We did it again

Well sort of.  MrFF had dropped a lot of hints that I’d be disappointed this year with my £5 stocking.  He forgets that he always spends the weeks before Christmas traipsing round the shops and travelling to other towns with his free bus pass only to bemoan the fact he cannot find anything suitable.

This year he underspent and I overspent so things balanced out.  Here’s what I received 

A couple of books and hand warmers which he says I can use when my feet are cold in bed as they often are these days, probably a circulation thing. Some eco bamboo clothes pegs which at first I said I’d take to Italy as we have no outdoor clothes line in Ilkley but which I might use when here  I put the washing out on the balcony on the airing stand, unofficially.  We are not supposed to dry washing outside which on a good day seems criminal, besides my laundry can hardly be seen as we are so high and behind a parapet, it’s not like Naples with sheets hanging from the windows.

MrFF got last years Private Eye annual 50p and brand new garden shears which at £2.99 were a charity shop bargain that will go to Italy so I can use them too.  Two Marks and Spencer Autograph supima cotton t shirts that look like new at £5 each.  First I bought just the green one but they were so nice and the budget blown I went back for the blue.  I also threw in a pair of hand knitted socks, extravagant or what.

Our gifts from friends and family were lovely, just right, and our day was mostly peaceful. After breakfast I took a walk on my own as MrFF was starting a cold which so far hasn’t affected me.  We had a nice meal and had settled down to watch tv when at 10 pm the fire alarm in our building went off.  We evacuated via the fire escape and waited outside until it was confirmed to be a false alarm.  It went off again this afternoon and we were on our way down the escape stair again when it stopped.  It has been turned off, I was a bit worried that whoever did that hadn’t  had time to check there definitely wasn’t a fire.  A lot of people hadn’t made any effort to leave the building, I wonder what will happen if it goes off in the middle of the night.

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.