The Courtyard Circular: August and September 2013

August.

August, as usual, saw  our social life take a severe downturn as term ended for the dayboys: the Rogers went home on the 5th and the Cairns on the  9th. We had Sunday lunch at the Trattoria di Moro with Tony and Shona before they left, and coffee at John and Judy's a couple of days before their departure. On the 13th went with Glyn to a concert of Celtic music, La Cuma di Notte at the Monte Rinaldo archeological site. It wasn't very good and - even worse - while I was filming a song the screen on my camera packed up.

The following day we had a pleasant birthday lunch with Glyn at Il Faro on Pedaso beach, followed by heavy rain. Ferragosto began as though it were an English bank holiday,  grey and much cooler. However it picked up in the afternoon with blue skies and temperature in the mid-twenties. Although it never returned to the low thirties of  early August, the weather remained good on the whole until the last Sunday in September when I had to finally abandon shorts.

September: Things - and people - fall apart.

The month began fairly well. On Sunday 1st Pat had an enjoyable hack out on Daisy and in the late afternoon we went to a Chopin concert given by Gil Jetley at his house.



On the 6th we got the second load of wood in before Pat went to the UK until the 13th
the following day.

 On the 8th I went to Joey Luis's confirmation in Force,

returning home to stack the wood to make room for the third and final load on the 11th.
   Then things carried on from last month's camera disaster as more things started to fall apart. Firstly, while Pat was away the boiler decided to pack up so I was without hot water until the 15th when Pompeo and Peppe effected a temporary fix. It went off again on the 18th and we're still awaiting some replacement parts. Secondly, warning lights came on in the car, one of which began flashing menancingly. Thirdly, installing an iTunes update on the 18th in order to download iOS 7 led to a distorted graphical display followed by flickering and crashing. Eventually the computer became unusable. Fortunately, searching the web revealed that the mid-2011 model of my computer came with a faulty graphics card and Apple would replace it gratis. Took the computer to Ascoli last Tuesday and will pick it up tomorrow.
  And it's not just things which are breaking. On the 22nd I got my foot caught in a shop-fitting at Lupo's alimentari and went sprawling, the corner of another fitting hitting me in the mid-riff. The same day at mass Don Marco fainted and fell backwards hitting his head on the altar steps. He was taken to Fermo Hospital but, fortunately, was back at his post this Sunday. As has my sciatica since the last week of September!