The one thing that we have realised since relocating to Istria, is that PATIENCE is a quality which we must have, at all times. Every waking minute. Because usually, nothing happens quickly. And never immediately. We are gradually shaking off our (*my*) impatient nature(s) and realising that things do not happen here, like they did back in England. And to think we would moan and tut and grumble about how bad systems were back in the UK!
The work on the wall in the Well Room started over two weeks ago. Previous to this, the room did resemble a room. We were using the concrete table, we had created a sofa on the platform and gorgeous navy blue velvet curtains had been hung, providing us with warmth and privacy. The work has involved fixing insulation tiles with insulating adhesive, plastering it, fixing a mesh barrier, plastering again and finally a layer of skim. Then building a ledge which will sit along the back of the raised ledge, with lighting. So, quite a bit of work and time is needed for the plaster to dry out – but it is taking forever. Because of the nature of our house – an old stone house that hadn’t been lived in regularly for some time before we bought it – we always have to factor in unforeseen problems. And, so we need to exercise patience.
But never mind, we almost have our lovely kitchen, which we have had to exercise much patience over. It took a good few months to get everything done prior to it finally being installed, but it’s still not quite finished. A couple of jobs still need to be completed by the company who installed. Another exercise in being patient, as we bat emails back and forth and we try to keep our cool so that they don’t just decide to go quiet on us. Other jobs are down to us, adding to the builder’s list – and again, as each job is added, another takes a bit more time to complete. Today’s job has involved installing the lighting for the shelving in the corner, meaning wiring all over the place again and everything having had to be moved from shelves and work tops. Still, at least it’s being done and I’m crossing my fingers that by tonight, everything will be back to normal and not looking like it currently does…
Never mind, it’ll all soon be put back together and our corner shelves will have lovely under-lighting. Hopefully tonight.
But, we are still having to exercise patience. And this time, it’s properly killing me! We have finally, we think (and we hope, as it’s cost quite a few pounds) found a way to at last get UK TV. We’ve not yet got fixed line internet – patience again, being key here – and our internet situation is reliant on 4G, so we have to have satellite. But, and here’s the rub, Croatian and Italian TV are both pretty rubbish. We tend to default to BBC World News or Kitchen 24 – yep, a channel of cookery programmes, 24 hours a day, which means that at times we can gorge on Jamie, Nigella, Nigel etc. A little bit of TV sanity. The TV situation has been driving us mad – and we haven’t been able to see the wood for the trees, but have now worked out a way that we just might be able to access everything we have missed on the TV. Next instalment coming up…