Published: 24/03/2020 By The Abode Team
As you are all aware Italy is in lock-down and, as a consequence, the Abode team have been working from home for a couple of weeks now. It's a surreal situation and there is a guilty mix of pleasure in being forced to stay at home and a gnawing sense of worry about what the future holds. Apart from answering emails and keeping in touch with our clients; vendors, potential buyers and people who have already bought property here, it's been the perfect opportunity to get on with those chores which are often neglected due to lack of time.Until the biting wind of the last fews days put the kybosh on gardening I was, along with my more skilled husband, clipping ivy, pruning and generally cleaning up. I cleared out the shed and even hopped (well, not quite) onto a low portion of our roof and cleared the terracotta tiles of leaves and cleaned the gutter. Very satisfying and it made me realise how much easier that particular task is when you do yoga a couple of times a week! It is actually gently snowing as I am writing this, bear in mind it was T-shirt weather on Saturday.
Yesterday it was windy and cold so I decided to do the much dreaded wardrobe change-over. You know, putting away your warmer winter clothes and replacing them with the lighter spring/summer ones which were stowed away mid-September. Is it just me or are those plastic vacuum bags totally useless? Year after year I keep on buying them hoping that once I have vacuumed the air out it will actually stay out and that I won't hear that almost silent slow hiss as the bag plumps up again. I nearly broke my fingers pressing on the plastic ridges which seal the bag and the little cap was screwed on as soon as the vacuum cleaner hose was removed. There I am, on my hands and knees with my ear to the bag listening optimistically for silence. Needless to say one bag is in the bin and the other, containing my knitwear, is in the cupboard - semi-vacuumed.
There are plenty of books to read here at home and the TV provides an endless supply of repeats to view as well as a great film channel called 'Talking Pictures' which shows old films, some of which are bad and some of which are great. I saw an old black and white film with James Mason the other day called 'The upturned glass' well worth watching and another, also with Mr. Mason, called something like 'They met in the dark' which was clearly a second world war propaganda film about nazi spies infiltrating Britain during the war. I believe that a Margaret Rutherford season is starting soon….
Whilst tidying up I found a 1,000 piece jig-saw puzzle. The last time I completed it (which must be nearly 20 years ago) the final piece was missing and I hunted for it high and low before eventually giving up, dismantling the puzzle and putting it away. After a very long time, and I am talking months, the missing piece mysteriously appeared in the centre of a rug and covered in fluff. Obviously, Big Ginger, our then resident feline, had been playing mind games with me. The pieces are all present and correct now and, if things get really desperate, I might attempt the puzzle again. Sadly, that particular ginger cat, won't be around to steal the pieces this time.