It’s just NOT normal!

Scrambled eggs with Parmesan cheese

For the life of me I`m really pushed at the moment to understand why people say:“go and live in the countryside and live and enjoy a really peaceful, calm lifestyle”
What Crap!
For example lets start with last Thursday, while enjoying a quiet afternoon in Orvieto where I had an appointment, I suddenly got a panic phone call from Nick to tell me that one of the Belgian owners of the Villa a few hills away from us,  was at the front door, desperately wondering  where the hell I was. Long story short, I had confused the dates and a  Belgian TV crew had been waiting  for an hour to film me while I  cooked  some finger food for the owner’s  aperitivo!!  O MY GOD …. …after apologizing profusely over the phone to the poor Casale Colline Dolci owners , I ran home collected all my food and equipment and eventually arrived at the beautiful Villa ready to cook and be filmed ( of course I was not looking my best being  devoid of any makeup, messy hair and a mad mortified expression on my  face !!!).  This filming was for a a very popular program in Belgium called “Met vier in bad” and is about a competition between the best B & B and Villas in both Belgium and abroad . So although I was not the star of the show,  hell at least I could have looked a little bit better!!! However, the appetizer I made for the owners was filmed and the TV crew were over the moon with the quality of the food. So, my tardiness and lateness were both forgiven and forgotten. THANK GOODNESS.
But of course back at the ranch, a certain somebody did not have the same feelings about it all. When I arrived home later an agitated  Nick was waiting for me,” how could you make such a mistake ?? I can only think the dosage of your thyroid tablets must definitely be wrong and is making you do odd things because it`s just NOT ‘NORMAL  to forget a thing like that! I think you need to have  some blood tests or something , ITS JUST NOT NORMAL,” he said again! So after listening to a deep and meaningful theory from him about my strange behavior,I allowed my sweet private Doctor to finally  arrive at his  own conclusions and peace was again restored in the Cornish  household .

So the next day on Friday, we were really ready to enjoy the coming weekend.  At aperitif time, considering  the cool temperature in and out of  the house, we decided to light the fire( the weather here in Umbria is really terrible lately) and yes, we would create a really nice , romantic atmosphere . While tasting our glasses of wine and feeling very happy with ourselves we suddenly noticed from the kitchen window strange black burnt bits flying around outside. We rushed  straight out to find the chimney of the fireplace  TOTALLY on fire, it was like a living hell. I`ve never known such fear and panic.

PANIC!

Fortunately Nick  immediately had the idea of climbing on the roof and spraying  the fire extinguisher down the chimney. At last the flames finally started to disappear and we had the situation under control. So proud and happy we returned to the kitchen only to find that ALL the white foamy stuff from the fire extinguisher had oozed out of the the hood over the fire place and had spread all over the kitchen like a monster in a scene from a outer space film .Not only that ,but on the kitchen work top I had left two beautiful fresh fish ready to be prepared for our evening meal and my Thai spring rolls ready to be eaten. ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING EVERYTHING was covered in white!

DEPRESSION!

Slowly slowly we began to put everything under the outside porch and tried to give a general clean up  in the house ….. we finished at 11.30 in the evening. On Saturday morning with the bright light we noticed that the white coating ,sticky stuff was still EVERYWHERE: marble tops, walls, stone.. MAMMA MIAAAAA.

From there, we had just one solution, Nick decided to dig out the steam cleaner and degrease the marble island and the stone walls. By 1`o`clock  we started to repaint ALL the kitchen  ………….. by the end of the day the job was done and we were totally physically and mentally destroyed   !
Ok at this point I suggest to you to put the kettle on, because the drama  goes on…..

Yes you`ve guessed right , work was not yet finished because the bastardo white stuff that came out of  the fire extinguisher had also got on the glasses , dishes, pots and pans and even on my grandmothers old and beautiful  chandelier … so we had to start again and  clean  everything in sight.

At last by 3 pm Sunday afternoon the kitchen was restored neat and shinning to our liking.

At 3.30pm I was ready to use the kitchen, bake the cakes and also begin my egg searching around the neighbors farms  to find 20 fresh eggs  to serve for the booked breakfast the next day. Scrambled

eggs with an Italian twist adding Parmesan cheese was on the morning menu, because the filming by the Belgian crew had not yet finished! So Monday morning, after Nick kindly offered to go and pick up some freshly  made bread from the local bakery at  6am, I was already in the kitchen cutting  a nice fruit salad for 13 people  . At 7am I was at the Villa ,ready to be filmed again cooking the continental breakfast, and for some reason still NOT managing to look as FRESH AS A DAISY even this time round !! .

Sometimes you wonder if things will ever go as they should again

However, to make an optimistic  summary of the past week end :  we still have a roof over our heads, the newly whitewashed kitchen is beautiful, the food that I cooked during the TV program was a great success and it was great fun to be involved .
A very happy weekend to all of you .Nick and I  we are planning to have a quiet evening enjoying  a delicious Lapone Pinot Grigio , but this time Nick said I`II have to put socks on if I`m cold because there`s no way he will be lighting a fire !!!!!!