All is calm all is bright

The build up to Christmas seems to have been even more manic this year.  I’ve seen supermarket trollies loaded with festive foods for weeks now, huge queues and extra large vegetable displays started happening weeks ago.  And let’s not mention the dreaded party food that has been available since well before anyone was thinking about a party.

On our way out yesterday we called at our lovely northern supermarket Booths for our Sunday paper.  At 10 am when the shop opened we had to queue for a parking space.  I dashed in for the paper, negotiated the overflowing trollies and was out again to find MrFF hadn’t moved an inch, we then had to queue to get out of the car park.

We were meeting my youngest niece, her husband and their two young daughters 3 and 5, for a visit to Cliffe Castle museum followed by a late lunch back at the penthouse.  The little ones had a lovely time, there was much to engage them particularly in the natural history section where the eldest chatted knowledgeably about fossils, dinosaurs and the solar system. We had a lovely few hours.

After lunch we were treated to a rerun of the eldest’s school nativity, Isla had learnt all the words to some specially written songs, Elodie joined in as best she could and then gave us her own rendition of jingle bells. There was a lot of dancing, running about, rearranging of cushions and in the end both girls were so hot they stripped down to their little vests and tights.  It was lovely to have them here and see Christmas through their young excited eyes, a good antidote to all news we've had on cards this year of failing health from friends.  

As a bonus they were able to bring all our presents from family, plus a lovely arrangement of greenery and fresh garden vegetables from my brother and his wife.  We sent them home with our gifts to family as they’ll all be together on Christmas Day,  so that’s all done and dusted. 

Nothing much to do tomorrow as today I’ve cleaned the house and done all the laundry including changing our bedding, I just need to find something for our Christmas dinner.  MrFF has already attended three turkey lunches so he won’t be missing out if we settle for a duck and if all else fails there’s a nice leg of lamb in the freezer and two boxes of mince pies, I may get more tomorrow.

I hope you are calm and bright, won’t be long now.  Happy Christmas 

 

Cat concerns

I was very appreciative of your comments when I posted that we’d had to have Grigio out to sleep before we left Italy.  Some kind words from Chris in particular inspired me to have this made for Grigio. We will fix it to the wall near the quiet spot where she is buried in the orchard when we return next year.  We don’t need anything tangible to remind us what a wonderful cat she was but her life deserves recognition and celebration.

Meantime on Sunday, against my wishes and without consultation, Mario took Vincenzo by car to his house, about 10 minutes walk away.  The day after Mario was back at our house calling him so we assumed the poor cat had run away and I was upset. Yesterday the man who looks after the house next door was looking into our garden from the road, possibly also looking for Vincenzo.  

So we got in touch with Mario who says Vincenzo is at his house and very happy. He attached a photograph of a cat sitting on a plastic sheet on what looks like an old exercise machine presumably in a store room.  We are not 100% sure it is Vincenzo. 

What a situation, we won’t be back in Italy for 4 months. We know Mario is not reliable, he dismisses all the concerns we have about our house and our animals and just tells us not to worry.  Giovanni was hoping to return to his house this week but had to cancel his trip when his hospital appointments were changed.  Now he plans to spend new year at his house with family, who all love cats. Vincenzo willingly goes to Giovanni when we are away, our only hope is that Giovanni can tell us what is happening.

Coping

I am not so miserable now and after 9 days I am managing better with my temporary tooth.  I read that it can take a couple of months to adjust to something so alien, great I hope I’ll be rid of mine and have my implant in place by March.  Achievements so far include no longer having to slice up a banana, not having to cut up my toast to the size of a postage stamp more the size of a business card and eating if not so much enjoying my first mince pie, which was cut up small.  I think the extraction site is now healed so I shouldn’t worry so much about keeping food away from that area but the sensation of eating with a plastic plate in my mouth doesn’t add much to the pleasure.  We were at friends for drinks and nibbles last week. I swerved the crisps and olives and doubted I could eat the lovely homemade salmon pate on hard little biscuits.  Our host kindly suggested I suck the pate off the biscuits but I did manage to nibble away slowly at three of them. Hey ho it’s not forever as I keep telling myself.

Mario has decided he is taking Vincenzo to his house while we are away, presumably to save himself going twice a week the short distance to fill the feeder although conversely he does say he’s at our house regularly to check everything is ok.  He’s been a few times and not seen Vincenzo though the food is being eaten.  We did suggest he waits until Giovanni has been, he planned to return for a week in December and arrives on Sunday,  Mario doesn’t listen and was at our house again this morning looking for Vincenzo.  I hope he doesn’t find him, if Vincenzo wants to live with Mario he’ll make his way there, but then I’ll worry Mario doesn’t keep the feeder topped up as he’s obviously not enthusiastic about doing so.  That’ll take my mind off my denture.

Still miserable

I was dreading my dental appointment on Tuesday. As it turned out the broken tooth under my wobbly crown came out easily, the denture was fitted straight away and it looked just fine.  I was beaming when I came out of the consulting room, MrFF who was there to drive me home said he hadn’t seen me so happy in a while.

I needed only one paracetamol that night, there was no bleeding and as instructed I slept with the denture in place which wasn’t exactly comfortable, I might have drooled a bit. 

Wednesday evening I decided to take the denture out for cleaning and to sleep without it.  Think again. I had been shown how to remove it, hook a finger nail at the top of the false tooth and pull down. I could only move it a fraction of an inch before it was stuck solid, after a few frustrating attempts I gave up.  I tried again this morning with the same result so I phoned the dentist and got an appointment this afternoon. 

Even my dentist had trouble removing the denture, eventually it pinged off towards the back of my tongue, I had to fish it out and hand it over.  He’s taken a little off the sides of the plate and it doesn’t feel so tight now, in fact maybe it’s a bit slack, goodness knows when I’ll be eating mince pies.  

Still, it’s not forever. In 4 months time we’ll laugh about this.  I misread the scales this morning thinking I’d put on a pound, in fact I’ve lost another which makes 12 pounds lost in total.  Don’t start calculating what I might weigh in 4 months time please, I am trying to be positive.

Free electricity

Before we went to Italy in September our electricity provider was occasionally offering us free power for one hour at specified times when there is plenty of renewable energy available.  We were given at a days notice and any electricity above our average usage at that time of day was free, we of course signed up and managed to grab a maximum of £4 worth of free electricity.  We missed out a few times while we were away but yesterday got an email to say this morning, for 2 hours,  7 am to 9 am we could again use the offer.  We didn’t need asking twice particularly given twice as long to use as much as we could.  Mr FF set the alarm and at 7 am precisely switched on our emergency oil filled radiator, after he worked out how to do so as it hadn’t been needed for some time. He then got back into bed saying the kitchen would be roasty toasty by breakfast time.

I however had other plans, I got up and :

• Completed and tumble dried a load of washing
• Put the immersion on for a tank full of hot water
• Hoovered with the big Dyson
• Charged every thing that could be charged, phones, cordless vacuum etc
• Ran the dishwasher

We both had a steam session that really warmed us up. We also ran the bathroom underfloor heating that never gets used and the heated towel rails too.

By the time we sat down for our porridge, cooked in the microwave within the free zone, we were extremely hot as the outside temperature had warmed up following yesterday’s snow and ice and we had more heating in the apartment than normal.

This offer is a big improvement on last years when we had to save power by turning off as much as possible for an hour at peak times to receive a credit.  I got sick of sitting in the cold and dark for a few pounds and called a halt, particularly when I discovered MrFF sitting in the office with the computer on. I’ll be interested to see how much free power we used today, we should be notified within 7 days, I’ll let you know.

Home

Our journey from Lazio to Yorkshire was smooth if long, good stopovers, beautiful scenery and nice weather.  We were fully unpacked in a couple of days and are now back in our Yorkshire routine enjoying cold sunny days, a little snow, a lot of coziness.

I got an appointment with my dentist about my broken crown. He said it’s not good news it’s catastrophic, so much for keeping the patient calm.  The post that supported my front crown has almost disintegrated and I need an implant that will take 4 months or more to complete and cost me £3,500.  Since I dread having a gap at the front of my mouth he is making me a denture to fill the space, he says I will hate it.  I go next Tuesday to have the tooth out, meantime the crown is much wobblier after he took impressions, at least it didn't come off when he removed the mould.  I’ve had 3 weeks of slowly eating soft food with twinges every time I accidentally catch the crown. The only redeeming feature is that I have lost weight, my size 12 trousers are hanging off me but no doubt once I can tackle a mince pie they will fit again.

I need new lenses for my glasses as the photochromic film broke down in Italy, I am getting my haircut this afternoon, tomorrow my Covid vaccination.   

We think of Grigio a lot, the sadness is still there but not as raw.  So far Mario is going to the house to top up the cat feeder for Vincenzo, who may be up above us with Giovanni but he will be leaving soon for winter in Rome.  

So it was a mixed visit this time with a lot of worry and sadness but we were delighted with our oil harvest.  We brought most of it home so we have enough for ourselves, for gifting to friends and family and some to sell.  Let’s hope next years crop is equally good and that our spring 2025 visit is a happier one

Grigio

We had our beautiful little cat put to sleep today, she was born in our garden and until she went missing for 8 months earlier this year was always around even when we weren’t.  

The vets did offer further treatment but their suggestion of removing all her teeth followed by monthly injections was impossible.  We leave for our drive back to Yorkshire tomorrow.  We have no one to care for her, to give her daily medication, tempt her to eat, take her to the vets, even from a really good friend that’s just too much to ask. Besides they said there was no guarantee this treatment would work and so far after 6 weeks on medication she hadn’t improved.

At the weekend she wasn’t so good but she picked up from Monday and was eating well again.  Despite all her problems she never stopped purring and she was out in the garden most days enjoying the sun.  But I knew we had to let her go and I thought it might be something of a relief that her suffering was over, sadly it doesn’t feel that way now it just feels incredibly sad.

She was the worst of patients, fought with us when we tried to get her to the vets, twice making us late for appointments, then she fought with the vets refusing to cooperate in any way.  She could tell every time I intended to apply her mouth gel, even when I approached her with it in my pocket she’d immediately run for cover. She was stubborn and stoic and absolutely wonderful, we loved her very much.  Our time together was short and leaving her for months to the automatic feeder and outside shelter was horrible but I know she had a better and longer life than the majority of cats round here.

She is buried in the orchard beside her favourite olive tree, the one that she could climb the highest, bless her heart.  We miss you our darling Grigio.