Everyday Leo, Michaels assistant arrives at 8.30 and then he and michael go down on to the land and spend the whole day down there making terraces to support the large amount of earth that holds the swimming pool, that we imported in from local farm land.
Most days it is lovely and sunny here around 35 degrees, rarely it rains but then it just chucks it down non stop and we fill up our water reservoirs, so we don’t mind the rain as it doesn’t come frequently and we always have plenty of work to do inside, when it does.
We are so continually in Awe at the abundance of delightful towns that are near our house and when we have a day off we adventure out to a different place that we haven’t seen before and wander around the charming old centers that date back thousands of years.
We always feel like we are in a movie on these days of adventure, as the architecture is so unusual, almost magical, and the light shines in such a way that you can almost become hypnotized by the beauty of it all.
Of course after we have meandered around in glorious sunlight and stopped for numerous amounts of coffee in authentic Italian coffee houses and drooled in the window at the Italians beautifully made clothes, then we take a long leisurely lunches where the wine flows, the food just keeps coming and the bill is surprisingly cheap, from one of the always surprising and never disappointing restaurants, trattorias, osterias, pizzerias in what ever town we happen to be in at the time, we did all this last Sunday, after meandering around Bari city Centro storico and walking along the promenade in fabulous sunshine, we then found a fantastic restaurant which was Ala Carte and had a fabulous 3 course meal which was beautifully presented and it only cost £25 for two. bargain. it’s so reasonable here.
In a minute we are going over to a village selva di fasano which is on the next mountain to us, and we are going to meet a couple who want michael to do there kitchens and bathrooms, and then on Sunday we are going to meet our friend Maurizio who wants michael to make the bar for his new nightclub.
we have plenty of things to keep us busy here, its difficult to fit it all in, we only have two pairs of hands and so many hours in the day.
Still although we are busy, it is not stressful and the evenings are spent on the veranda reading a book, listening to music or watching a movie, it is a very quiet relaxing existence and we still love it intensely.Our language is coming on slowly, we practice every day, mainly local friends, michael seems to becoming along a lot quicker with it now that he is spending 8 hours a day with his little Italian buddy and when I go out, I practice in the shops and with friends.
Anyway my struggle with Italian legislation continues, I have been trying to change our driving licenses over, for the last few weeks and really am hitting a brick wall, with what should be such a simple procedure. Hah
First of all I didn’t have enough documents, believe me I had a lot, so I had to go and queue up and fill out more forms in the commune, which took hours.
Then they needed a translation of our licenses which we had done, then they said this had to be done by a professional translator, when I asked where I would find such a person, they said they didn’t know, Great how brilliant, so we made a lot of enquires and came up with zip!
Luckily, finally they found someone after a few more weeks but when I finally returned to get it done, they said they had a problem with Michael’s license.
All of his 6 Italian big identity docs say, michael john Foley, and his passport but his driving license just say michael Foley,so they said it wasn’t possible to change it at all, what???
We tried to explain the unimportance of a middle name in England but they weren’t having any of it.
So I phoned the dvla and asked if it was possible for a name change, and they said because we weren’t living in England any more, that the license was void because of a lack of address!
So I then went on line and did an address change and filled in everything with Michael john Foley and when the new one came back it had, guess what, Michael Foley on it.
So, I’m going round in circles here. Michaels had no license for a month while we sent it off and then he got pulled over by the police, who, Of course, asked to see his documents. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
Luckily he pulled the ‘I’m a thick Irishman thing’ and pretended he couldn’t understand a word and they got so irritated with him, that they sent him on his way. Phew
So were back to stage one. What to do now!
All this is driving me crazy literally, so just to infuriate myself more, I tried to sign in with the National health society (nhs) so we could get a doctor etc.. Yikes what a polava that turned out to be:
I went with my friend Antonetta, to a crumbly smelly old building in Fasano, a great example of the cleanliness and pleasant service that we are about to have the pleasure of using (typical nhs is the same in every country it seems), Not so fast you might say, I can never walk in any where and simply fill in a few forms.
Yep as always, there was a woman behind the desk, that looked like the service clerk from ‘Monsters Ink’, she took one look at me and it got her racist back up straight away, and Oh yes the further we delve into the system, the more we're coming up against some serious racist issues here, they’re not used to anyone sharing there little piece of Puglia which is a shame, as I don’t want it to ruin my rose tinted view of Sunny Puglia.
Anyway we didn’t have half enough documents and more importantly, we didn’t have proof of income which was vital. Oh
Oh a change of note, at least I have been entertained, as I had some friends arrive last week that have a house in the next village- friends in the film industry, who were giving me the low down on whats happening, sounds depressingly messy, but kept me entertained at least over a few lunches, and it was nice to speak English for a while.
Not that my Italian is amazing, hardly! It’s slow but I’m now on to past and present subjunctive verbs, Yee gods what ever that is.
The weather has been gorgeous at least, I’ve been outside reading most days, lovely and were starting to get quite a few bookings now for next year.
Most days it is lovely and sunny here around 35 degrees, rarely it rains but then it just chucks it down non stop and we fill up our water reservoirs, so we don’t mind the rain as it doesn’t come frequently and we always have plenty of work to do inside, when it does.
We are so continually in Awe at the abundance of delightful towns that are near our house and when we have a day off we adventure out to a different place that we haven’t seen before and wander around the charming old centers that date back thousands of years.
We always feel like we are in a movie on these days of adventure, as the architecture is so unusual, almost magical, and the light shines in such a way that you can almost become hypnotized by the beauty of it all.
Of course after we have meandered around in glorious sunlight and stopped for numerous amounts of coffee in authentic Italian coffee houses and drooled in the window at the Italians beautifully made clothes, then we take a long leisurely lunches where the wine flows, the food just keeps coming and the bill is surprisingly cheap, from one of the always surprising and never disappointing restaurants, trattorias, osterias, pizzerias in what ever town we happen to be in at the time, we did all this last Sunday, after meandering around Bari city Centro storico and walking along the promenade in fabulous sunshine, we then found a fantastic restaurant which was Ala Carte and had a fabulous 3 course meal which was beautifully presented and it only cost £25 for two. bargain. it’s so reasonable here.
In a minute we are going over to a village selva di fasano which is on the next mountain to us, and we are going to meet a couple who want michael to do there kitchens and bathrooms, and then on Sunday we are going to meet our friend Maurizio who wants michael to make the bar for his new nightclub.
we have plenty of things to keep us busy here, its difficult to fit it all in, we only have two pairs of hands and so many hours in the day.
Still although we are busy, it is not stressful and the evenings are spent on the veranda reading a book, listening to music or watching a movie, it is a very quiet relaxing existence and we still love it intensely.Our language is coming on slowly, we practice every day, mainly local friends, michael seems to becoming along a lot quicker with it now that he is spending 8 hours a day with his little Italian buddy and when I go out, I practice in the shops and with friends.
Anyway my struggle with Italian legislation continues, I have been trying to change our driving licenses over, for the last few weeks and really am hitting a brick wall, with what should be such a simple procedure. Hah
First of all I didn’t have enough documents, believe me I had a lot, so I had to go and queue up and fill out more forms in the commune, which took hours.
Then they needed a translation of our licenses which we had done, then they said this had to be done by a professional translator, when I asked where I would find such a person, they said they didn’t know, Great how brilliant, so we made a lot of enquires and came up with zip!
Luckily, finally they found someone after a few more weeks but when I finally returned to get it done, they said they had a problem with Michael’s license.
All of his 6 Italian big identity docs say, michael john Foley, and his passport but his driving license just say michael Foley,so they said it wasn’t possible to change it at all, what???
We tried to explain the unimportance of a middle name in England but they weren’t having any of it.
So I phoned the dvla and asked if it was possible for a name change, and they said because we weren’t living in England any more, that the license was void because of a lack of address!
So I then went on line and did an address change and filled in everything with Michael john Foley and when the new one came back it had, guess what, Michael Foley on it.
So, I’m going round in circles here. Michaels had no license for a month while we sent it off and then he got pulled over by the police, who, Of course, asked to see his documents. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
Luckily he pulled the ‘I’m a thick Irishman thing’ and pretended he couldn’t understand a word and they got so irritated with him, that they sent him on his way. Phew
So were back to stage one. What to do now!
All this is driving me crazy literally, so just to infuriate myself more, I tried to sign in with the National health society (nhs) so we could get a doctor etc.. Yikes what a polava that turned out to be:
I went with my friend Antonetta, to a crumbly smelly old building in Fasano, a great example of the cleanliness and pleasant service that we are about to have the pleasure of using (typical nhs is the same in every country it seems), Not so fast you might say, I can never walk in any where and simply fill in a few forms.
Yep as always, there was a woman behind the desk, that looked like the service clerk from ‘Monsters Ink’, she took one look at me and it got her racist back up straight away, and Oh yes the further we delve into the system, the more we're coming up against some serious racist issues here, they’re not used to anyone sharing there little piece of Puglia which is a shame, as I don’t want it to ruin my rose tinted view of Sunny Puglia.
Anyway we didn’t have half enough documents and more importantly, we didn’t have proof of income which was vital. Oh
Oh a change of note, at least I have been entertained, as I had some friends arrive last week that have a house in the next village- friends in the film industry, who were giving me the low down on whats happening, sounds depressingly messy, but kept me entertained at least over a few lunches, and it was nice to speak English for a while.
Not that my Italian is amazing, hardly! It’s slow but I’m now on to past and present subjunctive verbs, Yee gods what ever that is.
The weather has been gorgeous at least, I’ve been outside reading most days, lovely and were starting to get quite a few bookings now for next year.
1 comment:
Un saluto al vostro blog!
Veniteci a trovare! Ciao!
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