Something to Post

I started this at least a week ago. It has nothing new but will show my friends I’m still around.

I realize how time has flown when the way we do things has changed. What once seemed essential, no longer is. When I first came to Italy I watched my future mother in law iron. The iron was a cast iron affair using glowing embers, charcoal or coal. You can still find them at the antique market and use them for flowers or book ends. Then, and this was not all that long ago, more or less in the 1950s, everything had to be ironed, including towels and underpants, and, believe it or not, socks. My future mother in law had had the normal middle-class education, learning to paint and embroider, and learning how to write a beautiful script. The family had a servant who did the general housework. Yet even if the lady of the house had a college degree, it was up to her to iron her husband’s shirts. My best friend showed me what was expected of her when she showed me the instructions imparted by her future mother in law as to how to starch the shirts properly.

Now most families have washing machines and living by myself, without an ironing board or an iron, I have discovered that one doesn’t really need them. If I hang my shirts and slacks up dripping wet, they come out as if they had been ironed. A washing machine is still essential and I remember that as a child we washed the laundry by hand and put the sheets through rollers before hanging them outside.

It’s already six. Finally, managed to sleep a bit more without those shooting pains that are now part of my life thanks to the  herpes with which I’ve been suffering for the past three weeks.  Life will go on.

Tania has my tea ready – and two bits of cake left over from lunch. My granddaughter is busy on her computer working on line in English which she speaks now better than I do. Threads of conversation, I suppose it is her work. Another stabbing pain,  but on the whole I’m better. I’ve finally figured out what those five euros on my computer desk are for – it’s the change from the 20 euros my son had left saying someone would pass by for an offering of charity. Was supposed to be 15 euros and he had left me 20. 

Tania, my friend more than caretaker, is bent over the couch, folding the laundry. She loves to fold –in particular t-shirts, and is an expert in whatever is needed. I wish I could keep her better company. I keep thinking that perhaps one day she might need to have a better grasp of English and have prepared a list of useful words. I’m amazed at how good her Italian is – but then she’s been in Italy around 30 years after leaving Ukraine with her husband and children. Now, she says, she is single during the week when her husband is driving his truck, and she is married over the weekends when he is home.  She goes outside to get a handful of herbs from the courtyard for whatever she is cooking for supper when my two sons will also show up. I’m lucky to have her help. I have figured out that Tatia has the gift of love. Always cheerful and understanding.

My friend Bruce came by with the information on voting in the US elections which I sometimes find confusing. He’s a real friend and is here most of the year where he now has his legal residenza.  Other ex-pat friends sort of come and go but all are happy to live here and not in the mess the US is in at the moment. Indeed many are returning, Candace hopes their do has learned enough to be a companion dog, others are finish packing. Hopefully I’ll be a better when they arrive and can see them.  

So the expats are returning for their season in the sun. Some are already back-Except that here in Italy it’s not so much the sun that is sought as it is the coolness of autumn when there are various festivals celebrating the grape and mushrooms and chestnuts. Have written about some of them.

Just had merenda (a snack), a sort of maionese and tomato and cold cut sandwich.

Carolyn says I shoudl try the protein drink ensure. I could perhaps make a chocolate milk shake. Want to ask my doctor first about protein drinks.

So soon back to bed and Strout’s Olive. Or Judi Dench and the man who pays the rent. Or to the book about Shakespeare as Lodger in the street where supports for wigs were made. Of course I’ve read them all, more than once, but one always discovers new things. Almost time for supper and if I don’t eat something, I will be scolded.

Love to all

Erika