Corona in Cortona… Isolation in Italy…..Covid Chronicles Part 2
Thursday 11th March Day 2…. the first few days in isolation!!
Normally on a Thursday morning I would be rushing around like headless chicken trying to feed cats dogs and me, before dashing out to my meet my Italian friend Clelia at 9am. This doesn’t sound too onerous I admit… but with a small overcrowded sitting room there are very various ‘dog’ precautions to be taken. First, my wonderful unfolding settee has to be closed up to just ordinary settee size… this is because my smallest dog Albi, who thinks he is a cat, would otherwise use it to jump onto the table and create untold chaos.
Once he got hold of the sort of dye, common here a few years ago, that you use to die white wall paint to the colour you want He managed to get hold and of course open a small plastic bottle of concentrated blue. Thankfully he had the sense not to eat it — or he did eat it, and it didn’t bother him. But he is white, so he turned blue, as did large amounts of my small sitting room — which is cream and pale green — a scheme chosen BD… Before Dogs!!
Since Albi also discovered how to get into the cupboard that the frig sits in, and find all the sachets of cat food stored in the lower compartment there is the child gate to be locked leading from sitting room into kitchen. One of my cats Gizmo also has to be considered, he too likes to get on the table, and then knock things off it; these are things that Albi and Big Busta will inevitably try to eat.. pencils rubbers, tubes of paint etc. So, all this has to be tidied away, and of course the laptop closed. Once Gizi almost succeeded in sending an email to several people!! And quite a few times he has managed to freeze or lose my cursor for me. In desperation, I sometimes just throw a table cloth over the whole thing.
So 9 o’clock Thursday morning normally sees me rushing out the door to meet Clelia for out Tai Chi lesson. Last week we had already decided to do today’s class out of doors, always the favoured option when possible, and of course this would have easily facilitated the 2m distance rule. Events though, overtook us. Since our teacher lives in a different commune to us, albeit only 10 mins in the car up the road, she cannot come to us and we cannot go to her. Lesson cancelled.
Quite honestly, I only do these lessons with an eye to my future health, and although I enjoy them once I am there, and have made some good Italian friends through them, I never really want to go, and am always ecstatic when a lesson is cancelled. Our yoga lesson Saturday last week, which is actually only just downstairs in my rental apartment, was cancelled too, as several of our group had only recently flown in from somewhere else, so it was decided that discretion was the better course.
Belly dancing, which only happens twice a month on a Monday afternoon, had not occurred that week, and now of course that too will not take place, as our teacher is from Perugia. Luckily, we have a video of the two dances we are trying to learn, so that is something I can practise at home. I always tell my group, who are all aware that I have had eleven knee operations, that I have only 2 problems: one, I cannot for the life of me remember the choreography; and two, even when I do I cannot make my legs cooperate as quickly as necessary!!! Plus, in the early days about ten years ago, a distinct lack of Italian, often caused great hilarity, especially to me.
Am I the oldest belly dancer in the world? I doubt it, and it is a great way to keep fit.In Tai Chi after about 6 months I finally decided to enquire why I was holding a small boat- ‘barchetta’ as I heard it- between my hands… the logic of this was escaping me; it turned out that it was actually a bachetta — a twig or stick!!
Friday 12th — March Day 3…. the first few days in isolation!
Just realised that as I write this that we regard Friday 13th as unlucky, maybe the Italians don’t, I must find out. It always amuses me that when I want to say touch wood here, I have to say touch metal. Another phrase which is completely beyond my understanding is that when you wish someone luck you say, ‘in bocca lupo’ which means in the mouth of the wolf; the correct response to this is ‘crepi’. It never occurred to me before that I haven’t the faintest idea what this means.. so, I have looked it up.. the translation? ‘Crepi’ Helpful!! On looking further, I see the verb crepare means to burst or peg out or crack… and in fact crepi il lupo means to ‘crack the wolf’.. so there, now we know!! Another phrase which, since I live in a permanent disorganised muddle, has been frequently quoted is, ‘la casa nasconde, ma non ruba mai’. I think I wrote that correctly. It is said when something goes missing… it means the house may hide, but it never steals.
We have a wonderful newsletter here, mainly for local expats, but I also know several Italians who read it. Once a month I write a short piece on the kennels for it. Today I got carried away and wrote an article about how I plan to spend my time in lockdown… so for what it’s worth, here it is…
‘I believe the Queen mother used to say that if you are bored then you are boring. I am frequently bored in queues and waiting rooms, but never at hom So, I plan to……
- Do a massive tidy up… all those piles of papers and particularly my kitchen table.
2. Use stuff in the pantry… a great opportunity to find out what is there, organise it, and check expiry dates.
3. Cook one or two of all those recipes I have collected. Healthy muesli etc… I am not a keen cook, and my kitchen is the size of a not very large wardrobe, but this is the moment…
4. DIY beauty things… face mask… pedicure etc I have a whole collection of essential oils, aloe vera etc, so I must use them, and then perhaps I will come out of isolation looking young and lovely… yeah right!!
5. Since everyone is on wifi, and thus streaming tv in the evenings is becoming tricky, I shall watch all those DVDs I have never got around to.
6. Organise all my painting stuff… I am painting a lot, but need to organise articles, inspirations, painting materials etc… and finish all those paintings I have started and never finished.
7. Organise, tidy and backup my computer… long since overdue.
8. Email/WhatsApp/phone all those friends and family I keep meaning to…
9. Work in the garden now that its warmer out there and plant some seeds.
10. When its sunny, lie in my little greenhouse conservatory, read all those books, listen to all those brilliant radio 4 programmes online, and cogitate on all those tricky questions on the Today programme’s Puzzle for the Day… https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/category/drama https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2zkR29sf14mNZsdBP7B6Pds/puzzle-for-today
I don’t suppose I will get around to a lot of this stuff, but I certainly won’t be bored. Yesterday I cleaned out all those mucky bits of the dishwasher, round the hinges and seals, by hand!! YUK!!’
