Dentist

To be honest I can't believe that I haven't started this thread sooner!

When Simon's parents were visiting back in September I broke a filling on a piece of pizza. I thought that I'd got away with it, but after a day it was so rough that it was cutting my tough and was quite painful. An Italian dentist was required.

Fortunately, the English Speaking Happy Hour that I attend (rather sporadically now) has a whole host of useful people, one of whom is a dentist. I swiftly organised an appointment with Enea and got my teeth ready.

It was a bit embarrassing really. Firstly, I should add that I hate dentists and as such I've only been for emergency appointments since I was about 13. I hate needles most of all. I think Enea nearly died when he looked inside my mouth. I know I did when he stuck a camera in my mouth and show me my teeth on a big TV screen. That is cruel and almost guarantees that you'll agree to any treatment.

I've not been three times for a deep root clean and scale. (Yes I did say three times - very dirty) I have also had to have a new filling. He is now talking about gum surgery!!! So far I haven't paid a penny and I have not idea of the current balance. Think I might need to re-divert some of the wedding money!

Dentist is not as bad as I once thought and I will go back for regular cleans now, but I still hate needles.

I thought that I would see if I could be modern and groovy!!!

Day in Malcesine in photos

Busy bee

I have been receiving complaints that I haven't blogged for ages, so here goes. I am shattered and I am so busy that I simply haven't had time. I should really be emptying the bins right now, but I will bow to popular pressure.

Since my last blog we have had several visitors and we have been all over the place. Firstly my grandparents came to Italy with Caravan and dog in town and decided to visit us. For me the most exciting part of the trip was the arrival of a food parcel, which might sound a bit mean, but you have no idea how much I miss my food!!!!! It was obviously good to see them too. We showed them around the town and then went to our little restaurant on the Torricelle. Always a winner because of the fabulous views.

Our next guests were Simon's parents. It took us a while to tidy the house to mother in law standards but I think we passed. They seemed to have a lovely time with us and were happy to follow us around. I even took them on one of our monthly hikes, which turned out to be a bit of a disaster but fun all the same. See pictures.

Simon then jetted off to India for two weeks and I think that he had a great time. I used the time to hibernate and acclimatize to the weather.brrrrrrrrrrrrr.

After the Darren, the best man came for a weekend and I went to England this weekend. HECTIC or what?

Now we are free to relax and await the joys of Christmas. Safe in the knowledge the the wedding is less than 9 months away, but that I have bought my dress!

Disaster

I don't have photos yet, but I will!!!

My brother and sister in law came to stay last week and we decided to go to Garda for the day. As is usual we hired a little motor boat to play around on the lake. If you remember there are pictures from a previous visit. Unfortunately this time we somehow managed to run over a rock in the lake and break the boats propellor. Needless to say, we lost our deposit of €150 and it turned out to be a very expensive hour of fun. I have kept the propellor so I'll snap it at some point.

Fortunately the rest of their holiday was less eventful and hopefully memorable for all the right reasons. Now we have a few days to clean up before the next arrivals, my grandparents and then 3 days later, Simon's parents. Busy busy busy.

Somehow during all this we are still finding time to plan a wedding!!

Holidays

I have been told that people are missing my updates!! I am sorry but it's been a bit busy here recently for one reason or another.

First blog today then is about my holiday. We went to Brindisi in Puglia. It was lovely, but a really long drive and neither of us really wanted to get up at 4am!

On arrival though we had all that we wished for and found a lovely secluded agroturismo with nice romantic and traditional rooms and a pool. Some people go on holiday to see the sights etc but we are really lazy, we like to sit by the pool or on the beach and read. Luckily for us there was a great pool which was only for 8 guests, most of whom never used it so it was like a private area.

Puglia is beautiful and the food is great. The biggest news though is that we got engaged whilst we were down there and are now beginning to plan the wedding!

Spoke too soon.

I can't believe it. I got a parking ticket outside my own house!!

To be fair I have read the signs again and this time they may have a point, but only a small one. Last week the Comune (Council) painted blue bays on one side of the road and put up 1 hour max signs. They left the other side of the road. I therefore cleverly parked on the clear side thinking this was OK. Apparently not. I went downstairs today to discover a wonderful ticket costing €38. I can't believe it. I have never had a ticket in my life and I have the car for 1 week only and see what happens. I'd almost be so bold as to say that I got it whilst typing a blog about the joys of driving.

Is it technically Simon's fault for leaving me with the car??

I had to wait for ages for a space in the tiny carpark outside our bedroom window - here hoping that that doesn't come under the ticket zone.

Not happy :-(