The time Neil caused mischief

Sabi's first day in work meant it was my official first day as a stay at home dad. Nothing terrifying about that, 60% of the time, they behave every time...

As it was a sunny, boiling hot kind of day, I decided it'd be nice to cycle into the neighbouring town (on Sabi's bike with trailer) to take the kids for ice cream, to the playground and then to the supermarket to buy some necessary food stuff. 

A lovely 3.5km bike ride down the mountain to Villanova and we arrived at the Gelateria a little sweaty and ready for ice cream. The shop was empty when we arrived so I donned my mask and the three of us entered to browse the flavours. Both kids already knew they wanted ciocolato flavour, but I pretended to browse to get my order ready in my head in Italian. 

Pretty sure I nailed it. "Un cono con ciocolato per favore". The nice lady behind the counter looked a little confused. asked me how many flavours I wanted. "Solo uno, ciocolato". She continued to look confused, but somehow managed to get it right. Then I had to order a second cone, the same. Hah. I just blabbered "ancora uno" which Sabi reliably informs me was correct. Nailed it. Two ice creams. 

By this time, the shop behind me had filled up with several other people, all intent on not socially distancing. I shimmied around to the lady who was taking payment and gave her some money (this bit was easy as I know numbers). 

Then I took a little step backwards and woahhhhhh, there is a grumpy* old Italian lady behind me with something (me) on her foot. Cue panic stations everyone. A hurried scusi and apologetic look before rushing the kids outta the door and back to the bike to hop skip and run to the playground where, thankfully, grumpy old ladies don't go. 

* I highly suspect the old Italian lady wasn't grumpy prior to my foot crushing hers. Social distancing is the greatest invention and outcome of the recent pandemic and I will be ever so sorry to see it go when (if) this thing ends. I didn't enjoy close contact (she enjoyed it less for sure). 

Aaaaaanyway. Lessons learnt? I doubt it. I'll very likely get flustered and cause more chaos in the future. Stay tuned.

Catch up.

It's been a while since I posted. I think the 'We completed' post was the last one and that was 2 weeks ago (blimey, that time flew!). A very quick run down on things that have happened since I suppose. 

We moved in officially a few days after completion, once we had managed to clean and get things in place (although not a new oven (it was delivered yesterday to Sabi's parents house...)) Our beautiful retro red fridge arrived a few days after while our washing machine came at some point too. 

The biggest challenge, and it is a challenge is that Sabi got a job! She is working in a cafe about 20 minutes down the mountains in 'Mondovicino', an outlet park and shopping centre that caters for a whole variety of people and tourists alike. It isn't her dream job, but it is (in my eyes) short term until I am up and running teaching English and running woodland activities and she can get Amore Mio Italia going. 

Sabi's "part time" job turned into 8-9 hour days almost immediately (day 1 in fact) and she has been working shifts, though thankfully she is usually home in time to say good night to the kiddos. With this, I have been thrown into the stay at home dad position which I have struggled with purely because the house isn't ready, I'm not allowed to drive (Thanks Brexit, ya great goose), we don't "officially" own the woodlands here yet and I don't speak Italian. 

Day 1 of "Kids with Dad" found us upsetting old ladies in the Ice Cream parlour and confusing staff at the Supermarket (I say "us" obviously, it was only me that did these things - see blog "Where Neil caused trouble" for more). Thankfully things improved after this with trips to playgrounds, and a second trip to the market both much more improved (actually saying Grazie, instead of 'you're welcome, in Italian, to the shop clerk). We also made some progress in the house, getting the kitchen and living areas cleaned and sorted (though we all knew it wouldn't stay clean...)

We celebrated two birthdays over the weekend just gone, Nonna (Friday) and Il Padrino (Monday) so we had an impromptu pizza cook-up on Saturday and then we visited Nonno & Nonna's for the late afternoon (and night and following day) on Monday. The kids enjoyed the swimming pool, which is the only thing our new house misses (though I am tempted to chuck the kids in the pond sometimes). 

Sabi had a day off on Monday too so we 'explored' up the mountain, aiming for Rastello, but being blocked off at a ski resort because of some e-bike event, so turning around back to Norea and a picnic in the park. 

We continue to do stuff, explore etc. Lobo continues to escape and terrorise the users of the cycle track out the front of our house. I have almost given up worrying about that though. The next big and exciting thing to happen will be on Saturday when my amazingly fantastic, adventurous explorer (Leonardo) turns 5! 

We'll be having a party at Nonno and Nonna's so there can be swimming and his God mother (Manu & family) can be in attendance. 

We have completed

It has been such a rollercoaster since, probably Friday (which coincides with the day we ended our isolation). I'll do a day by day summary and follow up this post with a 'Neil's guide to buying property in Italy' post later, just in case you, after following our adventure, wanted to join us out here. 

Thursday 29th July 2021

The end of our 5 day isolation was met with much joy. We went to the local pharmacia for our Covid tests. They were 'rapid antigen, nostril only' tests and I won't lie, it felt like they stuck that swab into my brain. I am not sure why it was so different, but compared to the test in Heathrow, this was a horrible experience (though still preferable to throat swabbing). Anyway, negative for both and a celebratory trip to Mercato (supermarket) to buy cheese and ham for the kids. 

After lunch, we were met with confirmation that Monday or maybe Tuesday would be 'meet the notario (solicitor), agenzia (estate agent) and the sellers in a meeting to sign the contract. So cue the sudden motivation to transfer our money from the UK to Italy. Haha, so unorganised. Unsurprisingly, trying to transfer £25,000 at a time via online banking to Wise (formally transfer wise) resulted in Fraud blocking first our joint account, and then Sabi's personal. Cue the 'wait on hold forever saga'. 

This was also the day my UK mobile contract ended, meaning we had very few ways (none that were free) to contact the UK bank to sort out the issues. Stress levels - medium - high

Friday 30th July 2021

We continued to be on hold for most of the day, meaning our ventures to visit the new house for the first time were delayed until mid afternoon, when the kids were hot, getting grumpy and tired (awesome timing!). Eventually we unblocked the joint account and started the transfer process, but Sabi continued to be blocked by the TSB fraud team. 

The house visit was lovely, the house was more beautiful than we'd hoped and so much more spacious than the pictures had shown. Some cautious optimism about the whole thing here as we finally saw (in person) the end of the journey. 

Back to the temporary residence to be met with a phone call from the seller (or maybe the estate agent) to inform us that the sellers had got themselves a lawyer (unheard of in Italy - all legal stuff is handled by a single notario for both sides) and the lawyer was attempting to rip up the original contract (where we agreed a price, deposit and 'deadline' for completion - 31 december). This was down to the on-going 'garage with incorrect planning' issues that meant the deed for the house and garage were being separated and we'd buy the garage once it was fixed. Introduction of a lawyer and attempts to alter original contract were met with distrust and annoyance, Gino (Sabi's dad) immediately got in his little electric vehicle and drove to the estate agent to argue. I informed Sabi (and therefore her dad) we wouldn't be signing a new contract and the meeting with the notario was pushed back to Tuesday at 4pm. Stress levels - High

Saturday 31st July 2021

So everything is closed today and we didn't do a great deal, we discussed the sellers motive's for new contracts, i started browsing alternative properties should the worst case happen and we generally had a 'relaxed' day not doing a great deal, swimming maybe, maybe there were thunderstorms and the kids watched TV. I can't remember, 

Lobo was collected by the taxi-man, several hours after originally planned, but collected safely and finally on his way to us. 

9pm on Saturday I had a phone call from the taxi-driver at the UK border stressing because Lobo's passport didn't have my name on it, only the details for the rescue centre. Ooops. I emailed various documents (adoption contract, passport etc) and he was eventually allowed over. Hooray. 

Sunday 1st August 2021

Rising early after being informed the taxi would arrive between 8 and 9, only to later discover that became 11:30, then 12:30. Still, he was on his way and we were excited to be reunited with Lobo. 

Sabi drove us to collect Lobo from Cherasco, about 25 minutes from our temporary home. Lobo was excited, then went for a poo and to see some other dogs...not that excited. We were excited though. Happy times, we took him home, gave him cuddles and he quickly tried to investigate the 5 girls next door (one of whom is on heat). Happy Lobo. Stress levels medium

Nothing progressed on this day regarding the house, It was Sunday. Sabi managed to finally get through to the Fraud line at the bank, only to fail their tests (what year did you open your account? damned if we knew that). She had to send her details and passport to the team for verification then go through the whole damned process again. We did however succeed and open her account to allow transfers to go forward.

Monday 2nd August 2021

We visited the house again for a few hours to take some measurements, have a picnic in the garden and explore the woods a little bit. Absolutely lovely and delightful and we only found 2 ticks (one crawling on Sabi's clothes, and one that attached itself to Lucia - it was removed within an hour and stored safely - disease from ticks usually needs the tick to be attached for over 24 hours so nothing to worry about).

Tuesday 3rd August 2021

We didn't hear anything until about 15:15 regarding the meeting with the notario. We had previously been informed that the notario and sellers lawyer would be discussing the contract and changing to two new ones. So we sat about, waiting for any news. At 15:15 the estate agent phone, and had assumed we were still going, although we had informed them we'd wait for updates on the meeting. 

Cue panic - Gino and Sabi went to the bank to withdraw the cheques with which to pay for the house (cheque payment feels very 'dark ages'), I got the kids ready for the excitement of a meeting (in which we'd hopefully buy the house) followed by Ice Cream to celebrate. 

We arrived for the meeting at 16:05 and, after perhaps the most boring 3 hours of our lives (kids and me) we bought the house. For less money in the short term and obligations for certain things to be fixed by the seller by 31 December. Hazzah. It was now almost dinner time and the kids ate bits of their ice cream and two bowls of crisps from the local cafe bar.