorenzo hotel and text it to us, which his friend kindly did straight away, then Henry telephoned San Lorenzo to find out the cost of accommodation and what availability they had. Thankfully, San Lorenzo had a suite available, and at €82 per night, we thought that was a reasonable cost (Stuart and I, of course, would be picking up the bill). It was a relief to have that option available, so we just had to sit tight and wait for Keith and Jacqui to return before conveying the bad news that the water still wasn't on, and then offering to book them into the hotel for a night (or more).
It was shortly after Henry had finished his fact-finding calls that we heard a strange banging and gurgling. I knew EXACTLY what that meant and ran to the kitchen tap. There was still nothing coming out of it, but then I remembered that I'd opened the tap in the office as well, and on running into the back room realised that the tap was in full flow and the saucepan I'd put underneath it to catch any drips was about to overflow! Sue and I did a little victory dance - it was SO exciting. There's nothing like a full day of having no running water (and a scorching hot day at that, and with guests to boot) to make you appreciate the simply things! I have never been so thoroughly delighted to hear the familiar banging and clanging of the water pipes!
It wasn't long before the kitchen tap started gushing water as well, and Sue, Erik, Henry and I ran around putting saucepans, frying pans and any vessels we could find underneath the taps to collect the precious water coming out. There was still no water coming out in the bathroom though, so the message came through from Chris and Stuart to turn off all the downstairs taps and see what happened in the bathroom. Sure enough, the toilet cistern began to fill and water came gushing out of the taps. What utter, utter joy! Having worked like trojans all day long, Chris and Stuart's heroic efforts had finally paid off and they had fixed the problem! (I hasten to add that they seemed quite surprised - I'm sure they had already written it off).
High on relief and a sense of victory, Chris and Stuart decided that now was the time to move the water tank that sits behind a tree in the car park (a back-up water tank) from where it had sat for several years to a better position on the terraces above the house - so that, should the same thing happen again, we would have a back up and at such a height above the house, there would be enough pressure to get the water to the taps. After emptying the dregs out of the bottom of the tank therefore, they manhandled the thing (which looks a little like a brown baby elephant but is called "maialino" - or piglet) from the car park to the first terrace, from the first to the second terrace, second to third terrace and so on, until they got it above the goose enclosure. We will plan to wash it out with bleach, as it has been sitting around with standing water in it for several years, and then fill it so that it's on standby for emergencies.
As the boys were doing this, our guests returned from their afternoon out and I was able to tentatively deliver the good news that the water was back on. Of course, we hadn't checked the taps in the apartment, but with it being the lowest point in the house, the theory was that they would have better pressure there than in the rest of the house - and since the water seemed to be back to normal pressure in our part of the house by this time, we thought that it should be fine in the apartment. Had they returned just half an hour earlier, I would have been delivering very different news, and potentially booking them into the hotel down the road!
Of course, we had to celebrate Chris and Stuart's victory with a little drink - and after all the back-breaking work and support we'd had from the Phillipses the VERY least we could do was to cook them all dinner. We therefore proceeded to have a very enjoyable evening with plenty of wine, a big bowl of vegetable pasta, great company, and the happy knowledge that we only had to turn a tap on to access clean running water. We had been without running water for a total of around 21 hours, but it certainly made us appreciate the simple things and put everything into perspective.
After the Phillipses had left, we headed for bed, exhausted, but relieved. I don't like to imagine in what state we would have ended the day if it hadn't been for Chris and Sue coming to help, but I don't imagine it would have been a happy one!
The car and the internet are battles for another day (er.. tomorrow).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)