I have been complaining of late to the locals that it has been too warm in London for most of the summer and they, in turn, have been complaining that I have worn the same pair of shorts since we arrived at the beginning of September. That is incorrect, I remind them, as we actually arrived on the 5th....
This last week, the huge event locally was the English family's intention to make a purchase of wood. This causes much debate as to which vendor to engage (and negotiate) with, which type of wood, the strength of calorific value for best burning and heat, the price and whether the wood gets delivered....
2 days later, we had agreed on a plan. My wife's uncle helped us out with the negotiations, and, in exchange for my offer of a small quantity of local wine, he kindly arranged for the dumping of a mountain-sized couple of pallets of "excellent" wood at the front of this property.
Much discussion then ensues as to how best to stack it, where to stack it, a plan for passing the wood to the person who will stack it, how long it will take to stack it, and of course, how much it cost to stack it...
It all got done in a couple of days, the teamwork between two of us worked very well, (Art by Three declined the request for help by burying themselves in the basement to continue their projects), and besides the pain, splinters, bruises etc, (and those were caused just by paying for it), we sat back and admired our work.
So we are safe for the winter, obviously, at this height in the mountains, the locals panic without a good supply of wood for heating and, obviously, for cooking.
Art by Three decided on driving their Fiat down to Riva del Garda for some shopping and buying their Grandad (il Nonno) a present. The drive is not an easy one for many reasons. I'll not explain in detail, but the basic fact that the road has Italians "driving" on it, could give you a clue.. So my wife had another litter of kittens. She also picked her fingers to the extent that she couldn't catch the wood that I was throwing at her and she even had to get me to check their progress on some kind of app on her iPad...
As a dad, you of course are concerned, but must never show it...I did once when I refused to take the (then) young girls up to a particularly dangerous mountain peak and I have been humiliated ever since..(in a sweet way you must understand...errrr.)
But yes, as you probably know them by now, they had no problem. All in their three strides, as it were.
We enjoyed the return visit of our friends that speak many languages. A wonderful 'late lunch' (1:30 which is a criminal offence in Italy) made by the girls and the wonderful visiting mother. Again, all conversation reverted to English, which meant when I volunteered to read something in Italian later, it was absolutely awful. I didn't even understand myself... The word "ispezione" (inspection) was attempted and subsequently failed three times...
Finally, I have decided to sign up to a degree-level course in interpreting Italian electricity bills. We believe it is a three year course and, as yet, no one has ever completed it. Apparently many of those who thought they could do it ended up as jibbering wrecks and changed careers to something much safer, such as parachuting without a parachute..Three days past I stupidly announced that I'd try and calculate (with my English calculator and excel spreadsheets) the actual costs of running this apartment so that our agreed rent would cover many times the cost.. (Don't worry, just an accounting fetish)...
Serious error..Last night, after another two hours comparing the average cost of the three different rates and the "standing charge", which seems to have a non-relative correlation of {¥%} to the power of #/€[~3.14], I was found hiding in a corner and apparently refused to come out. If anyone out there can provide pastoral care for someone who has dared even read one of these bills, then I'll pay for your electric 10 times over. Oh, and yes, free supply of wood...
Have a super day and stay warm everyone.
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