Yes, you read it correctly. Since yesterday we do not have one but two new kittens in the house! Blu, our Nowegian Forest kitten, likes to play with other cats. She's such a wild and excited little furrball. Unfortunately, our older cat Canelle doesn't like all that personal attention. Therefore we decided to buy another Norwegian Forest kitten, Chloé, as a playmate for Blu. But then we started thinking... We felt that perhaps we had room for one more (male) cat. Tomcats are usually a bit calmer and tend to look more for contact with humans than with other cats. So we found Thomas with the same breeder in the north of Holland where we had already booked Chloé. Aren't they both adorable?
Chloé:
And this is Thomas:
We were absolutely knackered when we returned home around 22:00 yesterday. Especially on the way to Emmen we lost over an hour due to the extremely busy traffic. But both kittens had survived the trip better than expected. In fact, they slept during most of the journey. And thi morning they were all playfulness and excitement. To such an extent that even Blu had to throw the towel in the ring and look for a quieter spot in the garden...
We've made a decision about the company we're going to hire for the final move next year. This is a very expensive part of the whole project so we weren't going to take it lightly. We've contacted several companies and we were amazed about the price differences. And you have to carefully examin the details as well. Will there be extra workers included for the unloading in Italy? What about an electric lift both here and in Italy? Is the price per cubic metre or can we load the lorry until it's completely full? Are there crates included for the statue in our garden and the fragile living room chandelier? And what about the excess for the insurance? Especially this insurance-bit was very tricky. Some didn't inform us that moved items are only insured if they are packed by the movers themselves. But having your stuff packed costs quite a bit of money. Eventually we were able to cut a deal, meaning that we pack everything, but the movers will check whether it has been done properly. And we won't have an insurance excess either. Most likely, if anything will break along the route, it will be a couple of plates or glasses. But if we have, let's say, an excess of 250, these will not be reimbursed. So we had to drive a hard bargain in order to get our way with the company of our choice. That's to say, a hard bargain... All in all this move will still cost us something around 7.000 taxes and insurance included. If you're planning to move abroad as well, don't forget to put a serious budget aside for the movers!
The problems with the banks, both over here and in Italy, are driving us mad. We just can't believe that such simple matter can cause such big difficulties. And then there is the shear arrogance. The Belgian bank who gave us the bridge loan bluntly told us that "we should in fact be grateful that this loan was granted" and that "we should stop moaning about their demand to only send money to a sollicitor in Italy". We tried in vain to explain that the sollicitor doesn't want that money and that things are just different in Italy.
Christine was so fed up with it that she wrote a sharp e-mail to Guy Verhofstadt, the self-declared "pope" of the unified Europe and in his wet dreams the first president of the United States of Europe. No reply so far, probably because he's on a holiday to his own estate in Tuscany. How ironic...
And then there are the problems in Italy where we are denied a small mortgage because we don't live in Italy (yet) and don't have a fixed Italian income.
So Christine wrote a letter to Berlusconi. Hand-written and on blue, high-quality letter paper. And in Italian of course! She'll probably never receive a reply, or at least a decent one, to this letter either. But nevertheless she feels good to have given rein to all of her bitter frustration.
I already elaborated on the cookies and cupcakes that Christine intends to make in Italy. But when her two little nieces came for a visit (as a matter of fact for a late birthday party), she had to create something extraordinary to celebrate this occasion, didn't she? So she made a birthday cake with a buttercream/red currant filling and a topping... well... you can better see for yourself. Do you think that this could become a success in Italy? Personally I'm convinced it would and also our beloved Cosetta is already going crazy about it.
I'm soooo proud of her. And since she mostly needs the eggwhites, I can use the yellows to make a delicious "Advocaat", which is a very popular egg/milk/vanilla/honey brandy. Actually, it's not really a brandy but it's mostly used as a topping for ice-cream, pancakes or any other kind of desert. Also the Dutch readers will surely know what I'm talking about because it's also very popular over there. Hopefully the Italians will like it too!
The day before yesterday, my brother and his family came to visit us. It was already some time ago since we last saw them and also this event had already been postponed a couple of times. Like if we were trying to postpone the inevitable. You have to know that my brother and I haven't been on speaking terms for years until more or less a year ago. Apart from a series of painful things of the past, we're just two totally different persons. He's a true family man who likes security and a solid foundation for the future, whereas I can be very impulsive. So our discussions on the Italian adventure didn't really amount to much because we both have so very different views on it.
On the other hand, Christine and I could clearly feel a strong regret in my brother's behaviour. He didn't say it out loud, but we think he's truly sorry to see us leave. It took us years to overcome our quarrels of the past, and now that everything's going better, we're moving to a distant land. Well, this is a bit exaggerated of course, but we believe that this is how he sees it. Our invitation for a holiday in Italy was only a minor consolation too.
But why should we stay here then? We only live a 45-min drive apart from eachother and yet we see eachother perhaps 3-4 times a year. The same goes for our Flemish friends, by the way. Should we sacrifice our dream for that? Comments appreciated...
What a strange week this has been. I'm slowly getting to grips with the fact that our house is sold to someone else. As a close Italian friend of mine told me: "Alea iacta est". There's no way back anymore. I'm not scared. Just a bit anxious, nothing more. The fact that I'm not panicking means that our decision was the right thing to do. I'll probably still feel scared every now and then. Who wouldn't be if you're embarking on such an adventure. But I know that in the end, everything will be allright. I can't wait for the final move, when I'll see our new home finished for the first time. I imagine myself already stepping into the entrance hall and opening my eyes... With Christine's good sense for taste and detail, I'm sure that I'll be absolutely astonished. And that's a nice thing to look forward to, isn't it?
It's unbelievable! Only after one and a half weeks our house in Belgium is SOLD! And at the price we had dreamt of. This is such an amazing stroke of luck that it makes me speechless. Now we will surely be able to commence our new life in Italy with a solid foundation. Even in case we wouldn't have any income, we can survive there for years.
The people who eventually bought it are an elderly couple who are desperate to get away from the rush and crime of downtown Brussels. They wanted a haven of peace and immediately fell in love with our place when they passed for the first time this afternoon. In fact, they only passed by to see if our house would really be worthwhile and were utterly surprised to find me at home. So I gave them a tour. Later they called me back to ask if they could drop by once more with their daughter (to have a second opinion), so I said that I was available this evening. I was cooking my special eggplant risotto (yes yes... getting slowly integrated in the Italian way of life! ) when the doorbell rang. Again they visited the house and our garden and... they wanted it right now. So we signed a preliminary contract. Next Monday I will get in touch with our sollicitor to make arrangements for the further proceedings.
I feel good... nanananananana...
Sorry... that Trappist ale tastes even better than usual...
It's amazing how much "stuff" one collects over a couple of years. When Christine and I ran off with eachother ten years ago, we only had a mattress without a bed, a small table without chairs, a couple of plates and cutlery and a couple of cardboard boxes containing clothes. But when we are now making the inventory of the things which have to move with us to Italy, it's actually quite astonishing how much rubbish we have gathered in this period. There are two options: first, you throw it all in the bin. Or second (if it's too big), you drive it to the local waste disposal facility.
Not with Christine though. She's carefully packed everything we won't need anymore, from excess glasses to old clothes, and drives with all of that stuff to all the flea markets in the area. With good results too! Up till now, she's already made a 230 profit out of it! This is with the fee for the stall and her lunch sandwich already subtracted from it. Actually, she's quite amazing. Last time she was at the market of our village's annual fair. I drove down on my bicycle to visit her because I had decided that I wouldn't need this bicycle any longer in Italy. It's a rather heavy one and with the steep Italian slopes... let's just say that I'm not all that courageous... I had already made a sign saying "100" for the bike. But when I arrived, Christine immediately took the sign off and told me not to interfere with her sales tactics. So I had to obey, didn't I? Later when she returned home, she proudly announced that she had sold the bike. For 150. Isn't she a star?
I wrote already about the problems with our banks, both over here and in Italy. The Belgian bank only wants to send money of our bridge loan straight to an Italian sollicitor. Or it proposed an international checque which would "only" cost us about 150. And the Italian banks don't want to give us a mortgage because we don't live and work in Italy yet.
Regarding the first problem, we may have found a solution. Our Italian sollicitor told us that it is possible to transfer the money to the sellers directly in stead of using a personal cheque. He doesn't want to receive the sum for the purchase on his account anyway due to some strange fiscal reasons. But therefore the Belgian bank needs a full draft of the act, including the full names of all parties involved, addresses, bank account numbers and amounts due. Unfortunately the sollicitor is now on holiday until the 7th of September. Since the date of the act is set for the 15th of September, this would cut things really short. Fortunately, the sollicitor's associate will be back on the 26th so hopefully she can arrange everything for us in time. Because then this draft needs to be translated and approved of by our bank and then the money still needs to be transferred. You surely know that this too will take at least a couple of days.
Then, Christine believes she may have found a solution for problem number two. Since she has been suffering from the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for a year and a half, she has officially been declared a disabled person. And she therefore receives a monthly social security fee plus a bonus from a private insurance fund. She received confirmation that she will continue to benefit from both of them, even when she moves to Italy. This would mean that we will have a fixed income in Italy! It's a long shot, but it may just be enough to convince the Italian banks that we are trustworthy enough to approve the mortgage.
For those of you who are wondering what our three cats look like, here are a few pictures. First one up is Canelle. She's 7 years old and we saved her from an asylum almost a year and a half ago. She's still quite timid and we can only guess what a horrible life she must've had in the past. She was dropped off at the asylum because her owners were having a baby. Isn't it just sad?
And next is Blu. In fact, she replaces our beloved Ciuffa, a 9-month old Norwegian forest kitten we lost due to feline "AIDS", last June. The breeders felt so guilty that they gave us Blu. She's now just over 4 months old and you can obviously see that she's an upper-class lady with a pedigree, can't you?
Since Canelle is so easily scared and Blu is such a wild and sociable little critter, we decided to buy another Norwegian forest kitten. Her name's Chloé and she's now 11 weeks. She's still at the breeder's at the moment and we can collect her the weekend of the 22nd of August. In fact, she currently lives in Emmen, all the way up in the north of Holland . But we found her on the internet and immediately fell in love with her cute little muzzle, and therefore we just had to have her. Hopefully she'll also be very energetic and sociable (as Norwegian forest cats normally are) so Blu and her can play together and keep out of Canelle's hair.
Today's possible buyers were... how should I say... quite different from yesterday's. Let's say that these people showed a true interest in our house and not the slightest bit of indifference. You could immediately feel that they wanted it, or, let's just say that they liked it a lot. For almost two hours they were here. They examined the plans and all the details there were to know. They were a couple, again about our age, with two lovely children. The kids immediately approved of the house and started playing with our cats, guinnea pigs and the fish in our pond. We most of the time left the parents alone and let the house speak for itself. I hope that they appreciated that we tried not to be too pushy.
Whereas yesterday I was having mixed feelings, bordering regret, I this time felt something like that I almost wanted those people to move into our house. We know that the fruit of our hard labour would be well taken care of in their hands. I truly hope that the offer they're going to make will be a good one. We don't want to bargain on the price (yet) as we've been quite honest about our asking price. It's consistent with our sollicitor's estimation, plus a little extra for the garden. We invested a lot in this garden so we believe it's only just that we base our price on it. It's also a bit early to start bargaining because the house is only just up for sale. We can always lower our price later, if we must.
Deep inside of me I'm slowly starting to say goodbye to this place. My mind is currently flying across the Alps to somewhere else. It hurts; as if I'm a tree torn out of its soil with roots and all. Yet I'm also filled with anticipation about this new life.
But first we'll have to get through these horrible six months, possibly even more, when Christine and I will have to be separated from eachother. There simply is no other way. We can't move our cats twice. Once to a temporary Italian home while our house is being finished, and then the final move. Cats are so easily traumatised when you take them away from their home. We just can't do it to them twice in just a couple of months time. Finally there are also our Belgian affairs which need taking care of. The sale of the house, administration, the lot. Christine will supervise the works in Italy. The workmen be warned! She spots every little detail and will not be led on at all!
Yesterday, three people came already to visit our house and this afternoon someone else will also come. The first person was a lady of about our age and looking a bit "scruffy". Not really the kind of person we'd expect. But appearances may decieve and she wandered all around our house without saying much. But at the end she asked whether the curtains came with the house. That's the sort of question you'd only expect from someone who's really interested. She said she had to discuss things with her husband so perhaps she was only on a reconnaisance trip.
In the afternoon we received a visit from a couple in the mid thirties. Both were very posh with brand clothing and the whole lot. They examined every little detail and seemed genuine, interested buyers. But again we were left with a mixed feeling. We got the impression that she liked our house but that he was put off by our kitchen. Also the fact that the land right behind our house may one day become building land was not in our advantage. Chances are slim that building permits would be approved because it would mean political suicide for whoever mayor votes in favour. But nevertheless the chance is there and from a buyer's perspective, you may expect that they believe that we exaggerated the unlikeliness to our advantage.
We'll see what happens next and I'm quite anxious about this afternoon...
As mentioned earlier, our house is officially for sale. The coming weekend already two possible buyers will come to visit us. We are now rushing to get everything in order because the first impression sticks. We only get one shot at it. So I've been running overtime to trim all the hedges (without cutting any fingers or other vital body parts! ) while Christine has been cleaning up the flower beds, the herb garden and trimming the buxus. Next on the list is giving the house itself a good scrubbing. We've been neglecting this a bit for obvious reasons. And we're both so very tired. On my doctor's advice, I've just started to take a lower dose of antidepressants because I was getting too many side-effects. Unfortunately this means that over the next couple of days I'll be feeling more drowsy than ever. But we have no choice. We have to get on with it.
On the other hand, I'm slowly beginning to realise that everything we've built up, everything we've worked so hard for, will soon pass into someone else's hands. It frightens me a bit. I know what we're doing it for, but still I'm feeling ill at ease. Have we really thought this over well enough? Well, there's hardly any way back now because we've already paid 5.000 for the bridge loan and deposited another 27.000 as an advance on the house in Italy. And above all, I've told my employer to get lost. I don't think that they'd appreciate it if I were to ask my old job back.
We knew right from the start that Italy is a very different country than ours. And today we got another example of how different it actually is. Everything regarding the house (sollicitor, workmen, architect,...) has to be paid by cheque. We believed that in this era of technology, a electronic transfer would also be acceptable. Alas, no. Our bank over here doesn't want to transfer money of our bridge loan to our account in Italy so we can pay by cheque. Security reasons or something, so we wouldn't run off with the money. Even though they hold a full mortgage on our house in Belgium, by which they forced us to pay something around 5.000 for sollicitor's costs. We have now proposed a compromise which includes that our bank transfers the money to the sollicitor in Italy. He could then pay the owners, Silvia and Danilo by cheque. We hope that this is acceptable, otherwise we're in trouble...
The reasons for our decision to move to Italy have already been elaborated on thoroughly on this Blog. But since there is a lot of truth in the saying "a picture tells more than a thousand words", it is a real pleasure to present to you some pictures that Christine took of our new home last week. I suppose that everyone will understand our decision now...
The first four pictures were taken from left to right (east to west) from our house, overlooking our land. If you print them, you can lay them next to eachother to create a full panoramic picture. Can you already imagine sitting on a terrace with a nice and cool Italian wine, overlooking that panorama? On the third picture you can see the summit of the Monte Cusna, the highest mountain in the Emilian Appenines (roughly 2.200m).
And for those of you who're still not convinced that visiting our future B&B would be worth the while, imagine you're getting out of bed in the morning, you open the shutters and you see... this... (the dead tree in the middle will be removed of course...)
Christine's quest is coming to an end. At this very moment she's already way past the dreaded Gottard tunnel and heading home. But when I spoke to her on the phone just now, it didn't feel this way to her. She rather felt that she was leaving home for a far and ugly country. When we found the plot of land where we've built our present house, in Wallonia, just across the border with Flanders, we felt that it was like "going on a holiday" every time we drove home. Wallonia is a very different country to good old Flanders. And it's a beautiful country too, especially since Christine and I are so passionate about living in the countryside. But feeling like "going on a holiday" doesn't automatically mean that you also feel like "going home". And that's the twitch that always made us feel a bit uncomfortable here. How often have we moaned about if it were only possible to take a big crane and move our house elsewhere. And that's the big difference with Italy. Although we originally went there on a holiday, it never felt that way. It always felt like "going home".
I knew it. It was all going too smoothly. The bank that originally promised us the mortgage, has now reverted its decision. It has now become their policy to only grant loans to people who:
1. Have residence in Italy 2. Have a fixed income in Italy
We are left to wonder how we could ever meet those terms because we need the mortgage to finish the house (ref. previous message) and we can never present a fixed income because we plan to work as independents with our B&B, my English classes etc. This policy has apparently spread quite rapidly within the Italian bank sector because this particular bank was in fact the only one who originally agreed on the mortgage without any problems. Probably also because Danilo knew the bank manager very well.
So now we're facing some serious problems. Cosetta is going to try to arrange something via her bank and I've also left a message for help on the Italian Astronomy Forum. But one thing's for sure: we will not be discouraged by this!
When we were in Italy to buy our house, we also decided to take a small mortgage on it. This has two advantages; first it will limit our need for an (expensive) bridge-loan in the period that the house in Italy isn't finished yet and our present house still not sold. And secondly, with the record-low rates because of the crisis, we prefer taking a mortgage and holding on to as much of our own capital as possible. We can invest this capital (in a safe way... ) and hence the mortgage will cost us close to nothing. The capital will remain there for ever and will eventually provide us with a (small) fixed income. Call it some kind of "pension fund"... Today, Christine returned to our Italian bank to sort out the details and to translate our payslips. Flemish is not a widely understood language in Italy...
Another thing we're certainly going to do is to plant a large number of walnut trees on our land. We have more than plenty of land and within twenty years the walnut wood will be a significant pension. According to what one of my Italian friends said (he's got a forest guard degree) it is one of the most expensive kinds of wood and it's one of the best investments you can make. And while we're waiting for the trees to grow big enough, we can always sell the nuts. Then again, I'm sure that Christine will have a lot of fun with those. If it's not for making breads or cakes or whatever, she'll surely use them to make crowns or other kinds of decoration. She can't keep still anyway... Here's a picture of her latest passion: cupcakes and sugarwork. It shows her results of a workshop she followed last week...
Just a message to inform you that Christine has arrived very early yesterday evening (around 19:50) and that today she already met with Danilo at our new house. We will probably lower the roof a bit because the attic is currently in a very bad state and all the small windows that it has need replacement. By lowering the roof, we will not need another ceiling (the woodwork under the roof will become the ceiling) and we will recuperate enough natural stone to build a large porch next to the living room. The roof had to be redone anyway. So in all this means a significant saving. Danilo also shares our passion for making our house as environmentally friendly as possible. Unfortunately solar power has not yet become very popular in the region where we plan to move to (contrary to the south of Italy). But we'll certainly already put all the necessary wiring in place so we can install the panels when prices will lower and perhaps subsidies become more substantial. We're also going to install a 20.000l rainwater container which will be more than enough to supply us with water for e.g. the toilets, the washing machine and the garden hose all year round, apart from the natural well which we are fortunate enough to have on our land. We'll also pay much attention to insulation and high-performance windows to keep the heat in during winter and the sun out during summer. And to round it off, we're going to use a heating system which will mainly use blocks or pellets of wood because we'll have that in abundance. Only if really necessary, we can change to gas. Since there is no connection to the natural gas network, we can only have a gas container installed. This is done for free by the gas company. But propane is not as efficient as methane and also costs a lot more. On the other hand, we won't have to pay a monthly subscription fee to the gas company.
At around 7:30 this morning, Christine has started her 13-hour journey to Italy. As I already mentioned, she will meet with Danilo (our landmeter-architect) to discuss the details about the refurbishments. Every couple of hours she texts me to tell me how far she's already progressed. In fact, the very minute I'm writing this (13:13) she sent me a message that she's just arrived in Switzerland. So she's doing great. Well ahead of schedule. She's such an incredible woman... I love her so very much and miss her already. What will it be when she will stay in Italy for good after the act's been signed and I have to return to Flanders all on my own? We'll hardly see eachother for 5-6 months. Yet another thing I don't want to think about yet... at least not for now...
and on blue, high-quality letter paper. And in Italian of course! 
. But we found her on the internet and immediately fell in love with her cute little muzzle, and therefore we just had to have her. Hopefully she'll also be very energetic and sociable (as Norwegian forest cats normally are) so Blu and her can play together and keep out of Canelle's hair. 
) and hence the mortgage will cost us close to nothing. The capital will remain there for ever and will eventually provide us with a (small) fixed income. Call it some kind of "pension fund"... 
Today, Christine returned to our Italian bank to sort out the details and to translate our payslips. Flemish is not a widely understood language in Italy... 
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