Tuesday

on tractor with hot water bottles

Wife goes to work. As she doesn’t have snow shoes, she has to hike it foot in the dark through lovely deep snow and down to  4x4 (now 2x4) in village which she takes to station. For me load kids on tractor for shuttle to car then car to school. Then I took ex-4x4 to garage to add some antifreeze. As the pump attendant was pouring in 10 euros of green liquid, 10 euros of green liquid was spilling out onto the forecourt. Back to mechanic to receive grim news that we’ll have to leave it with him for several days as the radiator is leaking somewhere. Excellent.

However, we can get up to the tractor with the 2WD. Yippee!

After school wife should be back at 18.10 so took kids to bar for a snack. Robin scatters dozens of ice-cream cups on floor so not sure of future welcome in the bar. Chivvy kids out of bar and into car to go meet their mother. Wife rings to say she will be late as there is no connecting bus, may lifelong squits strike the managers of the railway company for their incompetence. So meantime it’s snowing too much to bother to take chains off but not enough to keep them on. I keep them on anyway and gleefully annoy  dozens of arrogant jeep drivers anxious to overtake and we drive in stages three villages down to get wife. Wife eventually arrives and hour and a half later to a car full of crying kids, one with headache the other wanting milk, chocolate, bear and anything else he could think of that was not in the car. Horrible drive up to tractor at 20.30, load kids on and eventually get home at about 2100. Thank you ferrovia dello stato. Bastards.

 Eventually had to replace the radiator for 280 euros. Then a windscreen wiper broke.