Cunning plans, car acquisition plans and new cameras…

Buonasera!!!

Well Dear Readers, I’m so sorry for the long disappearance! I hope you’ve all been well during my absence 🙂

I’ve been in the UK so there hasn’t been much to update on from an Italian perspective. It’s been lovely catching up with family and friends although as ever, I don’t feel like I’ve done an effective job of that. However, I’m looking forward to heading back to hopefully sunnier climes! Out of the couple of months I’ve been back, it’s been sunny for about 6 hours 😉

Here are some photo’s from the UK taken on the rare occasions there was not torrential rain. I’ve bought a new camera (I LOVE my new camera!) so I’ve been attempting to go a bit more arty. If anyone has any constructive criticism on the photos please do leave a comment – I’m still learning!

Frensham Lake

The beautiful Corfe Castle

Brighton Pier. Italians looking at this may be shocked by the complete lack of back-to-back sun loungers!

This seagull and myself became good friends.

This is The Crescent in Bath. Those clouds are much more representative of England’s Summer this year.

I stayed in Wales a couple of times. They’ve got some spectacular beaches and this is one of them.

Wales again, where the famous poet Dylan Thomas liked to hang out.

And this was from a walk in Wales.

I’m back to Italy tomorrow and I’ve been making plans for the rest of the year! Here they are…

Car renting and buying

I need to buy a new car! I drove back to the UK in the Nanmobile (can you guess who I bought the car from?) in July for its annual MOT (car check up) . It’s a costly business having an English car in Italy mainly because of the need to do this and all the costs associated with the trip back. The alternative is to register the Nanmobile in Italy but looking at people’s experiences online of registering an English car in Italy it seems to be so traumatic and costly that it’s not worth it. So, I’m going to try and buy an Italian car.  To buy an Italian car, I need to be a resident in Italy. I now have a beautiful Identity Card to demonstrate my residency so this should be ok. What I’m unclear of is whether I need my Driving License to show the same address. In Italy, the police stop people regularly to have a look at their paperwork to see that it all matches up. There doesn’t seem to be any neat solution for someone that wants to maintain their “home” in both countries. So that will be interesting. I’ve emailed the car people in Italy to ask them if they can help but of course, nobody has replied!

Meanwhile I’m going to hire a car for a week or two. My first experience of driving a left-hand drive car in years will be at 9am, following a night of little or no sleep, on my own and for an hour and a half. I can hardly wait! 🙂

Finish the book

I wrote a book last year but it needs editing still. I did get a good way through whilst I was back in the UK but still have a long way to go so hoping to get the next stage of editing done in the next month or two. This is priority numero uno.

Become a successful artist!

I’ve always been quite creative but I never get particularly good at anything. A jack of all trades, master of none! It’s said you need to put in 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. So that said, I like to think it’s not because I lack talent, but because I don’t put the concerted effort in (how annoying it would be to find out after all that time it’s the talent component I miss, not the time!!!!). As such, I’ve decided to make priority numero due (English people, you need to pronounce that “do-ay” otherwise it sounds odd) to pull out the stops and get good at painting. To that end, I’m keen to sign up to an art course in the main town nearby, Macerata. However, the enrollment form confuses me and I can’t seem to get to the bottom of when it starts and what I need to do. I’ll go on a concerted mission on my first day or two back in Italy to get to the bottom of that!  Please send me course enrollment vibes (and car buying vibes come to that).

My plan is to do something akin to the wonderful Edward B Gordon. Everyday he paints a beautiful picture and posts it on his blog and everyday he seems to sell them.

I’m also going to try and get a bit more into the photography thing, but that’s priority numero tre!

Right, I think that’s it for now. Sorry it’s been short and sweet. With any luck next time I’ll be back to posting pics of Italy and telling you how frustrating buying a car is 😉

Buonasera a tutti,

xxx