Since we're having a couple of difficulties at the moment, why not round it off with yet another one? We were already aware that the electricity system in Italy is slightly different from ours and that it is also more expensive as Italy doesn't produce enough electricity on its own. But what we weren't prepared for is that the standard electricity connection in Italy is... 3,5kW! This is barely enough for a washing machine! Since we already consume a constant amount of Watts through appliances like a fridge, a seperate freezer and the odd lightbulb or two we'd already blow the entire fusebox just by washing our clothes. Without mentioning our electrical oven which has a maximum power of 4,5kW. 4,5kW is by coincidence also the maximum "domestic" connection that the few providers we've checked out on the internet offer. It's perfectly clear to us now why electrical ovens aren't a real success in Italy and why most people use gas ovens in stead. If we can believe our Italian friends, you can always get a more powerful connection but this would cost us a fortune. Allright, we've already settled for the fact that we'll have to buy a new cooker with integrated gas oven and that Christine will have to wait with her hairdryer until the dishwasher's finished.
To look at it from the bright side, this "problem" demonstrates how addicted we've become to the luxury of unlimited electrical power. We should all become a bit more modest if we'd still want to save this planet. A limited electrical connection is in this regard a very good lesson which will teach us to become more resourceful with less.
Christine and I would like to wish all of you a very happy New Year! As far as we're concerned, 2010 is probably going to be the most exciting year of our lives. We sincerely hope that also you may feel nothing but the overwhelming happiness that we are currently experiencing. And most important of all, we hope that you, your families and loved ones all enjoy a very good health. Because this is the most important asset in life.
This is our last Christmas and New Year's period in Belgium. Now already we are dead certain that we will never return to Belgium for this so-called period of cheer and happiness. Christine and I both don't enjoy the fortune of good family bonds. I haven't spoken to my parents for a long time and also Christine fell out with her sister some time ago. Let's just say that one doesn't get to choose his or her relatives and that the people who we consider to be our real family all live in Italy.
This Christmas period eventually proved this fact for the umpteenth time. Christine and I came once again last on the priority list, even though to us this seemed a once in a lifetime event - our final Christmas in Belgium. Some people didn't consider it that important however and eventually we had to celebrate on our own. It doesn't really matter. We know that our Italian family still knows what a true Christmas spirit is like and we very much look forward to celebrating Christmas 2010 with them.
Merry Christmas to all of you and my apologies if my post sounds a bit too grim. I know that you'll understand...
I've received a few comments on my first draft for the website for our B&B. Generally, it was deemed a bit too "sad" and perhaps a bit too "old fashioned". And I concur. It should be "warmer" and more "inviting". Therefore I thought that I'd perhaps change the lay-out to something more typical for Italy: their beautiful Terracotta. I know, this is rather something typical of Tuscany or the more southern Italian regions. But I personally like this theme a lot and in combination with the pictures and the curls under the title it should turn out allright.
What do you think?
PS: Please bear in mind that this is only the Flash file and that it doesn't fill up the entire screen yet.
Legally speaking, our house was already sold the moment that Christine and I put our signature under the sale's compromise. But last Wednesday the sollicitor's act was signed and let's just say that this makes it official: from now on we'll be (temporarily) renting a house that's no longer ours. It feels a bit awkward because Christine and I've worked so hard to build this house and to turn it into a real home. It's a pity that we'll have to abandon it forever shortly. Then again, and now I'm strictly speaking for myself, I've never quite felt at home in this neighbourhood and often wished that I could find a huge crane to move our house and garden elsewhere. On the other hand, I'm aware that technically speaking it would cause a difficulty or two to move this house to Italy. So buying something new and starting all over again was the only viable option. And at the same time, we're quite convinced that the lovely couple who've bought our house will find nothing but joy and happiness here. We'd like to congratulate Marie-Jeanne and Pierre with their acquisition and wish them many happy years in what I'll from now on refer to as their house.
So we've agreed with the new owners that for the remaining time of the restoration I can stay in this house. But slowly I'm already saying goodbye to it and the fond memories that it carries. As if the sky was also a bit sad for me, it showed the strangest evening colours. Unfortunately I didn't have a decent camera at hand and therefore the picture I took with my mobile is a bit fuzzy. But don't you agree that the colours are lovely?
His estimation didn't include the septical fosset. But more importantly, Danilo failed to mention that our house can't be connected to the sewer because there just isn't any sewer where we live. The solution? Well... just let your waste water run into the woods?... Christine nearly exploded. She doesn't really fancy a foaming forest, even if it's clean because of all the soap residues in our waste water. In that case, the only solution is a bio purification station. Just add it to the bill, Danilo...
Right from the start, Christine and I had a massive amount of confidence in Danilo, our architect. He's a very kind man and he's got a very "down to earth" attitude which we like a lot. It has to be said that in the beginning he helped us a great deal with the realisation of our dream. It was he who convinced the former owners of our house to agree with our maximum price. It was also he who arranged a couple of rooms for Christine to stay during the restoration. Even though those rooms are terribly cold during winter (no central heating, single glazed windows,...) and Danilo's uncle just can't leave Christine alone for five minutes.
But now the corpses start to fall out of the closet, as we say in Flemish. Here's a list of things where Danilo made a mistake or at least totally misinformed us.
- His estimation of the cost of the restoration was more than 20% below the lowest offer we received from the various contractors. Between brackets, it was based on his estimation that we decided on our maximum price for the house. - Furthermore, it turned out that Danilo's list of necessary works did not include the concrete topping for the floors. How are we going to lay our floortiles otherwise? An additional hole of 7.000 in the budget... - His estimation also didn't include the plasterwork for the interior walls. 10.000 please, thank you. - He failed to note that the first floor wasn't strong enough and needed an additional layer in armed concrete. Again thousands of ... - He also failed to note that due to this additional layer of concrete, the window sills are now roughly 10cm too low in order to have the house declared "habitable". This means that we either have to install a railing on all windows, or as we prefer have the windows raised by 10cm. There goes another 1.000... - Last week, the guys from the electricity company finally came to our house to connect us to the electricity network. After Danilo's instructions, our contractor had dug a trench from the street right up to our house. It took 3 days to dig this trench because below a thin layer of soil there is nothing but bone-hard rock. Unfortunately, the guys from the electricity company left again after only five minutes. Apparently the regulations have changed and the electricity connection now needs to be done on the border of our land because the company wants to have access to our meter at all times. It is therefore mandatory to build a small pillar at the border and incarcerate a small plastic box with the meters there. This means that a lot of those 3 days' work were for nothing. This also means that after New Year Christine can't start sawing out the trenches for the electricity cables and water pipes because there won't be any electricity yet.
And I've probably still forgotten a blunder or two. Apart from his plans that were full of wrong measures and distances.
When we decided to buy the house, we were a bit anxious because we were going to pay the absolute maximum that we could afford, keeping the restoration in mind. Danilo laughed with our concerns and told us that he would easily save us an additional 10.000 to 15.000. So we went for it. Just before she returned to Belgium, Christine reminded Danilo about his promise and added that so far she had only seen additional cost in stead of savings. Danilo bluntly replied that he had already "given" us those savings by bringing us into contact with Nesio, our contractor, because he's the cheapest of them all. Can you believe that?
If it were up to me, Danilo will - to his great surprise - suddenly also become the cheapest architect in the whole of Italy because I don't think that we're going to pay his exuberant 7.500 (initial!) bill any time soon. A bill that he also originally claimed was included in his estimation. We'll let him sweat and squirm a bit first...
When I'm writing this, Christine should be flying somewhere high above the North of France. In less than half an hour the aircraft is expected to arrive at Charleroi airport. A friend of hers is going to pick her up and drive her home. And then we'll be together again for two and a half weeks! My whole body is trembling with anticipation. I've missed her so much, although this time it was only four weeks since we last saw eachother. But the burning desire to see her again, to spend the rest of my life close by her side, has taken total control over me. How I long for the moment that I can take her in my arms again.
I've spent all morning getting the house clean. Not that it was dirty as such (I'm trying to be a good househusband ) but with those four crazy furrballs running around, you have to constantly keep on top of things. Little Chloé must know that Christine is coming because this morning she ostentatively pood in the curtains again. Something she hasn't done for over a month. Probably she was just trying to spur me to do an even greater effort in the whole cleaning bit. Last week I also put up the Christmas tree. Christine is very fond of the Christmassy spirit, which is one of her favourite parts of the year. She'll really be surprised because I didn't tell her yet. And then there is my good old friend Mark Deacon, who was so thoughtful that he brought me a special Harrod's Christmas bear when he came over to Brussels two weeks ago. He remembered that Christine collects them, whenever she gets the chance. That too will be a super-surprise for her. Thanks once more, dear Mark!
It goes without saying that every now and then, during a restauration, you run into unexpected difficulties. Or that you have to spend much more than you originally budgeted. Up till now we've always been very well on schedule, or even much ahead of schedule. And budget-wise, we didn't do all that bad either. Even though the bills we receive are consistently higher than what was planned. Without even mentioning the few unpleasant surprises like Danilo's 7.000 bill last week. We can only guess why he charges so much because the plans he made were not very impressive - a small piece of A4 paper on which the plans were drawn with software everyone can download for free. Moreover, the plans are often wrong because the measurements on his paper are not in line with the true measurements of the house. Anyway, we suppose that these 7.000 are there to compensate for his "responsibility"? Even though he hasn't shown up on the building site very often up till now.
That being said, last week we were really in for a shock. We received the offers from two plumbers we've contacted and... well... they're disastrous. They're at least twice as high as what we planned (which was already a lot of money) and they cast a serious hole in our budget. Up to the point that we're now convinced that finishing the house without an additional mortgage would become impossible. Of course, we are partly to blame in this. We wanted floor heating, which is already more expensive than a "normal" central heating system. And furthermore we wanted a heater on wood pellets in stead of gas. Gas is terribly expensive in Italy because especially in such remote places there is no gas network like there is in Belgium. And propane is only half as efficient as methane, without even mentioning the additional cost for having it delivered to your house by lorry. Wood is a vast natural resource in Italy and pellets are now being promoted as the fuel of the future. Something we surely believe in, also given the fact that we too have lots of wood on our property.
Christine and I are now desperately trying to bring the price down and we may have found a small way out. In stead of a pellets stove, we're now thinking about putting solar panels. These would already save us around 3.000 compared to the heater. It would also mean that we won't have to buy any "fuel" anymore. Pellets may be much cheaper than gas, they don't come for free either. During winter however, these solar panels will not suffice. But we can compensate this by having a connection running through the stove in our living room, something we also already planned. What's more cosy in winter than sitting in front of your fireplace? And what if you can heat the floors of the entire house and produce warm water while you're at it?
This week, Christine will again meet the plumbers and she'll try to bring the price down as much as possible. We've decided to jump into the deep. Staying in Belgium wasn't an option. So now we'll have to swim, one way or the other. It's as simple as that.
Our new home lies at an altitude of 770m. Much higher than the highest point in the whole Benelux, although this is hardly a reference. This means that winters are short, but much more severe than you would at first imagine from Italy. Two weeks ago it already started snowing above an altitude of 1000m. It inspired Christine to make this stunning image of the Monte Cusna (2121m) from our back yard...
And last week the snow came down to our altitude. Christine reported that overnight more than 15cm had fallen. Winter tyres or snow chains certainly aren't a luxury then. Even so, the weather is perhaps cold but yet much more enjoyable than the weather in Flanders, where we always get rain, sleet, more rain and a sharp westerly wind. And in Italy you can be certain of one thing: spring will come soon. Up north you'd be inclined to believe that you get the same horrible weather all year round...
In the beginning, being "lord and master of the house", can be quite enjoyable. Especially when you don't have to go to work anymore and you can live every day just as you please. But after a while this is getting pretty boring and I just can't wait to welcome Christine again, when she'll arrive back on Friday the 18th. It'll be two and a half weeks we're really going to enjoy. And after that, it's just the final effort until the move. We should be able to survive this!
However, being home alone (apart from the cats and the rest of the zoo) doesn't mean that I'm just enjoying the holiday while Christine is doing all of the dirty work. Of course, I can't help her physically as such. But still I try to help her as much as possible with the administrative side. There's not just the administration regarding the move itself we need to think about. There's also the question about banks (see previous message) and insurances. And there are administrative issues with the Belgian social security (given that we're both still on sick leave and that I want to apply for a permanent disability status).
I've also already told you about the work I've been doing on our future website and believe me, this is taking many hours of my time. And if I ever want to make a chance for a (part-time) job as piano teacher, I'd better be ready to wow the academy's principal. Therefore I'm practising at least two hours per day, preferably three. Or until my back is hurting too much. I know that it sounds pretty sloppy compared to chopping off concrete. But believe me that it's very hard work and an additional fixed income will be quite welcome once we've settled.
And then I'm also keeping myself busy with creating things. We're going to advertise our B&B as the ideal place for astronomy or bird watching. With that in mind I've recently bought a pair of giant binoculars. I managed to get a really good deal on them, but wasn't aware that this price had a catch. The binoculars arrived... without a tripod. Considering that you have to be built like the Hulk in order to carry a 7kg pair of binos in front of your eyes, I was quite disappointed. "Oh... you can always order a tripod. It'll just cost you another 160 plus tax and transport!" So I thought... forget it. I'll just go to the local DIY, buy a couple of pieces of wood and a few bolts and I'll make a decent tripod myself. So there you are... the result of weeks of hard work...
I already elaborated extensively on the problems Christine and I had with the banks, both in Belgium and in Italy. Finding a Belgian bridge loan and an Italian mortgage has given us quite a few difficulties, up to the point that we've now decided to do without a mortgage for the time being and see how far we can go. Since I will probably be entitled to a life-long pension (ref. my post on autism), we'll have a fixed income from the start so we don't need to hold on to some financial reserves for the first couple of years. Even though this income will undoubtedly be quite limited, it will certainly be sufficient to live, given that we won't have any financial obligations such as mortgages etc.
With that problem out of the way, I've started browsing the web in search for the Italian bank with the best conditions for a normal account. Unfortunately - again - I was up for a couple of surprises. And I hope that my Italian friends will forgive me my words, but the Italian banks seem to have a totally different philosophy than the banks in the rest of Europe. The main principle of banking in Europe is that you put your money on a bank account. This means that you in fact "lend" your money to the bank. The bank then invests this money or plays on the stock exchange with it and makes a considerable profit out of it. In return for your generosity, the bank will reward you with a meagre couple of percent's interest.
Not so in Italy, however. In Italy you have to pay the bank considerable money for the "privilege" of having an account with them. Yes, of course this is also the case for most of the bigger banks in the rest of Europe. But not only is the amount you pay much higher (the cheapest bank I found will cost us roughly 70-80 per year, just for having an account!), there isn't any interest either! So you do not only lend all of your money to the bank, which generates them billions of profit. No, you still have to pay them a yearly 80 on top of that! And no interest! You can only try to minimise the expenses by not using one of the counters in the bank office but use internet banking in stead. Or by only using your own bank's cash terminals. Or by not wanting any credit cards. Or by automatically forwarding your salaries to the bank. Etc. One could actually wonder why the Italians don't hide their money under their mattresses because this is absolutely proposterous.
Although it isn't all bad. The internet banks have also known a considerable growth in Italy and they offer considerably better conditions, comparable to the rest of Europe. Since we've since long mostly reverted to internet banking, I think that this might be the best option for us.
Again my apologies to the Italian readers. But you know that perfection doesn't exist, otherwise Italy would be a pretty boring country to live in. It's already paradise to us, so what else would we want? Asking for more would be greed!
I suppose that you're all thinking... "This Peter's got it all worked out well! Letting his wife do all the hard labour and letting her live in a cold "dump" during winter while he's living in luxury and just has to take care of the cats..."
Well. I'll show you now how wrong you are! In a next post I'll elaborate on all of my current activities. But in this particular one I'd like to present my first draft for the future website of our B&B. The name of our B&B will be "La Stella" ("The Star"). Christine thought that it goes well with our cosy little hamlet. It further indicates that our guests will receive a star-treatment and as a bonus it also refers to my passion for looking at the stars. So please note already the link I just purchased! It's not active yet because in order to register an ".it" domain you need to fill out a bit of paperwork with the Italian authorities. So I'm still waiting for the official "go" before I'm allowed access to my website management portal.
www.bb-lastella.it
Nevertheless I'd already like to present the Flash file that I've designed for the index page. There's still no clickable buttons or anything. I was until now absolutely not familiar with working in Flash so it took me some time to create all of this. I hope you like it, though. It's just the title page, including a small slideshow I made to show that this particular B&B truly lies in the middle of paradise! Your opinion would be highly appreciated. Christine also hasn't been able to review my work yet and obviously the special Christine's Evaluation and Approval Task Force (in short: the CEATF) will need to have its say. But I'm sure that she'll very much appreciate the Art-Nouveau background...
Oh... and please don't mind the poor quality of the text. This must be caused by this blog's website (perhaps trying to "stretch" the file into a full window). If possible, you should try to play it in Macromedia's Flash Player...
I suppose that you're all curious how the house is progressing? Well, it's going terribly fast. Nesio, the contractor, and his team are doing an incredible job. They work very hard 7/7 from dawn till after dark. Where do you still find such an incredible service? Such a passion for a job? One could argue that the current crisis obliges builders to go the extra mile in order to stay in business. However, with Nesio I don't think this is the case. He's a bit of a shy character, but once you've earned his esteem he shows his true, warm nature. We've invited him and his assistant out for dinner in a very nice restaurant in the city of Castelnovo Ne' Monti. We wanted to show our utmost appreciation for all his excellent work and for his patience when his bills aren't always paid immediately due to the stupid Belgian banks. I'm actually feeling very much inclined to name and shame the bank in question in this blog because of all the trouble they've already caused us with their petty little rules and their arrogance towards us, their clients. Probably in a couple of weeks when we've paid the bridge loan back. Anyway... many many thanks, Nesio and your team!!!
So, here are a couple of pictures which show you progress until Wednesday, when I returned home. First a picture of Christine having a well-deserved picknick after a whole morning chopping off concrete plaster from the walls and excavating floor tiles. I'm so worried that her fraill little body will one day seriously crack. But she just keeps on going. What a wife...
The inside of the house after the old roof had been taken off...
The exterior. For the first time you can see the beautiful stone that appeared after the concrete plaster had been removed...
The structure for the new roof...
The roof waiting for the finishing touch... the tiles. You can also see the newer part of the house that was built in ordinary brick in stead of stone. Like I already mentioned, we're going to cover that part in a kind of beige-brownish coloured plaster. A natural colour that should go well with the Italian stone, the greyish window frames and the environment.
The house as seen from our driveway...
The situation just before I left. Do you like the old-Italian tiles? And what about the chimneys?
There's this story about the richest man in the world. He lived in a palace, so huge that noone could ever see the end of it. It's roof reached as high as the sky and it was supported by a countless amount of gigantic pillars. It's ceiling was enlightened by an ever-changing mosaic pattern which wowed the man every day again by the stupendous images it produced. And if that wasn't enough, every morning when the man woke up, the floor was covered in the most precious diamonds for as far as the eye could see. Even though the man lived in his palace alone, he was ever so grateful for the incredible wealth that he had been endowed with.
But it didn't take long before the rumour of his immense fortune had spread to the city afar. And all of the people in that city had become hungry for a part of this fortune. So one day they set out on a long journey to the man and his palace in order to claim their share. Many miles they walked and walked. Late in the evening, long after dark, they arrived. Thousands of them.
- "Welcome", the man said, "welcome to my palace. I'm so happy that I can finally share my fortune with all of you." - "Well then", someone from the crowd shouted, "where is it all? Where's the palace? Where's the ever-changing mosaic? Where are the diamonds?" - "Be patient, my friend", the man gently replied, "wait until next morning and I'll show you everything."
Reluctantly the people obeyed and made their camp, fully determined not to let their patience be put to the test any further after the break of dawn.
The next morning the sun climbed above the hills and the people from the city assembled again. They were yelling for the man and the night's waiting had made them even greedier. Where had the man gone off to? If he wasn't going to show up any minute soon, they'd hunt him down and forcibly take what they believed was theirs for the taking. At last, the man came down to them and greeted them kindly. Tears of joy were rolling from his eyes.
- "How lucky you all are", he said with tremor in his voice, "my palace has never been so beautiful as it is today." - "Your palace?", the people asked in surprise, "well, where is it then?" - "Look around you... just look..."
The man pointed at the magnificent forest with its endlessly tall trees, majestically waving their leaves in the wind.
- "But... those aren't pillars! This is not a palace! It's just stupid bloody trees!", the crowd angrily shouted back at him. "And where's this mosaic of yours?"
The man pointed high above him, to the beautiful clouds that constantly changed into the most stunning images imaginable.
- "But... that's not a mosaic! Those are just stupid bloody clouds!", the crowd shouted even more angrily. "And where are your diamonds? We want your diamonds!" - "Look...", the man said while spreading his arms and pointing to the endless meadows around them, "I've truly never seen so many diamonds like this morning!" - "But... those are no diamonds! It's just stupid bloody dew!"
The crowd had become furious by now. They'd travelled all this way for nothing. For a bloody fool! They couldn't contain their rage any longer. Thousands of hands grabbed the man and started beating him and beating him. Eventually, in the evening when they'd had enough, the crowd walked back to the city. And left the man's body hanging on a rope from one of the pillars of his castle.
I know... it's a rather sad story. But Christine and I feel so related to this man that I just had to tell you. I've just returned from my week's visit to our palace and I'm sure that you'd appreciate to see some pictures. These were all but one taken from our garden. The last picture was taken from the other side of the valley and the little red arrow points at our house. And just like in the story, Christine and I believe that we live in the most beautiful palace in the world... To us, this is what's life's all about...
You may remember that the moment I returned from Italy in September, leaving my beloved Christine all alone over there, that I immediatley booked tickets to go and visit her again. I planned to be there for her birthday, next Thursday. What kind of a husband would I be if I let her celebrate it all on her own? So Wednesday I'll take the first flight to Bologna, where Christine will come to pick me up for a week's stay. I'm sure that our cats and other animals should be able to survive that period without me and that our neighbours will well look after them. Oh... I just can't wait! Two more nights... And she doesn't yet know which presents I'll be carrying for her! I'm sure she'll be utterly surprised because this time I've really done my very best. Hush hush!...
This also means that this will be the last message on this blog until my return on the 25th. So please don't run away because... I'll be bàck!
At last Christine was able to send me some pictures of the works. These aren't the very latest ones and they only show progress during the beginning of the works. As I already said, in the mean time the roof's been taken off, the main walls lowered (below the level of those small attic windows) and the new roof structure's been built. Also all of the cement plaster has been taken off and a new, coloured cement layer has been put on the left part of the house, where the former garage was (future living room) and where the guest house will come on the first floor. That part of the house was added to the main structure at a later stage and the outside walls there aren't made of natural stone but just ordinary bricks. Therefore we very much liked the idea of the combination of old stone for the main part of the building and coloured plaster for the more recent part. Christine hasn't told me yet which colour she's chosen and frankly I don't want to know either. I just want to be wowed when I'll see the house finished for the first time. I'm sure though that it will be a lovely colour which perfectly matches the original, rural character of the house (ochre? warm yellow? light brown?... we'll see... )
Clearing the surroundings of the house from wild trees and plants...
Placing the scaffolding...
Supporting the ground floor ceiling...
Reinforcing the first floor with concrete (view of our future bedroom)...
Old roof structure before it was dismantled. You can see that most of the wood is still in a very good shape...
And finally another cake that Christine made to celebrate the birthday of one of Cosetta's neighbours...
One of my absolute passions is looking at the stars. Nothing's more relaxing to me than installing myself on a comfy camper bed under a thick blanket during a dark and starry night. When I was twelve I joined the national observatory of Hove, nearby Antwerp (www.urania.be) which became my second residence for about ten years. In stead of going to the disco I spent many nights in its tower in the company of two or three mates and the observatory's largest telescope. At dawn we watched the sun rise above the houses before driving home on our bicycles, knackered but totally happy. I also bought my own little telescope and used it on almost every evening when the rotten Flemish weather allowed it. In 2003, after having settled with Christine in the house we built, I bought a brand new telescope. Much bigger and more professional. But to my own surprise I quickly got tired of it because it didn't show me as much as I wanted. So two years later I bought a bigger one still. Which lasted about a year before I got tired of it as well. Eventually, I built my own telescope. And that one'll have to do for a long time to come, otherwise Christine promised me she'd pack her suitcases. Or rather make that my suitcases. In fact, it's so big it hardly passes through the door anyway.
Unfortunately, these are sad days for us, astronomers. The majority of people actually believe that the more lights you put at roads and around houses, the safer it will be at night. Wrong of course. The more lights you install, the more accidents will happen on the roads because people will become less concentrated behind the wheel, will start speeding more easily (false sense of security) and other cars let alone cyclists or pedestrians are less easily spotted. The following pictures show the difference between a dark street and an illuminated one. Which car will you spot earlier, you think? And what about that pedestrian wearing a reflective jacket?
Public lighting even makes life easy for burglars because they can do their job without the aid of a torch, and still hide in the shadows if someone's passing by. Can you imagine how much attention they'd draw upon themselves if they had to use torches in absolute darkness? Or how much more effective anti-burglar lights would be? When walking through total darkness a sudden halogen flash in your face will knock your night vision out for about 15 minutes!
Well... I can go on about this subject for hours as you might have already guessed. Oh, did I already mention global warming and energy waste? Fact is that even in the Belgian countryside where I live, the nightly sky is more of a disgusting kind of orange than the beautiful, natural blue-black and it's hardly what you could call covered in stars either.
Italy to the rescue again!!! Before deciding on where exactly we should look for a new home, I carefully examined the Italian light pollution charts. And when Christine went on her first reconnaissance trip last March I gave her the important instruction to look for possible street or other lights in the vicinity. I'm now totally assured that where we're going to live the sky will still be magnificent. Perhaps not perfect, but then again I'm not too keen on moving to the middle of the Sahara desert...
So if anyone of you is planning a visit in the future, if you're interested, I'd be delighted to show you a couple of treats which the nightly sky has in store for us.
Shocking news! Danilo, our architect and friend, has been in a terrible car accident this weekend. According to what Christine's heard, he must have fallen asleep behind the wheel and driven off the road. The fire brigade had to cut his car to pieces in order to get him out. Rumour goes that "another 4 inches and he would have been paralised". He's been extremely fortunate and can leave the hospital tomorrow. Although he will have to wear a collar for another three months or so because two of the vertebrae in his neck have shifted.
Christine and I would like to wish him a speedy recovery and we are so happy that he's come out of it relatively unharmed.
In the mean time Danilo's son, who is also an architect and works in the same office, has taken over his father's duties. Christine also speaks very high of him and assured me that our house is in the best hands.
Christine finally managed to send me some pictures from her cake-baking activities so I can tell you about how things went during the local Chestnut Festival two weeks ago. As I said, all the ladies from the village bake a cake for that occasion. What I hadn't understood at the time, was that they indeed make them for free, but that they are then sold at the market and that the proceeds go to a project for the village. Let me just say - with a certain pride bordering arrogance - that Christine's cakes were already sold out in minutes! This is the main cake she made for the festival:
And here are couple of her cupcakes:
Ohhhh... How feel gutted that I wasn't there to taste them all...
below the lowest offer we received from the various contractors. Between brackets, it was based on his estimation that we decided on our maximum price for the house. 
Last week I also put up the Christmas tree. Christine is very fond of the Christmassy spirit, which is one of her favourite parts of the year. She'll really be surprised because I didn't tell her yet. And then there is my good old friend Mark Deacon, who was so thoughtful that he brought me a special Harrod's Christmas bear when he came over to Brussels two weeks ago. He remembered that Christine collects them, whenever she gets the chance. That too will be a super-surprise for her. Thanks once more, dear Mark!
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