Reunited

At 7.30 this morning MrFF opened the shutters to bright sunshine and Enrico waiting on the terrace.  Yes he’s back.  Yesterday afternoon we walked up the road to the sports ground calling him, I was coming to terms with losing him despite the positive comments I received.  Now he’s home.  At first he was a little timid but he soon remembered he likes to be stroked and cuddled, the purring started and we are all very happy.  He’s in good condition, no injuries, maybe a little thin but that will soon be resolved, right now he’s relaxing in the front garden.  

At Last

After 9 hours of madness on the autostrada that had my nerves jangling we got to our Italian house at 8 last night.  Grigio was here almost immediately and hasn’t left my side since, she follows me round like a little dog and never stops purring.  Sadly there is no sign of Enrico,  Mario said he hasn’t seen him for maybe a month, but we keep calling and hoping he will appear.

The water people arrived this morning as arranged and moved the meter from the snake pit  which has now been cleared of undergrowth

To the top of our road, apparently they had problems turning off the valve in the road and both got soaked

However a local contractor has to make the final connection from the meter to us, he was due at 5 this evening but it’s gone 6.  It’s not a big problem as this afternoon MrFF made a temporary connection, the taps work and I was able to wash the breakfast dishes.

I have cleaned the house, it was as always very dusty with lots of dead insects, then I spent time in the garden weeding, cutting back and moving pots into their summer position, happily a lot of plants have survived the neglect.   MrFF cut the so called lawn which is more weeds than grass and we found time for an al fresco lunch and a little pausa.  

The house was cold last night but it’s been sunny today so we’ve had the doors and windows open and it’s fine now though I will light the wood burner tonight as the nights are still cool.

Everything seems ok, it’s nice the long journey is over and a relief we have water, though why our meter shows that we used 40 cubic meters of water while we were away and our supply completely turned off at the snake pit is just another Italian anomaly.   I have no doubt there will be more of those to come.

Almost there, day 3

We are on the Italian side of the mount blanc tunnel, tonight we should be at our house.  We have the most gorgeous mountain village hotel just found by chance en route.  Dinner last night was excellent, the Aosta tasting menu was delicious and far too much!  This is the view from our bed early morning.

Cross everything until Friday

We chased the neighbours again about the Italian lack of water situation, this time to be told we would not be helped because we had gone solo.  We assumed this meant because we wanted the tubes we paid for in our private road where we wanted them not where the neighbours thought they should be.  

We raised our third complaint against the water board, the first two having been ignored.  MrFF was told there had been no action because we had transferred the money for our meter to be relocated from a foreign bank account so Acea assumed it was to pay for water used, no I don’t get the logic either.  What rubbish. We quoted the appropriate references relevant to meter relocation on the payment, our usage account has not been credited with the payment and, most relevant of all, we paid the bill from our Italian account.  Acea are going to have to extend their list of fantasy excuses for failing their customer.

Eventually MrFF discovered that the other 3 houses in our road, our partners in this venture, had been connected.    More correspondence, we were told first that Acea would be phoning us to confirm we really did want the meter moved, as opposed I guess to requesting this to be done 6 times and the first 5 being a joke which they simply cancelled without notification.  We never believed they would phone us because we have a uk mobile number and Italians don’t do overseas. Then we heard Acea had phoned Mario who has never been authorised to act for us and having finally allocated the payment we made in February plan to go to our house on Friday to move the meter so the supply can be connected.

So MrFF in his trusting way has decided we will travel to Italy this week, hopefully arrive Thursday evening, with copious amounts of bottled water, and everything will be fine on Friday.  I have no faith at all, I would love to be proved wrong.  It will have taken since last June to do something that could have been completed in a week or so, should not have had to be paid for in advance without a programme of work apart from a broken promise that once we paid the work would start straight away.   For almost a year this issue has stressed and angered us in equal measure if we don’t get the water connected on Friday it might be the last straw, in fact if it wasn’t for the cats I’d probably stay in Yorkshire.

It fits

 

What a lovely Easter photo to receive from my youngest niece of my youngest grand niece.  I am so pleased with this little knit and it seems Elodie is too. 

Happy Easter

I haven’t spent Easter in Yorkshire for a while, not since the lockdown of 2020 so it’s been really nice though the weather has been variable.  There has been sitting out on the balcony, many hot cross buns and an egg as we’ve avoided the queues in Dover and the lack of water at our house.

This beauty was a gift from a friend, it’s from Betty’s and it’s flat as she thought if I was off to Italy it would be easier to transport.  I am looking forward to sampling it later tonight.  I’ve always saved my eggs until Easter Monday as it’s what we did as children, after we’d rolled our decorated boiled eggs down the local hill we broke into the chocolate ones.

I have also been getting excited about the interesting little daffodils coming out in my terrace pots.    I ordered only tete a tete but there are other more fancy ones appearing which is a nice surprise.  I’ve had a Google and I think this is Rip Van Winkle.    The first of the strangers to bloom has just been decapitated by a nasty storm and is now in a tiny vase on the dining table.  Such typical Easter weather, it always has to be horrid for the lambs and delicate blooms.