Too late for Tuscany?

Long train runnin'

In case I forget, the aim of the mad digging was not solely to 'do the garden', it was actually to 'plant' the LPG tank, and then finally the septic tank, the gardening was merely a sideshow, but a comment this week from my gardener seems to say that work hasn't advanced much since I left, perhaps they are all off enjoying the festa della Republica (Republic Day).

As I said it wasn't just the garden on my last trip, briefly I also squeezed in: a meeting with painter #2, again, very entertaining, as Alberto was my interpreter (and he doesn't speak any English), good job I always carry my notepad and pencil.  Anyway, we seemed to come to a conclusion, and given the size of the previous quote (preventivo), I changed the spec for this guy, no fancy paint effects, just cream walls throughout, I agreed with Mrs J if we want fancy we can do it in a few years at our leisure, when the coffers have filled up again. So I hope this guy didn't get too merry on the festa as he is supposed to be starting this week, and he needs to do a few things as he in turn is holding up the plumber (ie he needs to paint before the radiators are hung). 

I spent an awful lot of time sitting on the floor, and staring at the ceiling, thinking about what to do with the kitchen, and finally came to a conclusion that Ikea was our best bet!! Whilst it seems like sacrilege to spoil all of our tuscan features with MDF, it really is going to be the safest bet, as my original idea of the traditional built kitchen just would not be good enough, it boils down to the fact that modern kitchen units are made of 15mm thick panels, and our hand made kitchen would have 110mm brick uprights, thus loosing 95mm of storage space for every 'unit', and given that we haven't got a lot of space to start with, that's it, QED.  Its funny, for such a global company you would think prices should be the same, especially across the euro-zone, oh no. They vary greatly, with Italy actually being slightly better than say Austria or Slovakia, funnily enough the cheapest place to buy Ikea at the moment is UK, but I really draw the line in transporting 2 tonne of their boxes around Europe, I mean, its a long way to go back when you need that extra screw (that's always missing).

Couldn't bring myself to do any real work in the garden as I was hiring some labour, but I did try out my newly repaired chain saw and chop down a dead cherry tree that was dangerously close to our neighbours back wall. Silly me, I thought that the chainsaw was supposed to do all the work, or perhaps it was the fact the temp was well into the 30's, but by the time the monster had been felled, branches stripped, and the trunk cut into bite sized pieces, I was creased, and had to go and cool off in the shade of the house.  When I had enough strength to move the cut bits, even though I was wearing regulation steel boots I managed to drop the biggest bit, not on my toe (that would have been ok), but on my unprotected shin, enabling me to see stars even when the sun was shining, ouch! (I still have a very nice bruise some 10 days later).

Last word on the interior of the house, all the tiling is done, and looks great, especially the small en-suite on the top floor.  The electrician is almost done, with all of the main wiring and sockets installed (we do have a small issue that they are not all as per drawing, but a flea in Alberto's ear solved that), and as you can see we wanted the traditional, surface mounted, twisted-pair connections for the ceiling lamps (actually its the only way to have a good looking installation on beam/terracotta ceilings).  And finally even though the septic tank is not in, Chiasserini's boys are getting on with re-pointing the front & side of the house, and silly me, the price was high, as they will touch-up the front, but do the side 100%.  buona festa

Ain't no stoppin' us now

I've been back home almost a week now from the craziest gardening weekend ever, and now there is nothing blocking the completion of Chicken House.

I pitched up at 9am on day 1 to find Matteo already well in to removing half of Tuscany by way of his mini-digger, so much for Alberto insisting that they wouldn't lift a finger without me being there.  I stopped the work for a second to check the facts, I was amazed the guy spoke some English, and equally surprised that he had removed a size-able amount of dirt without any direction, so out came my file of 3D drawings which he took to heart, folded up in his shorts and returned to digging, obviously happy in his work.  As I was taking a few minutes to go round the house to see the latest progress, then the builder turned up, 10 minutes more and a flat-bed truck squeezed up our little lane, with a nice green LPG tank on the back (in Italy its called GPL!), and then last but not least Alberto showed up, so within half an hour we had 8 guys, 2 trucks, a gas tank and a digger, the only person we didn't have and I was missing the most was VP (our translator).

To get the GPL truck up the lane, the even bigger truck taking away the spoil had to be backed into the road blocking the traffic, so the boys then set to to unload the tank.  The truck was conveniently equipped with its own hoist for this job, but that would have been too easy.  They decided to use Matt's digger, and struggled with a variety of ways to rig the slings around the tank, and the digger bucket.  I was busy taking pictures for posterity, but as the tank was lifted less than safely it did cross my mind that the pictures would come in handy for the accident inquest later.  Against the odds the tank was offloaded without injury, and was on its way up the garden towards it final resting place, trucks were re-positioned and the days main job could continue.

Alberto, Chiasserini and me then had a good 15min ding-dong about how the landscaping should (and should not) be done, the only tool in our joint vocabulary being a pencil & paper, eventually we came to a compromise that didn't entail Matteo digging for the next month, and wouldn't cost me a fortune in transporting soil around Toscana.  So we agreed on: 2 terraces not 3, level 1 to have a 1.2m retaining wall, level 2 to have a 1.4m wall (the maximum you can have in Tuscany without seismic reinforcing).  Instead of extending the base level right across the back of the house, including the back of the neighbours house, that only the 1.2m level would be site wide, this simple idea probably saving about a dozen truckloads.  The final point was how are we going to make the walls? 'with all the stone from the old barn' I said, 'not enough' retorted Alberto, 'how about to use big-stones? only 80euro per cubic metre' I left him to work out a scheme and a cost (preventivo).

The fun didn't end there, we had a meeting with Painter Man #2, I employed a gardener, designed a kitchen and chopped down a tree, but more of that later.

P.S. There is one major thing to report, the new stufa is fully installed in the living room, and I think it looks great. Ciao  

Mamma Mia! Magalotti

We pulled up to the house, bathed in Good Fridays afternoon sunshine, ecstatic that we had actually caught the builders working, and not just 1 or 2 of them but a whole cohort of Chiasserini's men toiling away, on what is a holiday in most other parts of Europe.  We were early for our planned site meeting and keen to get updated with the developments as we hadn't heard from Alberto in 10 days.  As we rounded the corner of our neighbours house our hearts sunk, why did we have doors, when there should be windows??? When, how, why did this happen?, this isn't what we discussed, argued, chivvied about for so long with all and sundry.  As they say in football circles, I was gutted!

Unfortunately no time to dwell on that for the moment, we had (as usual) a carload to empty, this time the new Stufa, one big radiator and 4 very large rolls of loft insulation, time to press gang a few helping hands to save my aching back, and in double quick time the Stufa was sitting in pride of place amongst the builders detritus in the kitchen, and the rear suspension breathed a sigh of relief.  The troops then started to muster, first Chiasserini, followed by Alberto & Virna, Tizzi (the Plumber), and eventually, the man we were all talking about Magalotti (Carpenter). I must say that even though I was in full flow with the site meeting I was so pissed with him it took me more than 10 minutes to even say hello, and what Mrs J had to about it say made Alberto's eyes water.

The site meeting flowed well from room-to-room, admiring the work done in the 10 day communication blackout, such as:- second coat of plaster, ALL the floors down (and with 4 guys busily grouting them in), front & rear doors fitted, and also those doors we didn't want also fitted.  We did have a few sticking points along the way, most noticeably concerning the loft insulation, which I threatened to do myself, but I eventually capitulated as my back was killing me after the drive down, but making Chiasserini swear that he would do in a lot less than the 12 hours he had quoted for, I mean, get a life, 12 hours to fit 4 rolls of insulation, my Granny could do it quicker than that.

We also had a lengthy debate with the tiler (who was presently doing the floor), about how not to waste the precious tiles that were only just enough to do the job.  This would have been a doddle, if it wasn't for Alberto chipping in with seemingly random ideas to how to save tiles, do it this way and that, and generally making a nuisance of himself.  I even asked VP for the Italian for 'the customer is always right', to be told (by Alberto) that it didn't work like that in Tuscany, I should have known!

After all other points were finished, and Chiasserini & Tizzi had left, it was down to Magalotti, me and the doors.  And do you know what, apparently it was my fault, another thing I should have known, he misunderstood my instructions, therefore it was my fault QED, but........ he could rectify the error, for a very special price.  To put this discussion in context, we had just arrived after a very long drive, the site meeting had already taken 3 hours, my back was killing me, and we still had to go to Alberto's office to choose colour schemes. I really wasn't in the mood for Magalotti, also the things I wanted to say to him, I couldn't say through my lady translator, so I asked him to mail me his ideas and costs, and he went. 

Uff, all this writing about the doors has got me going again, but enough negativity, what about those floors? I know Tuscany is full of them, Umbria too, but these are ours, laid by our boys, and will be walked upon by our kids. Hurrah! 

It's Good News Week

I must admit, I dialled Alberto's number tonight, with a fear that not much had happened this week, and with only 2 questions on my list the ever lengthening tele-meetings would be over in 10 minutes.  But obviously as we hadn't spoken for nearly 2 weeks, absence make's the heart grow fonder, or however you can say that when applied to building renovation certainly took hold, as Alberto bombarded me with progress upon progress, and didn't pause for breath for nearly an hour.

Photo's of this weeks work hadn't arrived before our 6pm chat, hence my trepidation, but the first thing Alberto said was that the windows were in, a whole week before the deadline, even his post-script that there was a problem almost got lost in my exuberance to talk over what they looked like.  'Hadn't I got the pictures?' he asked 'no, when did you send them?' '10 minutes ago' came the reply, and I could again sense him grinning all the way from Toscana, another 10 minutes waiting and the email appeared, and I fumbled to unzip them immediately, with Mrs J egging me on.  I thought they looked great, and said so, and asked him to pass my compimenti to Alessandro (the carpenter).  All the windows were made, but those on the ground floor (the fake french-doors) hadn't been fitted due tothe issue of the cracked lintel on the Kitchen window, this was supposed to have been replaced, but Chiasserini was worried that taking out the damaged stone would cause more damage than good, so discussed with Alberto how to repair the stone using resin etc, so lets hope this little problem is fixed soon and Alessandro's chippies can be back soon to finish this first phase of the job. 

Alberto (or more accurately Andreas his assistant) sent 5 zip files, much more than usual, as they wanted to show me the details of all plumbing AND electrical installations, as starting next Monday the plasterers are back in action doing the first top coat.  So I can confirm that my doubts were misplaced, Andreas (the sparky) had indeed wired in both the cooker and the extractor, thus taking away one of my two questions.  So, I've got 2 days to mull over these pictures, firstly trying to work out what room they are, then to confirm to Alberto that all the switces, sockets and plumbing is in the right place.  A cursory look seems to confirm its pretty much there, but I think he's missed one socket in the kitchen, and I'm not generally impressed by the cables and pipes running at all angles, In UK installations should be straight lines, up/down, left/right, which means when you come to hang a picture you have a good idea that you are not going to hit a live wire etc, it looks like I am going to have to keep copies of all these pictures in perpetuity for whenever I need to do some DIY!!

Other news was that he had ordered the stone for the new hearth in the living room (for our new corner stufa), he had double checked the price of the new cotti (no savings to be had), and that could now be ordered too, which only left my last question, when & where will the Septic tank be fitted?  fitted by the end of March, as Chiasserini now wanted to crack-on and get the interior finished (a great idea in my books), and yes, Alberto had got the drift last time, he will install the tank somewhere away from any potential kitchen extension, I haven't been so happy in a long time, I guess the only thing that can surpass this weeks euphoria is when we see the floor tiles go down. Ciao

Lock, Stock and 2 Bathroom Suites

It's almost a week now since we returned from our latest whirlwind weekend trip to Tuscany, to deliver all of our bathroom equipment, and as the pain of the road trip subsides, its time to commit the memory to the blog.  If you are sitting comfortably, then I'll begin...

Before we could go anywhere, we first had to load our transport of delight, a very battered Opel Vivaro mini-bus, without the rear seats for extra load carrying, with an absolute cornucopia of items, enough to keep plumbers and builders busy for the foreseeable future without complaint.  Luckily (for my back at least), Mrs J's brother had accepted an invitation to see Tuscany first hand, little did he know how hard he would have to work for his free-passage.

First things in were the radiators, a good 600kg laid on the floor of the van, then in stages we piled on more, sounds straightforward, but all of this kit was kept on the 7th floor, so had to negotiate several fire doors, and a lift ride to get it to the basement garage.  So in went the infamous bath, shower cubicle and trays, numerous toilet pans, bidet, lots of taps, I even threw in the wood stove for good measure (whats another 70kg between friends), and to top it all off we packed the 24 boxes of tiles in and around all the other kit.  Each box of tiles weighs ~20kg (only 5 tiles to a box!), and having already moved these upstairs once I had bought a few days earlier a nifty little sack truck (max load 175kg), sadly it must have been a typo, 'cos even with only 4 boxes loaded it was in severe danger of breaking, and each successive trip to the basement put an extra bend in the load pan.

Anyway, a sweaty hour later we were loaded up, with I guess about 1.4Te of goodies, plus our 3 svelte bods, easily exceeding the Vivaro's claims for loading, but at least there was a healthy gap between the wheels and the arches.  A quick check of the anti-freeze in the water wash, for the mountain trip, and we were off.

Even though there was an imminent threat of snow the weather was good and we were soon into our Austrian-Autobahn-stride, when we came upon a Polizie-Aktion, whereby the local traffic cops diverted all traffic off the highway into a holding area, but only seemed to hold onto those vehicles that were non-Austrian.  So we kicked our heels for nigh on 20 minutes with Hungarians, Poles and others, whilst the diligent cops checked to make sure 'our papers where in order' (very James Bond-ish).  When he finally reappeared, he casually remarked 'was I on my way to UK?', at the time I thought it was a crazy question, as we were on the Sud-Autobahn, ie going south, whereas UK was NorthWest, in hindsight perhaps it was his attempt at humour. 

The rest of our trip was thankfully uneventful, with the sun shining, roads dry and definitely no snow, it was a distinct change since the last time I drove that road (en-route to Venice in Jan 2008), when it snowed like crazy, temperatures were -10 deg C and the washer bottle froze solid, forcing us to stop in Graz and get it sorted (hence my precautionary check before we set off, once bitten etc).  Life in the van was cosy, with 3 adults upfront, and a tonne of stuff in the back, oh, and no music system apart from the cheapest of radio's and a tape player! In the days of MP3 who uses tapes anymore, obviously Van designers are a bit behind the curve on entertainment matters.  This closeness resulted in more than usual 'comfort breaks' (to stretch legs), and a constant wariness from me that with a hefty load of cast iron and porcelain behind me, braking needed the foresight of a supertanker captain.

As we set off late, we never intended to make it one non-stop trip (as we usually do), but to stay at a B&B somewhere over half-way.  We did this in November to good effect, so, once again Casa Renata, just off the Udine-Sud exit was our home for the night.  We had spent some time in the centre of Udine in August 07, and we loved the place, especially a little Trattoria we found, and I would have liked to repeat the experience, but with all of our goodies onboard, our chosen bed for the night had the added advantage of a securely gated compound with the bonus of popular local pizzeria just a stones throw away.  So with tummies full of quattrostagione and Chianti we dreamed of how Chicken House would have changed since we were last there, and tomorrow's site meeting. Buona Notte

Do you want the good news? or the bad?

Today was a real mixed bag of emotions, which actually started 6pm CET yesterday, ie that's when Alberto and my diaries coincided and we eventually got to catch up on the house, the first time in nearly 2 weeks, and as if there wasn't enough to get thro', our translator (VP) could only stay 30 mins, when I thought we could easily talk for more than a hour.

It started bad, when Alberto announced that he also had the plumber with him (so that was my list of questions out of the window immediately), and we launched into questions on where I wanted the tap in the garden (answer: its in the specification), and then onto the orientation of the loo and the bidet (answer: its on the drawing), and then onto the size/location of the radiators (answer: its in the document I emailed about an hour ago). If there is a repetitive theme in this story, I apologise, but with minutes ticking down my fuse was getting shorter than usual.  We finished on a few upbeat notes, again asking Alberto to send me some pics of the sandblasted beams, and only 10 minutes overrun on our agreed 30 min slot.

I came off the phone only slightly aggrieved that my meeting had been hijacked, but happy that a few key points had been restated and reinforced.  That euphoria lasted until this afternoon, when I got a 6Mb zip file with a dozen pics of the latest works.  The first few absolutely lifted me, showing how well the old timbers had come up after the sandblasting, some of the photo's even showed that the plasterers had done the business and had almost fully finished the first coat of render. 

On about pic 6 or 7 it started to get more interesting, with lots of big blue and grey plastic piping laid about various rooms.  So, the plumber had actually started. Then wham! the next shot was of the main bathroom, and blow me down, he had installed the hidden flush system for the loo and bidet mounting, AND they were in the wrong place! I just could not believe it. To add insult to injury I must have told Alberto  dozen times that I already have all the equipment to be installed, so what was the plumber doing fitting his own kit? I was foaming at the mouth.  So much so I dashed off a quick note to Alberto (via translator), telling him to swap WC/Bidet back again, remove his kit, and tell the plumber to stop work until I can get there with all the bits and pieces, and go over the installation (even tho' it is in the drawings etc).

When I'd calmed down a bit, we went straight out to buy the much discussed radiators, and the good news was that they had them in stock, the bad news was, not the exact size I wanted.  A quick executive decision, and we were the proud owners of about 1 tonne of new cast iron radiators.  When I showed the guy that they were to go in the back of my car (and not a truck), his face was picture, but with a few of his mates, and some brute force, in they went.  I must say the rear springs on my car were severely tested as we drove home very slowly, a little reminiscent of our great journey across Europe last year.  Getting them out of the car was a hoot, (as there was only me), with each radiator weighing at least 150kg, but with the appliance of science, I did the job in double quick time, and still came away with all my fingers and toes.

Since then, I've been checking my mails regularly and still no retort from Alberto, I'm hoping he'll just say 'OK, no probs', anyway I'm still looking to fix our next trip to Toscana in the very nearest future.

Today's problems put my cotti dilemma in the shade, by the way, the answer is: you can ask for 3 types of finish, ie matt, satin or glossy.  QED. Ciao Amici  

 

Double dilemma

I've got two things making my head hurt at the moment (at least with regard to Chicken House prospects), both should be easy, but I still can't make my mind up what to do, so perhaps if I write it down it might come clearer.

Problem no. 1: Terracotta tiles, or more precisely shiny terracotta tiles, do we want them? After a lot of research on how and why you should treat your new terracotta floor (see previous post Cotto, cotti, terracotta from Nov 22 08), I now feel that I don't want to see the glossy, heavily waxed look in our house, and would prefer to feel the rough matte texture beneath my feet.  I know all the reasons for why you should wax, and agree that in the kitchen its essential, but elsewhere, I'm not convinced, and even Alberto is on my side.  It makes a big impact on the budget too, as our friendly builder wants 24 euro/m to do the wax treatment, if we only do the kitchen we can reduce the bill by over 2,000 euro.

Talking of kitchens, that brings me onto problem no. 2, and Mrs J's wish to have a big fridge.  Now, our kitchen is rather cosy, so my design included a cosy little under-counter type fridge, and not the whacking great American one we currently have.  My reasoning being that Chicken House was supposed to be an ad-hoc holiday home, not our main residence, but, says Mrs J, what if it is one day, where will we put the fridge?, so, back to the drawing board.  Easy, I said (after a night sleeping on it), we make the current kitchen a dining room, knock thro' the window and tack on a nifty little 2m-wide single storey extension, I mean Alberto said we could do this, as we have the 25 sqm from the now ex-shed, that can be added to the house footprint.  So a quick email to Alberto, with attached plan, to see if it was possible, and I waited eagerly, checking my mails every 5 mins or so.  His eventual answer was no! as apparently any new build cannot go within 5m of a boundary, and this optimal solution (his words), would be within 2m of our neighbours chicken run.  This was a real downer, for me and Mrs J, having got our hopes up, only to have them dashed again so quickly.

There is a way around this, and I will cross-question Alberto during our next session, hopefully by then I'll have an answer on tiles too. Ciao

ENEL does the business

After 7 months of waiting ENEL finally found the time to come and connect us to the Italian electricity grid, thereby allowing us access to what is probably the most expensive energy in Europe (Italy is 30% more expensive than the EU average, and 60% higher than France!), anyway, at least Chiasserini will be happy, as he can get more men and machines on the job.

My faith in my builders was restored with Alberto's latest updates, showing work has started on the base coat of plaster, and with a new-year delivery of stone, the installation of the new window surrounds.  Lets hope that the picture of the house minus windows, is the last to show it looking in such a sad state (as well as the bombed-out look of the garden), and that as promised, Alessandro (the carpenter) can now come out, measure the (new) window openings, and start making our windows.

Obviously, if the plastering moves on then it won't be long until we have electricians and plumbers fighting for space alongside the builders, to this end Alberto also sent me the calculations for the heat capacity of each room (in order to correctly size the radiators), so we went straight out yesterday and double-checked the builders merchant I had previously found still sold the old-fashioned cast iron radiators I want.  They did, so as soon as I confirm I understand Alberto's figures, I'll be straight round to them to place my order. 

More progress also means that we will have to move all of our purchased equipment to Italy, I think this time I'll rent a bigger van than the one I took to UK.  Ciao tutti

A Grand Design? not quite

Over the Xmas break, we've been re-watching episodes from our favourite UK TV show, Channel 4's 'Grand Designs'.  So far we have all 4 published DVD's plus a few episodes a friend recorded for us some time ago, and considering how many times we watch them, its a wonder they haven't worn out.

For anybody who doesn't know what I'm going on about, 'Grand Designs' is a house design/build programme, fronted by a guy called Kevin McCloud (who just happens to be an architect), which has probably done more in the last 10 years for the rise and appreciation of domestic home architecture, than anything else that went before it. 

In its 49 mins, each show takes a couple, with a certain budget and high hopes, and documents their ups and downs (usually more downs than ups), during the development and construction of their dream house, with the filming being done in stages (and sometimes over several years), neatly edited together with some on-camera time from the main man Kev.  We love this show in our house, as we get to poke fun at people (a little like us) with a dream, that set out on their journey with insufficient money, together with a general lack of knowledge and skills.  Kevin, and the C4 editor love this, setting up the stories, editing to show the mistakes, and then interspersing with sly 'off stage' whispers from our hero.  Yet, amazingly, all the shows end in triumph, well almost,  most are way over budget, many have had to compromise over key parts of the dream design, but they are happy to have built/renovated their own home and survived, Kevin even has the good grace in his final summary speech to praise them (or their design).

And what's this got to do with Chicken House? well amid the giggles, as we watch the 'pratfalls' of people who actually have the balls to try, we learn how not to do it wrong, to learn from their mistakes, so that we don't do the same, and spend our hard earned budget going down a dead-end street, only to knock it down and start again.

Kevin also gets to stretch his legs into Europe, looking at Brits who have a dream in the sun, and he's even been to Tuscany, see  http://www.channel4.com/4homes/on-tv/grand-designs/episode-guides/tuscany-the-ancient-castle-08-06-13_p_1.html

This was done a few years ago, but we know he's been back (to visit our immobiliare, Romolini's), to film more properties in their 'before' state, now they are waiting for buyers, and to see if they will let the cameras in to follow their progress, trouble is with current global finances it may be some time until there is a sale.  Anyway, we hope Kev does visit our part of Toscana soon, we may even tempt him to cast an eye over Chicken House, and to give his expert opinion, off camera of course.  Ciao tutti

Boxing Day thoughts

Woke up this morning, not thinking of boxes but of loo's and bidet's. I'm sick, I know, but there is a good reason for it.  As I said  recently, I did some detailed scale drawings of the house internals, to help Alberto, builder, plumber etc to lay out electrics and equipment, and nothing is proving so testing as the bathroom plan, particularly THE bath, which is rapidly becoming a white plastic millstone.

My plan as sent to Alberto, made the most of the space in the bathroom (something not many people enjoy), and placed the bath at a jaunty 45 degree angle, pointing into the room, in a kind of 'I got the space so I'm gonna use it' attitude.  Mrs J wasn't convinced, I sent the plan to Alberto nevertheless.  However, this holiday season gave us a great opportunity to try out the new plan for real (as we did with the small bathroom equipment), as we had the muscle of Mrs J's younger brother, to help hump the bath around in various poses.

So, on xmas eve, we cleared a space, marked out in festive red ribbon on the floor, and quickly laid out all the white goods we have been storing for the last few months into place, as shown on the scale plan.  All looked great, and even Mrs J had to agree that the angled-bath WAS the best use of space, and any other variation was boring.  One point that did come out was that the sink was too close to the shower, so moving it 20cm nearer the loo looked and felt a lot better.

Now why did I wake up thinking of loo's? Because, no doubt sometime soon after we move in I'm sure it won't be sooo good, but how about if we reverse the location of the bidet and the loo, as in theory the bidet will be less used (mainly by those people who know what it is and how to use it), and so it won't prove to be a problem to have a sink 'in your face', that was my pre-waking conclusion, further resolved during my morning shower.  So the plan above will be amended, to issue 2, and sent to Alberto before the return to work in January.

And boxing day?, nothing to do with pugilism, but about christmas giving to servants (see  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_day). Buone feste