Happy Valentine’s day!

Hope you all remembered. I did. I’m in need of a few brownie points. Always am. Better to have a few banked instead of always chasing for them I think.

So, what have we been up to.

Not a lot really.

We’ve booked to go to Venice as our birthday presents to us both. Got a couple of really cheap rail tickets and have booked a lovely little “pensione” not far from St Mark’s square. We’re going up just after Carnivale finishes. The prices at least double at Carnivale time. It’s a bit ridiculous if you ask me.

The tickets for the opera season at Sferisterio in Macerata came on sale about a week ago and we have booked there for our wedding anniversary.

We don’t seem to go out anywhere apart to celebrate our birthdays and anniversary. Still, it makes it all the more special. If we were going out every week, it would begin to pall a bit, we think. Anyway, it suits us.

Although having said that we are going out for meal this Thursday with some friends who are celebrating having lived in Italy for 5 years. That should be fun.

Oh yes and I nearly forgot, we are going out to Saturday lunch to some friends, they are the one’s who have Lola, a Bertie-type dog. She is lovely. We think Bertie is deeply in love with her as when our friends first bought her round with them, Bertie’s nose was virtually inserted where the sun doesn’t shine for whole time of their visit. V embarrassing! Never work with children and animals.

Orti and other things

All the vegetable patches are now ready to be planted. We have turned them, fertilised them and are now just waiting for the appropriate time to sow. It should start pretty soon.

We have our potatoes “chitting” in the potting shed. La D has ordered some new seeds that we are going to try this year. We’ve got some scallions (spring onions), beetroot, swede and asparagus, that we going to try. So, a bit more experimentation.

All the animals are fit. Bertie has had his annual Rabies jab and his other vaccination booster. He does not like going to the vet, at all. It takes both La D and myself to hold him whilst he has having his jabs. I’m sure they don’t hurt him, he just doesn’t like being there. Poor la D got nearly knocked out as he whipped his head up at one point as he was struggling.

We have some new neighbours moving in soon. Another Albanian family, who, if I understood someone properly, are going to try and make a go at growing tomatoes commercially. This of course may be a load of bollocks and I have completely mis-heard/mis-translated what I was told. Only time will tell. I’ll keep you informed.

The other thing is that there will be more people for Bertie to bark at. Doh! He is a bit noisy.

In her own words

We were watching something on television the other day about some people being stuck in an impossible position in a foreign jail.

La D tut-tutted and said, “Those poor people. They must have felt they were in perjury ”.

Do you know, I’m still smiling at one.

Ciao, mantenere la fede