Slept in late on Saturday - hooray, whilst Dawn went for a massage. When we got going we went to Pam supermercato to get the usual rubbish and stare at the weird peeled rabbits, octopuses, swordfish, whole pigs with apples in their mouths, lying around like they owned the place. Decided to try a new beer - rather than the usual local Italian beer €0.99 for 66cl, went for the very classy looking German "Wildbrau" pilsner in plastic bottles at €0.49 for 66cl. Update - tastes good, but had a slightly sore head on Sunday morning - won't be trying that one again!
After the normal shopping we took the big step forward and purchased a new iMac. After the deal was done they started packing up the display model to give us - naturally I went mad and refused to accept that. This initiated about an hour of arm waving and a little arguing - Dawn's Italian was excellent. Eventually they found one in another store that hopefully will be with us by Thursday. However, currently we have a very expensive receipt and no computer and no proof that we haven't received it. Gulp.
In the afternoon I went to visit a Swedish colleague and we played XBox all afternoon - a shoot 'em up, street fighter and a bit of rockband. Happy days.
Sunday morning disappeared quickly, a few minutes watching "Grande Fratello" - the Italian version of Big Brother. Looked as annoying as the UK version. After that we prepared the house for the aarrival of my shipment of 29 boxes tomorrow afternoon - gulp. Thankfully it's a bit flat.
Then we went exploring the grounds of our house. Melissa the sexually confused cat came with us for a short while, but after we'd travelled the 40 yards to the pool she seemed to reach the end of her/his/its territory and stayed to guard the house. Lots of olive trees, tumble down old villa buildings with strange wells with crystal clear water, acres of vines, footprints of deer, and the unmistakable sound of shotguns and dogs, probably hunting the same deer, or maybe boar.
The light was rubbish but took quite a few photos anyway:
* Pomi - the strange local fruit in the small allotment out the back
* The pool overlooking the Tuscan hills
* The front of our building - with the statues
* The well in front of our building
* The pool house - with the table tennis table and table football - that's where Saman and Jen will live :)
* Me on a tree
* A view from the pool up to the pool house and our building in the background
We picked some olives to experiment with how to cure them. I can confirm that they taste really disgusting as they are. We have washed them and placed them in a bowl full of salt, for curing for a month, after which time we shall place them briefly in boiling water and then eat them. Magic.
Checked that the table football and ping pong were working and then back inside to eat pici - local egg-free pasta - rather like a thick spaghetti - or the udon noodles from Wagamamas. Work tomorrow but it is Immaculate Conception day on Tuesday so a day off - yay!!
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