What is it about Italian guys?  Tonight I received a telephone call asking for accommodation for this evening.  I happened to have the Duca Suite available as it is between guests, so I said yes and we agreed a price.

We discussed the route, the guy was coming from Firenze, and I could hear him writing down the route. He asked if he could phone me if he got lost or could not find his way – it is easy from Firenze but I was reassured by his question.  I asked him what time he expected to arrive and he said about 8 to 8.30.  He gave me his name and stupidly I did not take a credit card number.

Not for the first time the Italian did not show.  He never bothered even to telephone and say he was not coming, the room was ready, big cozy bed and luxury bathroom as have all the suites here at Bellaugello Gay Guest House in Umbria, but the guy did not show

Lesson learnt, no credit card number no reservation…

and by the way mystery non-show guest if you read this not only did you annoy me greatly but you missed a fabulous dinner with scintillating conversation from real cute guys…  As she said in the film ‘Pretty Woman’ “BIG MISTAKE”

Share on Facebook

Another glorius sunny day here at Bellaugello Gay Guest House in Umbria, Italy.  The temperatures are in the mid to high 30s and a soft cooling breeze ruffles the curtains at the windows and rustles the leaves on the trees in the garden.

A gentle but continious sound of a motor horn announced the arrival of the post this morning here at Bellaugello Gay Guest House near Gubbio.

Why oh why when there is a registered letter does the just too pretty postgirl sit in her car and peep the horn, and not get out and deliver the letter to the door?  She can probably see activity, but prefers to sti in the car and have me stroll up to the gate.

However it is better than one of the parcel delivery services who always telephone to inform me that they have a parcel for me and have no idea where Valdichiascio (our valley) is, and so they want to leave the parcel at the local petrol station.  The parcel has travelled the world, possibly a purchase from Amazon or a supplier, and door to door delivery paid for, yet the parcel carrier decides whose door to leave the parcel at.  I tell him i do not have a car – how is he to know he never comes to the house, I aks him how I am supposed to collect the 25kg parcel from the petrol station 5km away and he just gerbles some dialectical Italian in reply…….

Share on Facebook

Time for a rant;

The electricity supply here at Bellaugello Gay Guest House in Umbria Italy, is supplied by ENEL the Italian state electricity company – there is no choice.  Several months ago I made a request for an upgrade in current supply as there is just not enough to meet our needs.

They still want a further six months to renew the cables and poles, so I am stuck with a pityful quantity of electricity which is rarely sufficient.

I have to turn the water pumps on at night when everyone has gone to bed and it seems when lighting the oven the power is destined to cut out.  Yes I have installed LED lights where possible and those horrid low energy lightbulbs, bought A+ fridges and make every eco-saving possible but there is not enough current.

Coming form the UK where you turn on a power socket and electricity comes – always – out it is quite un-nerving to have to constantly reset the main trip-switch and consider each and every appliance currently in use.

Domani as they say here, roll on domani and a stronger power supply…..

Share on Facebook

Doutbless I have blogged on the subject before, but this morning I was reading the Ikea newsletter where on page 37 I read: “Consigli Ecologici” the article comments on the savings made by installing thermal windows, throwing out your old machines and substituting them for new ‘A’ class domestic white goods, recycling used drinks tins, and repairing dripping taps.

Now I can go with the dripping taps bit.  One of our water sources here at Bellaugello Gay Guest House in the beautiful Umbrian countryside in central Italy is our own spring.  Water oozes out of the ground just above a layer of clay.  Last year we spent considerable time devising a system for collecting this water which now enters a settling tank before being pumped up the hill behind the main guest house to descend by gravity and be used for watering the garden, flushing the toilets and feeding the washing machines.  Yes water is precious and I assidiously close taps.  Repairing a dripping tap costs nothing and saves buckets and on the whole I do have a sensible ecological policy here at Bellaugello Gay B&B.

However I read a bit further on in the Ikea newsletter that “Da agosto, prima di quanto previsto dalle legge, IKEA non verdera piu lampadine a incandescenza.”  From august earlier than required by law IKEA will no longer sell incandescent lamps. and that makes me see red.

How dare the law prohibit us from using the good old fashioned incandescent lightbulb?  I have a wonderful antique French chandelier in my sitting room  and it uses the particularly small (and frighteningly expensive) E27 lighbulbs which sit in artificial candles, no longer will they be available.  How am I suposed to put ‘lampade fluorescenti compatte’ in my chandelier?  Have you seen just how large they are and all that electrical gizmo in the base, yeah will look really great.

Will somebody just tell me this; Why are the public letting themselves into being deceived that by installing these ‘low energy lamps’ as we are being forced to do is in anyway saving energy or being ecological.

These lamps are fluorescent tubes and require complicated starter motors and sophisticated electronics to get them to light.  Do not tell me that these parts do not cost, have environmental impact, are all resourced from everywhere on the planet and thus unlike a Coca Cola tin not shipped five times round the world at great environmental impact.

Some international company is making a fortune out of selling these.  How did they convince the EU to outlaw the competition?  It strikes me as unjust.

They weigh more than conventional incandecent bulbs so must have a phenomenal transport and logistical impact and they do not last.  Heed my advice buy all the incandescent lightbulbs you can before they disappear, in the long run they are the environmentally friendly alternative, I still have some burning merrily after twenty years continious use and house moves across continets and just think of the ‘Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles’ lit by fluorescent lightbulbs…….

Share on Facebook

They call it TECHNOADSL  That is the company who have their receiver mounted on the roof of Bellaugello Gay Guest House here near Gubbio in Umbria.

It was supposed to be the answer to my prayers for a fast internet connection

TECHNOADSL suggest internet speeds of up to 4mb, unheard of in Valdichiascio where TelecomItalia provide speeds never exceeding 560kb over fixed lines (tatty copper wires  losely dangling from squint poles strung like fairy lights on a shabby christmas tree).

A wireless antenna internet connection, fast efficient, guaranteed speeds of 2mb. The technician said to me ‘don’t worry if the speed is anythting over 1mb, as long as it does not drop below.  Well it does, and boy does it drop.  In desperation I have reverted to the old copper wires as I became  sick of the Technoadsl connection cutting out.  Ok I get over 1.7mb early in the morning but when the kids come home from schools and switch on their computers all over the valley, my connection cuts out, it cuts out i the evenings and is non existent this morning.  I actually managed to get a speedtest check yesterday I was receiving 70kb yes S E V E N T Y kb.!!!!!!!! hence the reversion to copper wires.

Technoadsl are supposedly aware of the problem (aparently contractually they have to provide a minimum speed or face fines) and are supposed by upgrading their transmitter on Monte Villiano to have rectified it this week, but I hate to say it if they have done the work the connection is S L O W E R    T H A N   E V E R. soon they will be downloading from my telecomitalia connection!

Why is this country so horribly inefficient????

Share on Facebook

This morning the BBC reports a judge in Malawi has imposed a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison with hard labour on a gay couple convicted of ‘gross indecency and unnatural acts’  See the link:  BBC news report on Malawi gay couple prison sentence

Sad news, a depressing story with which to start my day here at Bellaugello Gay Guest House in Umbria.

It makes me mad to learn that two guys simply holding an engagement ceremony are condemned to such a horrific sentence – or to be brutally honest that they are sentenced AT ALL.  As Gift Trapence of the Centre for the Development of People is reported as saying “How can they get 14 years simply for loving one another?” he asked. “Even if they are jailed for 20 years you can’t change their sexuality.”

and what annoys me the most is that these guys are being penalised for being open and honest about their love and sexuality, and the chances are as shown in many of the recent Catholic Church sex abuse scandals, he who doth protest loudest is far from being innocent, hypocrisy is everywhere, homosexuality is a fact of life, has been since time immemorial,  and is not exclusive to powerless everyday men in the street, we have no choice in our sexuality.

I congratulate and admire Monjeza and Chimbalanga for their courage and conviction of their joint love and sincerely hope that goverments and agencies round the world suceed in quickly forcing the Malawian Government to overturn the brutal sentences and god forbid, but if they contemplate  acting in such a manner again for officials of that country first to look closely at their sexualities… ‘he who is without sin cast the first stone’, if only people lived up to what they preached…….

Share on Facebook

Yesterday I had to go to Gubbio, a glorious beautifully preserved medieval city.  It is the nearest town to Bellaugello Gay B&B, and where I  shop, bank, socialise and occasionally eat out.  Yesterday, as  always I had little time and lots to do…

First stop the bank “the Monte dei Paschi di Siena”.  I have recently opened a business account at this bank represented in Gubbio.  I had to speak to the manageress.  Why is it that the bank’s think you have nothing better to do than sit in a designer chair for 45 minutes whilst waiting to speak with the manageress?  It is not the first time, indeed the Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank motto must be; ” we take our time and your money”.

I have a newish current account for my Umbrian gay guest house at MPS bank, and I thought why not get deposits paid into this account, get it started..  There is a discrepancy with the BIC code, and I realised I do not have any single document with the physical address of the bank to use as a reference, even when I access my account online.  I have requested a bancomat card, but it seems that is a luxury the bank will only give me when they have €3.000.00 in my account.  On checking the account online this morning I discover the bank has already taken €32.85 from my account for “interest and skills” – interesting because I had not put any money in the account.  How can I ever build up to €3.000.00 balance if the bank takes interest and’ skill’ charges (just what are skill charges?) like that?  Oh and every time you ask a question in this bank we will tell you a different story, and deny responsibility, because “I the manageress have only been here three weeks and I am not responible for what happended before I arrived”, so, from me I thought a reasonable next question.. “so who was responsible?”  reply.. “nobody there was not a manager for three months – but it is not the bank’s fault or mine”

I have waited three months for a POS credit card machine from the MPS bank.  The branch still does not know the cost of the machine if connected to the internet, and cannot tell me which carrier the bank uses for connections over the cellphone network.  The manageress informed me  the costs of cellphone connection were ‘High” what does high mean?  She could not tell me but they must be exorbitant.  3 months to get the paperwork through, how much longer will I have to wait for the machine to be delivered and how much longer before it is connected and finally works I feel utterly useless and sorry for my customers.   My conclusion if you have a choice do not have anything to do with Monte dei Paschi di Siena Bank, they are utter disfunctional rotters.

Next call to my other bank, a queue, yes there is always a queue.  I needed a chequebook, no you cannot order it online and no they do not arrive automatically when the last one runs out.  You have to wait at the counter, so I waited and waited..  I also wanted to close a direct debit payment, that too has to be done in the branch, but of course the computer terminals were down, so I will have to come back another day.  Then to the cash machine to print a mini-statement.  Why is it the guy infront of me has to conduct multiple transactions?  The bankomat machines in Italy I believe are bought second or fourth hand from places like the UK.  They are slow dead slow, and tedious.  After 45 minutes I managed to leave the second bank.

Here in Italy you can buy stamps at a tobacconist.  That is when they have them.  Over the past week I have tried every tobacconist in Gubbio for one, yes one stamp to send a letter to the UK.  why do I persist in going to the tobacconists to discover repeatedly they do not have stamps for overseas and have not had them for ten days? read on.. The Post Office I had to go to the post office.  Here in Italy you take a ticket and wait your turn.  Yesterday morning the post office was so busy people were ovespilling onto the pavement.  All I needed were two stamps.  I fought my way in and to the ticket machine, pressed the button and discovered to my horror I was 45th. in the queue and that was the queue for stamps, just stamps and postage, the business post offices were surely set up for, not pensions, payments, enquiries just stamps, and no there is not even a stamp vending machine.  I didn’t wish to wait, the letters are now back in my car gathering dust.  I have a UK postal vote for this weeks election, luckily the envelope is marked ‘postage paid do not affix stamps’  If I had to affix a stamp I think it would be for the 2015 election!

Then to the paint shop.  Two weeks ago I went in for a tin of paint for outdoors plaster surface.  I wanted to repaint the plaster wall that was damaged by the insertion of a replacement window.  Base colour not in stock, come back in ten days….  A queue, finally to be given the message, base still not in stock, the wisteria is now in leaf, and it is too late…

Then across town to the builders merchants to speak with the ever patient Milena to find out if the tile samples I want for the dining room have finally arrived.  Five telephone calls by Milena later we dicovered the tiles are ‘on their way’ but where they are and when they will arrive nobody could tell…  do they not have proper logistics compamies here in Italy will I ever get the dining room floor tiled??

Then to buy dog food.  This means driving a road with two roundabouts, those delighful British inventions I thought designed to make traffic flow freely and in orderly fashion.  But not here in Gubbio.  Nobody seems to understand here how roudabouts function.  They are a free for all, drivers just want to get onto the roundabout and then stop or cut you up and yesterday this process was more confused by a cyclist in the middle of the road cycling in the wrong direction….. indeed it seems the rule is ‘abandon courtesy, do the opposite of what you are supposed to do, drive contrary to the rules of the road, and if certain stop without warning preferably blocking all traffic and exits from the roundabout.

Luckily there was only one guy at the till in the agricultural shop where I buy my dog food.  But he was buying plantlets, tons of them, and each one has to be individually scanned and transported separately to his car.  Eventually after 17 minutes I managed to get to the cash desk.

Then to the office of the water company.  Only open three mornings a week, office in a way out place near to nothing else I needed to do, and as usual take a ticket system.  I pulled a ticket, 14 people in the queue before me.  All I wanted is to continue my process to change the incorrect billing on my account.  I have faxed (remember faxes?), written and been to the office and handed in all the relevant documents over the past six months, yet my account remains incorrect, I wanted to rant and sort out the account once and for all.  By the time I was 3rd from the head of the queue the office closed…  I will have to come back again.

Luckily I did not need to go to the Co-Op, nine tills and only one open…

In desperation, highly wound up I drove back to  the tranquillity of Bellaugello Gay guesthouse some three and a half hours later having achieved virtually nothing and knowing I will have to repeat the process all over again before too long. Sometimes I hate living here in Italy and I really wish I had a decent responsible partner to help me and share the stress.

How does anyone ever manage to get any serious work done here in Italy I still do not understand, it is a fight and uphill struggle.

Share on Facebook

This morning I woke full of the joys of spring, positive of mind and full of zest.  Today was a day for achievements and getting things done……  so I made a list.  Yes sometimes I make lists, tragic eh, often I mislay them, sometimes they get everything ticked off and help me from forgetting things I was supposed to have done, or serve to amuse me when I cannot read what I have written

This morning’s list was:

1  Order materials from the builders’ merchants.

2  Go to Gubbio and go to the offices of the water comany to tell them once again that I actually live here in Bellaugello and so should not be paying water rates as a non-resident.

3  Go to the doctors to get antibiotics to shift the bronchial cough I have had this past month.

4  Go to the offices of the local health authority to renew my health card, which needs to be renewed anually.

5  Go to another builders’ merchant to confirm the order for floor tiles as discussed yesterday.

6  Go to the garage to see if they will sell my car on comission as I ave seen a car I really want to buy

7  Give a second coat of paint to the walls in the Diva Suite

8  Cut the grass, and strim the grass banks

9  Get through to the inernet company who promised three weeks ago to install a new internat connection

10 Go to the bank and hassle them into giving me the precise cost and delivery time of the POS credit card machine that I asked for two and a half months ago.

Result:  1 – ORDERED all materials, but many items FAILED to arrive, need to physically go and collect them. 2 – The office only opens on monday morning, thursday afternoon and friday morning, there is no other means of CONTACTING Umbria Acque 3 – The doctor tried to palm me off with ‘ALTERNATIVE’ medicins, eventually after an extended coughing fit he relented. Then to the Farmacia to collect the prescription SHUT, need to come back later  4 – A QUEUE (what a surprise) ‘oh you have not brought the right documents, the requirements have changed you need to come back another day’. 5 DELIGHTFUL friend in the builders’ merchants with the patience of a saint and a cool sense of humour.  Someone from another company had bought the tiles we looked at last night from the distributor, had to make a spur of the moment decision and chose something else that did not please me as much as they were darker than I had envisaged, although I must admit they are very plendidly decadent! 6 – ‘Oh we do not sell cars on commission (lie, a friend sold his there that way) you will need to come back TOMORROW or the day after and speak to the boss, what car is it?’  ‘a Fiat 500 sporting,’ ‘Is it here?’ – NO I WALKED… 7 – Interrrupted by phone calls and builders requests got three walls done, looks FAB and most of the paint is on the walls not on me or the dogs or floor. 8 – Just managed to get the lawn on the car-park and round the hay shed cut before dusk descended, bliss mind emptying persuit. 9 – They STILL do not answer their telephone or reply to emails – I need to drive to the other side of Perugia so see them in person – if they are actually in the office – that’s communication companies for you – probably better training wol-let! 10 – WAITED in the bank for 75 minutes to finally get to see the director to be told she still does not have the news I require, does not know when she will have it and still does not know the cost of the various POS machines or which gps system they use or how much longer I will have to wait to have it installed, AARGH . Then went back to the farmacia to discover they do not have both the medecins prescribed  so had to chase to the other side of Gubbio to another farmacia.  Returned home, replied to emails, fed dogs, cut grass and checked on builders work all before making a cup of tea, which is now going cold as I write this…

Lucky I did not have anything urgent or particular to do today…

Share on Facebook

To end what in all other senses has been a wonderful day here at Bellagello Gay Guesthouse in Umbria I have a rant to download to you all…..

I am so angry.  For the past hour or so I have been trying to download a film onto my computer.  TelecomItalia who currently provide the internet service here fail to provide any form of speed.

My computer has just laughingly told me it will take 8 days and 9 hours to dowmload the 528mb….   and then the download crashes – again, and  again and again.  The speed starts of at 70kb/sec, but rapidly decreases to 10b/sec Aarrgh……

I have had another company TechnoAdsl out to Bellaugello to run a test on an antenna system,  The test results were very good, and they can provide a fast internet connection from a transmitter directly south of Bellaugello, and they promised to return last week to install the equipment.  No sign of them, no replies to emails and they do not answer the telephone either.  TelecomItalia’s customer help-line is run by a string of dear mamas who every time I call seem to be in their kitchens frying something,  or doing the washing up and so unable to deal with my problem!  To officially complain to TelecomItalia you have to send a fax (remember them- I believe there is one in the Science Musesum in London)

That’s communication companies for you!

On a brighter note I have a gorgeous owl nesting in one of the pigeon holes in the west wall of the house at Bellaugello.  Maybe it is one of Hedwig’s relations, I live in hope…

Share on Facebook

Why do we here in Italy use copper tube for drain pipes and chimney flues?

A new length of copper double insulated tube arrived today at Bellaugello gay guest house for the external section of the flue for the Mirror Suite stove that is being installed into the old fireplace.  It is shiny and gleaming, but soon will become dull and tarnished as is the piece that currently goes through the roof on the upper part of the house to which it will connect.  Almost at the same time I was at the builders’ merchants buying drainpipe and guttering for the new entrance to the Diva Suite.  In the store were metres and metres of gleaming copper pipes and connections, I chose from them.

How do they keep it clean?  Do they use brasso?  All I know is that the copper pipes we mounted on the house last year are now dull, maybe I should have lacquered them or bought ordinary tube and maroon matt paint…..

Share on Facebook