What The Thing Looks Like...

It's Your Lucky Day!!! If you ever wanted to know what a septic tank looks like here in Italy, here's Your Chance!!! Eccolo...

It kind-of reminds me of those bicycle pumps though considerably LARGER!!!

Here is a long view of the operation to install the apparatus. Lots of Watching & Waiting, apparently. Gads.

The Latest Developments... Part III

Additional evidence of today's assault on bringing Hot & Cold Water to La Casa Grande and the icky water out to the septic tank, etc...

1. Inside La Stanza dei Tini....or, the Room of the Wine Making Barrels... looking out to the Cortile. Yep. Construction Chaos...

2. The earth upon which my house rests in what will become the Laundry Room. I do not want to talk about this detail of 800 year old construction practices... thank you very much... except to say I do not rest easy and am praying that there is actually bedrock just a few centimeters below...

3. Cement obliterated to sink pipes from the Laundry Room to the septic tank...

I think a tall drink of white wine is called for now. Gads.

The Latest Developments... Part II

More Progress... the plumbing plant is being dealt with. Here is the latest evidence from today's assault...

1. The Sottopassaggio... or, underpass... which sounds absolutely ridiculous. It leads up to the Cortile... where the Work-guys have continued making Chaos out of Order until the tubes, septic tank & gratings are installed... 

2. The Cortile...

3. The spot where the septic tank will be sunk in the Cortile... 

4. The stones removed to sink a pipe to handle the rain-water & keep it from seeping through the wall, which divides my property from our neighbor's below. So far, the water just makes a lake there when it rains.

I have made a donation at the church asking for Order to be restored AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!! Gads.

The Latest Developments... Part I

I am trying to look at the bright side of this Codiponte Adventure after the shock of Thursday's stunning news... the Upstairs Apartment ain't goin' to be finito... not even by the middle of July... dammit all to Hell!!! Yet, Progress has been made...

1. The walls have been sand-paper 'till they cannot be sand-papered no mo'!!! Nearly drove Our Builder nuts... to the point of a crisi isterica.... or, an hysterical fit... right after he gave me The Bad News. He calmed down when I gave him some money...

2. The sub-flooring for our oak planking is down & drying as I write...

3. The terra-cotta is down on the Terrace. No railing as yet. I went today to see the fabbro... or, iron-man... taking in his extraordinary height, his long legs, his blue eyes, his beautiful teeth though I HATE his weird hair-cut... about how much it will cost me to re-do the antique railing. He COULD NOT say!!! He did tell me it would cost much less to have a new one made over restoring the old. I knew it!!! I just knew it!!! 

So, I have been admiring the view from what will be the Upstairs Apartment's Key View... the gelso tree & the campanile of Codiponte's church. I better go, pray to the Virgin & drop a few coins in the Collection Box. I'm paying everyone else, I might as well give her some loot too. Perhaps, she will be more punctual than the others have been. Gads.

Home Sweet Home...

Our Geometra... a kind of construction super-intendant... just informed me this morning that the Upstairs Apartment WILL NOT be finished by the Contractual Finished Date of June 30th. I am not at all surprised. Our Builder wasted three precious weeks... when the sun was shinning brightly... futzing at another construction site rather than knocking off a world of items at mine!!! 

Comparing Our Builder's list of Things-to-do to the time remaining, I gave up the idea of sleeping in my own little apartment before the 4th of July. At least, a family of sparrows... Mamma & Papa Sparrow & 3 Sparrow-lets... has made a comfy home on one of the Upstairs Apartment's rafters. I am so jealous. Gads.

A New Day...

I look forward to the day when...

there are no more cigarette butts in every angle of my house & garden...

I can pass without tripping over some forlorn piece of construction equipment...

a nap is possible in my garden without the buzz of a saw or a cement mixer or Jonathan singing a song from Radio DJ...

my 400 year old walls are not just for leaning scaffolding against...

my water bill will be 1/2 less...

ditto for the electric bill...

an appointment is kept by the builder when I broke every traffic law to arrive in time...

everyone understands that Il Poggiolo is my home & garden, I live in it and it would be keen if all were to respect this fact...

Thank you, Jesus. Gads.

Escape To The Bosporus...

Mr. You & I escaped to Istanbul... blowing-off The Flooring Deadline... for Mr. You's birthday... 

Here are 2 of the 6 photos I took. Why visit a place through a view-finder of a frigging digital camera? Well, 3/4s of the tourists... OF ALL NATIONALITIES... did!!!... 

The Blue Mosque in the AM mist off the Sea of Marmara. It was only about 60 degrees Fahrenheit that day and we were in the middle of May!!! The mosque is truly blue on the inside and it has the most enormous chandelier I have ever seen. It's flat and sort of hovers low above the wall to wall carpeting. That was truly blue too. My Mother, however, would have been aghast at the light bulbs of the mega-chandelier... plain old 60 WATT bulbs. I would say there has to be 2,000 of them. I did not count them, however. There were so many truly blue tile patterns to observe. 

This is a photo of our suitably Turkish-style hotel room. Mr. You said the painting was just the right touch for the room's clever ambiance. I agreed though I rarely gave it a second thought after taking this photo. I was more taken by the telephone!!!

The other 4 photos were of... 

Photo #1... Mr. You brushing his teeth in his -jammies... I AM VEHEMENTLY PROHIBITED FROM POSTING ANY VIEW OF SAID PERSON IN ANY GUISE AT ANY TIME!!! 

Photos # 2 & #3... two falling-down Istanbul houses. On reviewing them, they struck me as more fallen-down than anything else. I DELETED them once home. 

And, Photo #4... a congregation of street cats underneath a derelict car taken during our interminable taxi-ride in from the airport. Our driver did not know where our hotel was.  It was practically underneath the Hagia-Sofia!!!

Mr. You & I believe everyone should go to Istanbul. It is a fascinating AND romantic city of 15,000,000 folk!!! It rates up there with Rome, Paris & London. The city has more history... bloody, violent AND stupid... than those three put together. Gads.