A Rosie Life In Italy 2: What Have We Done? by Rosie Meleady

Author:Rosie Meleady [Meleady, Rosie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Envy Publishing
Published: 2021-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

21

Four Persimmons: €2.99

I've come to the conclusion that if you name your son Mario in Italy, you are sealing his destiny to be a plumber. We've met four plumbers in the last two months and three of them have been called Mario.

When we met to sign the final contract with Danny Boy's company, he wanted to wait until the roof was finished before his crew started.

"How does the lack of a roof stop you doing the prep and running the cables and piping for the ground and first floor?" I ask.

"We like to come in, get the job done in two or three weeks and be out again."

"This job will need more of a commitment, nearly lifelong commitment I would say. We want the first two floors finished by 30th of October."

"The first two floors, not the ground floor?" he asked in Italian, which I understood without using my translation app.

"I mean the ground floor and the first floor. Not the top floor. I mean the second floor. If you can start immediately, you've got the job." I needed my app for this.

We chose well. I signed the contract on a Friday, and there were six guys working in the house on Monday.

Danny Boy is the manager of the business. He's young and looks like he constantly has a migraine or is hungover. Mario, the chief plumber assigned, is great, so I call him Super Mario. He has about 100 words of English and I still have only about 300 words in Italian, so my new project manager, Google Translate, comes in handy. However, looking back on the texts sent between us on the first day, the possessive tense tends to come in at the wrong time.

Just as I thought life was going to get easier now that the builders, plumbers and electricians were on site, Super Mario sends me an urgent text. My trusty project manager app is on hand to translate:

Super Mario: "I need to meet with the geometra asap, otherwise we can't continue."

Me: "What is the problem?"

Super Mario: "It is a serious problem with the drainage of the sewerage. There is no pit. You only have an old, small hole."

I try not to take offence.

Me: "I think you are looking at my old hole, which is no longer in use? I think it was there before they connected the house to the public system. The house is on the public sewerage (black water) system. They reassured me this several times when I was buying the house."

Super Mario: "Are you sure?"

Me: "Well, that is what I was told. I'm quite sure my old hole is no longer in use."

Super Mario: "Tomorrow we meet at 8.30am with the geometra, as we cannot continue without knowing if your old hole in the rear is still being used."

Again, I try not to be offended.

At 8.30am I arrive. There are four guys standing around, staring into the old hole in the back garden. I have only met Danny Boy, and I don't know which one is Mario.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.