Sunday morning Mr FF went off to fix the water leak, which he discovered was our neighbour Anna’s, he fixed it anyway and she was delighted plying is with cake and wine in gratitude. However we were left with our meter running when the supply was turned off at the house. We searched the mountainside but it had rained so it was impossible to locate the problem. Yesterday Mr FF went up again, found and fixed our leak. Let’s hope that’s the end of it for this year.
While he was working he got chatting to contractor who was working on the land nearby. He agreed we need a single pipe down the mountain to our road where we could locate the 4 meters in an accessible spot. He said he had the equipment and would do a good job for us. Of course all 4 houses would have to agree and pay for this work but it would make life much easier. You might think it would make sense too for the water board to have an efficient system and they might contribute, think again.
Meantime we had a card in our post box from the water authority asking us to take a reading from the meter and send it in. No reference number was provided or reply card, we should phone or email a response. Since their member of staff who was here this week, a man considerably younger than us, had failed to enter the chamber of horrors to read the meter it’s a bit cheeky to expect four pension aged householders to do his work. Annna has told us to throw the card in the bin but I’m tempted to reply, if I can find a reference number.
Spoke too soon, Mr FF has just checked the meter, we still have a leak. Give me strength.
Thursday, 11 October 2018
Saturday, 6 October 2018
Utility bills
We have another water leak. I’ve mentioned before that our water meter is on the mountainside above our house, about 10 minutes walk away, and that from the meter the pipe is our responsibility. We had thought this year we were ok, the pressure was good and Mr FF had understandably been reluctant to take a machete to hack his way through the undergrowth to the sometimes snake infested pit that houses the meters.
This week a man from the water authority was here looking for the meter, armed only with an iPad he had no chance and left without taking readings.
Anyway this visit prompted Mr FF to turn off the water at our house, beat a path to the pit and see if the meter was spinning, it was. We couldn’t have a summer without a water leak though I do wonder why it’s always our pipe that fails not one of the three other houses in our road. Fortunately earlier in the year Mr FF had spent a couple of days clearing the gully the pipe runs down of brambles and self seeded trees. He was able to find water bubbling up from the earth fairly quickly. Let’s hope it’s an easy fix.
In case you are wondering why our meter is so far away, it seems the water authority only have to supply within a short distance of a road, our road is private so it doesn’t qualify and though we’ve all tried to get the meter moved closer, like the end of our road, it’s just not happening. No doubt when we do get a meter reading and a proper bill there will be further discussion.
Speaking of which we didn’t get a bill for refuse collection last year, we reported this and were told the lady who dealt with the accounts had been off work, quite a lot of people hadn’t been charged and that an invoice would arrive. Subsequently we received and paid this years bill but despite a reminder nothing has come for last year, I just hope it isn’t the same situation as the tax office where we received a 30% fine for declaring some unpaid tax, in fact we’d paid the tax in the UK but that didn’t help. We were told if we’d kept quiet and waited to be discovered the fine would have been 10% and if we weren’t found out within 5 years we’d have got away with it. Smart thinking that strategy, like putting water meters in an inaccessible location and not being able to charge.
This week a man from the water authority was here looking for the meter, armed only with an iPad he had no chance and left without taking readings.
Anyway this visit prompted Mr FF to turn off the water at our house, beat a path to the pit and see if the meter was spinning, it was. We couldn’t have a summer without a water leak though I do wonder why it’s always our pipe that fails not one of the three other houses in our road. Fortunately earlier in the year Mr FF had spent a couple of days clearing the gully the pipe runs down of brambles and self seeded trees. He was able to find water bubbling up from the earth fairly quickly. Let’s hope it’s an easy fix.
In case you are wondering why our meter is so far away, it seems the water authority only have to supply within a short distance of a road, our road is private so it doesn’t qualify and though we’ve all tried to get the meter moved closer, like the end of our road, it’s just not happening. No doubt when we do get a meter reading and a proper bill there will be further discussion.
Speaking of which we didn’t get a bill for refuse collection last year, we reported this and were told the lady who dealt with the accounts had been off work, quite a lot of people hadn’t been charged and that an invoice would arrive. Subsequently we received and paid this years bill but despite a reminder nothing has come for last year, I just hope it isn’t the same situation as the tax office where we received a 30% fine for declaring some unpaid tax, in fact we’d paid the tax in the UK but that didn’t help. We were told if we’d kept quiet and waited to be discovered the fine would have been 10% and if we weren’t found out within 5 years we’d have got away with it. Smart thinking that strategy, like putting water meters in an inaccessible location and not being able to charge.
Monday, 1 October 2018
Closing in
It’s that time of year when the nights are longer, we have to start sleeping in the bed rather than on top of it, lunches are a bit more substantial than a few slices of melon and shorts are not always the garment of choice during waking hours. I won’t call it autumn, we still have high daytime temperatures, the leaves remain on the trees, tomatoes continue to be produced, breakfast is always taken outdoors. But I can feel the change and I don’t like it. The local festas are over, we had the last one on Sunday and it got quite cool sitting in the square till midnight for our village talent contest. The grape harvest has started and the olives are turning black, people are preparing for winter and of course wearing their warmer clothes even on a sunny day.
The pool temperature is down to about 18 deg so it isn’t used much but we leave it up as it’s holding down the membrane for the new pavings that probably won’t be laid till next year.
We are into October, we shall have to go back to Yorkshire next month and my heart sinks at the thought of leaving our cat Grigio even though she is perfectly happy spending most of her day and a lot of her night outdoors. She has chummed up nicely with Enrico who has become much less aggressive and likes to sleep in the pizza oven, it does contain a basket and pillows and is never used for cooking.
A better person would concentrate on the last weeks here and relish the season, I’m trying really I am. Tell you what I’ll light a candle or two as the sun goes down, put my slippers on and pretend I like cosy.
The pool temperature is down to about 18 deg so it isn’t used much but we leave it up as it’s holding down the membrane for the new pavings that probably won’t be laid till next year.
We are into October, we shall have to go back to Yorkshire next month and my heart sinks at the thought of leaving our cat Grigio even though she is perfectly happy spending most of her day and a lot of her night outdoors. She has chummed up nicely with Enrico who has become much less aggressive and likes to sleep in the pizza oven, it does contain a basket and pillows and is never used for cooking.
A better person would concentrate on the last weeks here and relish the season, I’m trying really I am. Tell you what I’ll light a candle or two as the sun goes down, put my slippers on and pretend I like cosy.
Wednesday, 12 September 2018
Grinding to a halt
Mid September is the new August. Now the days are very hot, there is no more rain and it feels like high summer. So we are doing all the August things, watering the garden, closing the shutters to keep out the heat, watching the landscape turn parched, dipping in and out of the pool and feeling sweatily exhausted most of the time. It’s a slight worry that fires will be allowed again in a couple of weeks just when things are drying out, maybe the commune will extend the ban.
I read online that our lido in Ilkley (unheated outdoor pool) is staying open this month. However if the water temperature drops below 15 deg wetsuits must be worn, if it drops to 10 deg the facility will close. Our garden pool is around 24 deg and that takes my breath away. Yorkshire folk are a tough breed, Mr FF once spent an hour in the lido when the water was 17 deg, meanwhile the Italian pools outdoor pools are closing for the year as they always do.
I read online that our lido in Ilkley (unheated outdoor pool) is staying open this month. However if the water temperature drops below 15 deg wetsuits must be worn, if it drops to 10 deg the facility will close. Our garden pool is around 24 deg and that takes my breath away. Yorkshire folk are a tough breed, Mr FF once spent an hour in the lido when the water was 17 deg, meanwhile the Italian pools outdoor pools are closing for the year as they always do.
Our Danish friends are going home for a few weeks and will only return for a short time in October, our Roman neighbours are back in the city, not so many house lights to see on mountainside now. Its getting quiet up here and there is a feeling of things coming to an end, let’s just hope the heat stays a little longer, you know how the turning of the season can throw me out of sorts. In fact I may already be a little crazy, I’ve made an online Christmas gift purchase and bought a few Christmas gifts here to take home.
Wednesday, 22 August 2018
Lost in translation
Mr FF’s Italian isn’t great, in fact after 15 years of visits, latterly for up to 6 months at a time, it’s awful Only last week a neighbour was berating him because she couldn’t speak with him. He gets me into situations, like when he said a visitor wanted to know what I was feeding my rather large courgettes, I answered ‘just water from this’ holding up the hose pipe ‘and not every day’. In fact the person wanted to know why we hadn’t put a jacuzzi in the corner of the garden instead of vegetables.
At the weekend he came back from a walk having met Giovanni who he said had invited us to go up for coffee at 11 today. We were late setting off as Mr FF had been to the builders yard, en route we met the elderly gentleman who has a lot of olive trees around us, we chatted then he insisted on giving us a bag of peaches from one of his trees so it was turned up for 12 when we arrived at the house.
As a gift I’d made an apple and blackberry crumble with fruit from the garden, I explained how to cook it and that it could be eaten with ice cream, yoghurt or whatever. Milena turned the oven on immediately and put the crumble in, I didn’t say anything. She also took the bag of peaches from me, I said they were a gift from the old gentleman, I’d envisaged there would be confusion and was happy to relinquish them.
We had a walk round their lovely garden then Giovanni asked Mr FF to look at some cracks inside the house that were worrying them, he asked me to go too to translate. Our Italian classes didn’t concentrate so much on building terminology but between us we were able to reassure Giovanni that the cracks were cosmetic and the house wasn’t falling down.
When we came back Milena asked me if I liked porcini and onions and other things and said she was going to make a sugo. I told Mr FF I thought they planned to feed us though I wasn’t quite sure if she wasn’t just interested in my diet whilst wanting to crack on with their own lunch. The four bread buns they arrived at the table were a giveaway and yes they did provide a delicious lunch with lots of homemade and homegrown food. The crumble, cooked for 20 minutes and cooled arrived with a large plate and a knife for me to serve it. I had to ask for dishes and a spoon, there was no accompaniment, then we ate the peaches.
Mr FF insists they didn’t invite us for lunch and that they only provided it because I took a pudding, who knows. The are such a sweet generous couple there was no awkwardness and mostly they speak to Mr FF as if he understands them.
He is currently next door helping other neighbours who’ve been having problems with their septic tank, he did manage to find them a company that can empty the tank and clear the pipes, they are working there now. With Mr FF’s command of the language I won’t be surprised if the contents end up in our garden.
At the weekend he came back from a walk having met Giovanni who he said had invited us to go up for coffee at 11 today. We were late setting off as Mr FF had been to the builders yard, en route we met the elderly gentleman who has a lot of olive trees around us, we chatted then he insisted on giving us a bag of peaches from one of his trees so it was turned up for 12 when we arrived at the house.
As a gift I’d made an apple and blackberry crumble with fruit from the garden, I explained how to cook it and that it could be eaten with ice cream, yoghurt or whatever. Milena turned the oven on immediately and put the crumble in, I didn’t say anything. She also took the bag of peaches from me, I said they were a gift from the old gentleman, I’d envisaged there would be confusion and was happy to relinquish them.
We had a walk round their lovely garden then Giovanni asked Mr FF to look at some cracks inside the house that were worrying them, he asked me to go too to translate. Our Italian classes didn’t concentrate so much on building terminology but between us we were able to reassure Giovanni that the cracks were cosmetic and the house wasn’t falling down.
When we came back Milena asked me if I liked porcini and onions and other things and said she was going to make a sugo. I told Mr FF I thought they planned to feed us though I wasn’t quite sure if she wasn’t just interested in my diet whilst wanting to crack on with their own lunch. The four bread buns they arrived at the table were a giveaway and yes they did provide a delicious lunch with lots of homemade and homegrown food. The crumble, cooked for 20 minutes and cooled arrived with a large plate and a knife for me to serve it. I had to ask for dishes and a spoon, there was no accompaniment, then we ate the peaches.
Mr FF insists they didn’t invite us for lunch and that they only provided it because I took a pudding, who knows. The are such a sweet generous couple there was no awkwardness and mostly they speak to Mr FF as if he understands them.
He is currently next door helping other neighbours who’ve been having problems with their septic tank, he did manage to find them a company that can empty the tank and clear the pipes, they are working there now. With Mr FF’s command of the language I won’t be surprised if the contents end up in our garden.
Wednesday, 8 August 2018
It’s all rubbish
In our region of Lazio we have door step rubbish collection 6 days a week, it’s remarkable that when we are the only occupied property the bin lorry still trundles up our track to collect. Recently we were issued with 3 smart new stackable bins for paper, plastic and unrecycleable items, the bin we already had to be used for glass and metal. I thought that was fine until a neighbour called to tell me that I needed to go down to the square to collect my allocation of plastic bags to line the bins. Giovanni offered to take me down but I declined thinking I’d manage without plastic. However Mr FF disagreed so we went down on the second day the bags were being dished out. It was devastating to see a sizeable transit van packed high with rolls of plastic bags to be distributed to our small village.
I brought the bags home but didn’t use them. I am obviously breaking some rule because the lady who empties our bins gets very cross every time she collects. She even resorted to checking my rubbish, one time she took out yogurt cartons and a plastic egg box and left them in the bin, I have no idea why but for the next collection I did put them and other plastic in one of the standard issue bags and everything was taken. I can hear the lady muttering away, particularly if Mr FF has put out anything building related, one time she had a good sort through, spoke to the driver who tooted his horn as they drove off leaving our rubbish behind. As I said we have six collections a week but I actually miss out 2 as I am happy to compost all my peelings, tea bags, coffee grounds etc. That and the fact we are only here half a year and pay for a full years collection has no bearing on what the bin lady will sanction.
We have a long list of items we cannot put in our bins that have to be taken to the depot down the mountain on Tuesday or Saturday morning. We took a mattress down recently and the lady there was charming, she said she remembered us from a couple of years ago, let us take a perfectly good cat carrier from one of the skips. showed us the depot cat and it’s kittens and then asked us for identification.
Fly tipping is a huge and ugly problem in Italy, even quiet country roads are strewn with litter and it’s not unusual for us to collect paper and bottles as we walk down our track. There is a nice picnic area above us with tables, seats and BBQ facilities. Someone had collected together their rubbish, put it in a black bag and left it there. Of course animals had torn the bag open and the contents, food waste and plastic plates were strewn around. The idea of taking rubbish home is completely alien.
The use of plastic here is excessive. In the nicest of Italian homes you can be served a meal on plastic plates, the supermarkets are stocked high with them. I take out a plastic storage box for ricotta which our shepherd calls but he still insists on putting the cheese into a plastic bowl first. I’ve solved that issue by taking the same plastic bowl out as well.
Yesterday in our little mini market Mr FF bought bread and sausages both admirable wrapped in brown paper bags. However at the checkout the shop owner started to put both paper bags into a plastic one. Mr FF stopped him and tried to explain the Pass on Plastic policy, Gianni responded that it would never happen in Italy, he’s probably right, if they don’t see the litter under their noses they won’t be thinking about the wider environment.
I brought the bags home but didn’t use them. I am obviously breaking some rule because the lady who empties our bins gets very cross every time she collects. She even resorted to checking my rubbish, one time she took out yogurt cartons and a plastic egg box and left them in the bin, I have no idea why but for the next collection I did put them and other plastic in one of the standard issue bags and everything was taken. I can hear the lady muttering away, particularly if Mr FF has put out anything building related, one time she had a good sort through, spoke to the driver who tooted his horn as they drove off leaving our rubbish behind. As I said we have six collections a week but I actually miss out 2 as I am happy to compost all my peelings, tea bags, coffee grounds etc. That and the fact we are only here half a year and pay for a full years collection has no bearing on what the bin lady will sanction.
We have a long list of items we cannot put in our bins that have to be taken to the depot down the mountain on Tuesday or Saturday morning. We took a mattress down recently and the lady there was charming, she said she remembered us from a couple of years ago, let us take a perfectly good cat carrier from one of the skips. showed us the depot cat and it’s kittens and then asked us for identification.
Fly tipping is a huge and ugly problem in Italy, even quiet country roads are strewn with litter and it’s not unusual for us to collect paper and bottles as we walk down our track. There is a nice picnic area above us with tables, seats and BBQ facilities. Someone had collected together their rubbish, put it in a black bag and left it there. Of course animals had torn the bag open and the contents, food waste and plastic plates were strewn around. The idea of taking rubbish home is completely alien.
The use of plastic here is excessive. In the nicest of Italian homes you can be served a meal on plastic plates, the supermarkets are stocked high with them. I take out a plastic storage box for ricotta which our shepherd calls but he still insists on putting the cheese into a plastic bowl first. I’ve solved that issue by taking the same plastic bowl out as well.
Yesterday in our little mini market Mr FF bought bread and sausages both admirable wrapped in brown paper bags. However at the checkout the shop owner started to put both paper bags into a plastic one. Mr FF stopped him and tried to explain the Pass on Plastic policy, Gianni responded that it would never happen in Italy, he’s probably right, if they don’t see the litter under their noses they won’t be thinking about the wider environment.
Wednesday, 18 July 2018
Cooking on gas
An expression I first heard from one of the 3 builders we used on our house in Scotland, he never really was but his words stuck with me. I certainly feel as if I am being cooked most days now, it really is hot particularly in my kitchen, where I do use gas. Not complaining, I love it. We now have our plastic pool though the new terrace isn’t quite finished, we could wait no longer to be able to cool down. I’m desperate to deck the area with summer pots, I’ve taken a lot of cuttings that are on stand by but Mr FF has suggested they will be in the way when he works so I have to wait to position them.
We’ve had a couple of weeks of the quiet times I love, where we are up very early, Mr FF does hard labour while it’s cool, we breakfast mid morning then we do very little and wear very little. We go out hardly at all, it’s too hot now to walk down to the village, we just stay home, sweat and snooze.
The hardest thing I do is water the garden and pick veggies in the evenings. Every night we have courgette surprise on the menu, the surprise being that it’s courgettes again. I took a bag down to a neighbour this morning and returned with a bottle of Spumante and a bag of figs, I came out best in that deal.
We can look forward to more of these dog days for a while, intense heat, occasional electric storms, lethargy, slight madness, cats spark out on the terrace, it’s what I’ve been waiting for, it’s paradise.
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