8 Days A Week

Is it me, or is it just too-hot-to-blog? I mean, would JK Rowling have written so much if she wasn't in Scotland?, if you just compare her latest tome (at 600+ pages), to your average Hemingway, penned in a less than cool-Cuba (barely breaking 110 pages), then it seems to be that cold climates produce more prolific writers, so it is then that a lull in our routine 36 degree days allows me to set down a few of our exploits on our recent Chicken House moving-in trip.

Where to start? with the van full of goodies, and the windswept road trip to Bella Italia?, no doubt you're getting bored with those tales, but suffice to say that I was
expecting our MB Vito van to be more Tardis-like, which resulted in half of our cargo (of course the heaviest half), to have to be returned from whence it came on the 9th floor, severely testing both my patience and my muscles.  Amazing that so much humping, resulting from literally weeks of judicious box packing, resulted in barely covering half of the living room (Soggiorno), upon our touch-down at CH!

One omission that was left behind in the heat of the moment, and regretted for the whole trip was the mattress to our bed (the bed did make it), it seemed like a small sacrifice after 3 or 4 hours toing and froing, but our only alternative in Italy was to use a handy blow-up bed I had bought for guests, which after a long days toil in the house didn't really give either me or Mrs J, 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep (8 minutes perhaps, until one or the other of us rolled over, with the resulting noise waking not just us but half of the neighbourhood also).

Now, call me stupid, or maybe just naive even after all this time, but I had expected to walk into our newly refurbished house, and expect it to be clean.  I mean, the major building work had finished months ago, the second fix of electrics and plumbing was in, and the painter had done his stuff.  Exactly, but he seems to have been caught short at the end of it, or perhaps there was an air-raid warning, as he had obviously left the place in a real rush, the rooms in a mess, and all the paint tins too.  This then set the pace for the whole week, laboriously sweeping, washing every room repeatedly, and more galling, cleaning up the million (I exaggerate not), paint drops on our precious cotto floor, I mean it would have been cheaper to have had our floor covered in gold-leaf, and this guy throws paint all over it, uff, don't get me started.  

If our first day as Italians was all about cleaning, then the second should have been altogether more exciting, as we went to Rimini.  No, not to the beach, but to IKEA's latest opening (did you know that IKEA have 14 stores in Italy?), and I'd like to go on record that the whole experience was probably the best I've ever had in one of Mr Kamprad's shops, whether it was the really helpful, and English speaking staff, or the emptiness of the store (probably attributable to the fact it was Tuesday, and the store had only been open a few weeks), or the fantastic food in the restaurant (no, I don't mean meat-balls covered in goo, but fantastic Cannelloni), and IKEA in Italy has a bar, where you can stand up and get your expresso, how civilised is that?  Regardless of all this efficiency, my idea of a quick trip to get our sofa's and kitchen, still resulted in a full 8 hours there and back, which of course is nothing compared to the 3 or 4 days required to assemble all of the boxes you have just spent your hard earned cash on, but more of that excitement later.  Ciao

Comments

[Yvonne]

Well done getting moved in - even if only with minimal furniture. The 'paint on the floor' syndrome is universal here and there is no way you can stop them: even when they cover the floors first they still manage it somehow. Hours on you hands & knees with one of those scratchy green pads is what it needs....
Y

[Suzie]

Good luck !
Great that you can move in.
I wish we would be that fast.
We still have "Rohbau" situation here. Not even concrete floors... but it looks great from outside (bella figura... ha ha).

BTW paint on the floor: I need to scratch some of our lovely balcony tiles... but if this would be all, I would be happy!

[Geotacs]

yeah i think cooler weather does help one to write more... heat does tire one out more quickly... while i suppose writing helps to warm you during cold weather...

IKEA! love them! assembling is part of the fun no?

cheers!