Trullo Azzurro works

A tale of temperamental water supplies and a new courtyard...

Another weekend in Italy, part relaxing and part maintenance of the property.

Thursday we arrived late on the Ryan air flight, Stansted to Bari, just in time to catch our outgoing tenants on their last night. They had not had the best of weather with thunderstorms most days. We are the last property at the end of the overhead power lines and sensitive to the effects of lightning. When the fuse trips it means no water - the water is delivered by tanker and supplied by a submersible pump. No power, no water.

That would be no problem except that the key to the technical cupboard, where the boiler and fuse box live, is temperamental and only opens to a sympathetic turn. To cut a long story short we decided to get a locksmith in and replace the lock for the benefit of future guests. That meant a trip to the hardware store in Locorotondo to get six extra keys cut for all the various sets. As Friday is market day we stocked up on food for the weekend.

In the afternoon after lunch I went for a siesta wearing some eye patches, fell asleep and woke up with a bad case of Panda eyes.

Later our neighbour Anne came round for a chat. It was she who bought down here first and inspired us by her example, see Trulli Limone.

Then it was the turn of neighbours Chris and John along with Donato the builder who organized much of the paving and walling for the original restoration. He was there to quote for paving the back courtyard which is gravel at the moment. We have had a quote from the architect which was way too much but going direct to the builder and for a lesser quality stone brought the price down by more than 50%. By lesser we mean the same stone but not the super smooth, front-of-house, quality of the main courtyard however perfectly adequate for our needs at the back.

The chianchi - paving stones - are recycled and full of character but hence not available off the shelf from the local stone yard. Donato will have to acquire a few square metres here and there until he has enough to do the job which may take several months. He seemed pleased that we were happy to wait even till next Easter - longer for us to save up the money.

John and Chris then stayed for supper and Mary cooked a rabbit tiede an traditional casserole.

Saturday was down at the beach at Rosa's for a sea food pasta lunch and snoozing. Careful application of factor 25 round the pink facial parts, war-paint stylee, greatly reduced the Panda eyes by turning the white parts pink to match the rest. Rosa as seen on Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapes:

Sunday was a reciprocal relaxed lunch round at Chris and John's then home via Bari, Ryanair and Stansted. We stayed at the Radisson SAS on airport as it was after midnight by the time we got off the plane and through passport control. Then our usual alarm call and the Stansted Express into work. Boo!