Day 3 30 November 2009

Last night was great. Thanksgivings meal at a colleague to be's house. Nice gathering, a few expats and some locals. Lots of food. Located about 25 km outside Siena near Rosia. To get there we had to drive through a town where we had to twice do a three point turn to drive down the roads.

Drove the car for the first time. It's a bit wobbly since one of Dawn's friends put petrol in instead of diesel. Last night the rain was absolutely twoncing it down (maybe Lisa was right all along and that it does do nothing but rain in Tuscany!) and it was quite tricky to drive or see out of the rubbish A frame posts on the car. Getting used to Italian style driving - just point and shoot and expect people to pop out of all sorts of places and you'll be alright. Indicators are clearly for losers. Have found my Corduroy - Out Of Here CD so all is good in car.

The house was located on a Roman road (not as impressive as when that's said in the UK) which was mentioned by Dante. Lovely location, lovely people, couple of glasses of champagne, lots of food, some good learnings regarding "Planet Italia" and then back earlyish for a couple of episodes of Californication and then an early night.

Dropped Dawn off at the office and am now lounging around with a cup of Organic White Peony - pure white tea with accents of toasted chestnut and honey. Using my Jing Tea set, natch. Very nice. Watching some Come Dine With Me on shrewtube :)

Had a quick stroll round the grounds to double check that the pool was out of action, and yes, sadly it is. Games building is good to go though, table tennis, table football. Lots of olive trees still with quite a crop on them - they are very hard so I don't know if they can be picked or eaten - any ideas anyone? Lovely statues and an ancient well at the front of the house and the swimming pool looks directly over rolling Tuscan countryside. Reasonably-sized allotment round the side complete with squash, chillies, oranges and lettuces. I'll take some pictures at some point.

Quick picture of Melissa the transgender cat trying to get in at the window. Dawn feeds her but I'm being tough!

So a day of rest today - think I'll stroll round town a little, check out the karate dojo and then get some more rest. Have a meal with new boss tonight, and then it's a Sienese public holiday tomorrow, first day at work is Wednesday.

Day 2 Sunday 29th November 2009

Long long sleep in again, jeez louise the last couple of months have tired me out. Dawn off at 10am to go for a walk with a neighbour whilst I lounge around and play with my new jing tea set :) BBC World News on the TV - same as usual - really exciting for about 15 minutes and then the same stuff over and over and over again!

The tea that complements the Jing Tea set is Flowering Osmanthus - Green tea, hand tied in Fuijan by Chinese Virgins. It's quite the experience as it starts as a huge ball of tea and then explodes into an amazing world like a scary rain forest - have taken pictures!

The description is "warm, green-tea sappiness with apricot notes".
Tastes amazing and it has now kept me going on the same ball of tea for 2 hours - yay. However, when we had it at the Hestson Blumenthal restaurant the waitress used some sort of magic technique to use the jug and the tea pot and it was really a display of wonder to watch her making the tea. I seem to just be puring about a third of it over the table. Help - can anyone remember how they did it?

Am still wearing my TurboGuiness t-shirt and have my goodbye cards on display.

Had some bad news - the swimming pool has been emptied and will be empty until May. Boooo! Good news is that the table tennis games room building is still all good.

Just read an article about truffle hunting in Tuscany just outside Siena. Sounds amazing. And also reminded me of an unfinished science article that I am still hoping to write one day. The article also mentioned the old abbey of Castel Monastero just outside Siena which was converted into a resort hotel complete with a Gordon Ramsay restaurant focusing on truffle dishes.
http://www.castelmonastero.com/

Need to make Sensei Paul's Key Lime Pie soon ready for Thanksgivings dinner.

Day 1 Saturday 28th November 2009

Woke up late late late after a very long sleep. The last couple of months have been intense getting everything finalised before moving over, getting the house sorted and legal and finishing up other projects.

Beautiful day - couple of shots out of the bedroom window. Very sunny day and got made an omlette for breakfast after getting ready in our separate bathrooms. Warmish here - enough for me to require my sunglasses and to only wear a t-shirt!

Popped into Pam supermarket to get some supplies. We've been invited to a Thanksgivings party tomorrow so I am going to make Sensei Paul's Key Lime Pie. Key Lime Pie requires eggs, butter, digestive biscuits, limes and condensed milk. First issue - digestive biscuits very hard to track down, limes nigh on impossible and condensed milk (latte condensato - thank you Italian phrase book) not available in Pam so off to the super huge Coop. Finally located the condensed milk but rather than coming in tins it comes in small tubes similar to toothpaste. All set. It says that it's for Sports People on the front. I certainly wouldn't want it whilst being sporty! Actually this was my first successful Italian conversation "where is the condensed milk?" "aisle 3" - scorchio!

Back home and watched The Wrestler - but totally fell asleep for 4 hours on the couch so had to re-watch later. Great film. Better with Italian subtitles, Cazzo, Vaffanculo, Stronzo. Favourite line - "Use my leg! Use his leg! Use his leg!"

Dawn has befriended a cat with a gender identity problem. It's called Melissa but apparently it's a boy. She fed it as we left, looks like a long-haired mangey thing to me - but I have been informed that it isn't. She bought a pink hair brush (for girls - much cheaper than the ones for cats) and brushed it while I slept. Then it came and miaowed at the window before dinner, scared the beflips out of me.

Started watching Californication on DVD - great series and nothing at all to do with the hostile takeover of Roche by Genentech :)

27 November 2009

Final day in the office was emotional. Picked up by Liz (since I'd sold my car!) early with a stinking hangover - despite living in Hitchin for 3 years it took me to leave before I had a beer with the next door neighbour, we drank the house dry and then after he left I had to do more housework, including quite a bit of silicon sealant, mmm smells good, so I actually went to bed with a headache.

Got to the office and had a final fry up with Ed. Mmm. Didn't go for doubles of everything, but enjoyed my final meal. Also left with my work card in debit, hee hee. Was wearing my Turbo Guiness T shirt under my work shirt, heh heh.

Had quite a few bits of work to do which I didn't manage to finish, final mentoring session, which was very productive - before I knew it it was time for my exit interview and I accidentally spilled a cup of green tea (tekoe.com wasabi blend). Exit interview was very brief, completed the legal parts and left.

Back to my desk and still trying to do those bits of work, 10:30 came and my parents were picking me up at 11:00 - that was starting to look very foolish.

First present came! A wonderful visor buff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z02rv8Dp-E from Annie, Emma and Ben - essential gear for ginger blued eyed freckled types living in hot countries. Then it was time for my official farewell speech - touchingly several people had come in even though it was their days off or working from home days, very special. Speech seemed to go down well and I was pleased that I wrote it down, and that I held it together as I thought I could blow at any moment. Received several cards and a wonderful tea set from everyone from http://jingtea.com/ complete with flowering dragon tea. Wonderful gift, came in a huge box and I had no idea how I was going to get it to Italy.

Lots of hugs and goodbyes, very glad to have held it together, a few tears, some final emails and it was time to go. 12:30!!! I'd left my parents outside for 90 minutes bless them! Sarah saw them on the way out which was funny. Some satisfcatory goodbyes, and some unsatisfactory which I took as not goodbyes as I'm planning to see those people again and again.

Back home and way too much to sort out, thank the lord my parents were there to help. Had to go to the estate agents to hand over some legal documents for renting status and then stash lots of things in the loft and generally tidy up and throw away. I had to leave to get the train at 4pm and my parents didnàt leave my house till 9pm after completing everything!

A few more tears from my mum at the train station and I was on my way from Hitchin train station to Gatwick Airport, with the world's heaviest suitcase. Train journey was a bit tough, passing through Knebworth and Welwyn and Stanborough Lake and all those areas I'd hung out for the past few years. Quick stint on the tube, not sad to leave that behind, and on to the Gatwick Express and to the check in desk. Bag was 5 kg overweight - £60 charge. Well worth it and I'll see if I can charge it across. Made my final few updates on Facebook and Gmail and even checked my work email account and then turned my iPhone off - how will I ever survive without the unlimited access and internet?? Window seat, sat next to by a couple with a baby which turned out to be very quiet as I dozed all the way to Florence, listening to: The Mighty Boosh radio show - The Tundra, Alan Parsons Project, and Resistance by Muse. Landed in a very wet Florence and met by Dawn with a sign. Great to see her and in to my second Fiat Punto of the day, this one clearly Italian, a bit dinged up. Drive home very much in the style of Italian driving, never sure what lane they're in and indicators don't appear to have been fitted. Italian radio strange as ever - it appears that Italians listen to English language 80s music on Friday night, lots of it, everywhere. The Italian language stations were listening to what sounded like 15 year old dance music. And not in a good way!

80 km trip to Siena and to the new flat, lovely. Relax on the couch with a local beer - Birra Moretti and watched series one of Phoenix Nights before a long long sleep.