It's all Go...
21st May... Sylvanna came over to help us settle in and to take care of a few of the tricker tasks beyond my rudimentary language skills like: have a telephone installed, internet, waste bins from the local town hall or Commune. All sorts of little things that are a big deal at the time - once the phone was installed I did take a call from Sky and arranged to have satellite TV installed now at least we can finally put and end to watching the same old DVDs over and over again!
All this however cannot over come the underlying worry that my house sale has still not completed, that all my worldly goods are still in a warehouse
back in the UK somewhere and that I only have a few thousand Euros to my name because the banks have messed up. No matter how much you plan and prepare "things" invariably go wrong.


Still can't help but stop and take in all the views of this pretty little village, we are slowly exploring more of the back streets although I must admit it is a bit of a maze with some roads coming to an abrupt stop. The locals have taken to stare at us on our walks with the dogs. I know we are a point of curiosity but this "rubber necking" will cause an accident before too long

We even take the local Pullman to Sassari to buy a few things that you can not get in the village. Sassari is another world to Chiaramonti; busy and chaotic. Our first trip did not go too well though as the bus broke down in Ploaghe( the next town along) in 40 degree heat thankfully another came along in a hour.
I suppose this is all part and parcel to living in a rural little village.

Santa Giusta....
Our first festival in Sardinia and what a lovley introduction into village life!. We were picked up by Sylvana and her sister Isabella and driven to this remote church in the country side, there over 300 villagers where sitting around long tables under the canopy of trees.

There we where presented with an array of local specialties: dried sausages, percorino cheese, Sardinian pasta and roast lamb. So much food I was fit to bust! The atmosphere was so friendly I really felt welcomed. One small note I did try to speak in Italian but my confidence was knocked back when I managed to inadvertently swear in front of a group of old ladies.

Everywhere I looked there where faces with so much character, it was a portrait photographers dream. The guy on the left was so intense - he also reminded me of the incredible Hulk!

This guy epitomized everything the "Festa" was all about- a good time. We referred to him as the "Smiley Man" We where to find out later that he runs a bar in the village and makes incredibly good wine!

Welcome to Chiaramonti....

The date is May 14th and we are now officially relocated to our new home and what a difference it is from the old life we left behind in grey old London;goodbye commuting, goodbye corporate lifestyle, goodbye ripoff Britain !"F@*k them all!"(that was Mick's contribution to this blog).
I do not think I will ever get bored of looking at the clear Azure blue skies that dominate the views.
We arrive with very little, just the animals and a few meager possessions. I hope the delivery van with all our furniture and goods arrive soon ( how wrong I am...we have to wait another 6 weeks for that. Still it gives me time to explore the village and surrounding countryside )
At first I venture cautiously into the village - to the small but impressively stocked mini market around the corner and the wonderful organic fruit and veg shop with wonky cucumbers and mutant large red pepper that you would have to pay a small fortune for back in the UK. I have to point at things as my dictionary is with all our worldly possessions winging its way slowly to Sardinia.

I can tell that we are the focus of curiosity in the village but my Italian is zero right now and communication is rudimentary, positively Neanderthalic just pointing and grunting at this stage.



The new house is wonderful! a far cry from the big old Victorian town house I left back in London; this place is simple and very charming with all its quirky features and 1 meter thick walls.It was our estate agents - Sylvana's mothers old property in the original medieval part of the village and it is full of possibilities.


The Kitchen is the main feature to this house with an original fireplace and pizza oven - which we have to block up for now as the cats keep disappearing up it and coming back down a different colour. Still I can see beyond the horrid brown kitchen units and see a very modern style kitchen design emerging





The Bedrooms are light and spacious I have managed to talk/convince/manipulate Mick into taking the bedroom at the back of the house not that the views are any different, just that mine is bigger!As you can see the beds where very basic, Mick managed to collapse his on the first night and ended up take the spare from my room.


I can see in spite of our meager existence for now that we will be very happy here. The house has a very warm feel to it - and that's not just because its May in Sardinia!




We even have a small sitting area upstairs which will become our TV room - when it gets here! still I have the laptop with me(no internet connection yet!) and a half dozen DVD to keep us amused - 6 weeks is a long time to keep watching the same films! Have to be careful that I don't catch cabin fever and end up "doing a Jack Nicholas" with the axe that I brought.....Note I have an axe but no dictionary! where were my priorities when it came to packing?

OK so where do we begin....

2007 was the year everything changed. It was back in January that a random "Google" search whilst at work at Nomura ( where I spend 80% of my time on the internet!), brought to my attention a website that was advertising houses for sale in "the picturesque village of Chiaramonti". So I sent off an email to them requesting information and in March flew out to view a property, by April we bought it and by May 12th we had sold the London house; packed all our belongings; put Mick,9 cats , 2 dogs and a driver(Mark) into a large white van and we all drove across Europe to our new home in Chiaramonti.



Euro Road Trip...

The journey down to Sarinia was very easy , made all the more so thanks to the fantastic service from Mark Jones and his pet relocation company www.petmove.co.uk ; who put the needs of the animals as his priority. Which was a great comfort to me.As testimony to this all the animals settled into there new home in a record breaking 24 hours!.


The only 2 hitches where at Mont Blanc - where the border control officer couldn't get there heads around the idea that all 11 animals where our pets. I don't think they had ever seen so many pet passports!and secondly at the ferry over where we had to house Gerry in a crate barely big enough to accommodate him, but we snuck him into our cabin after dark and back into the crate just before we moored at Olbia.Then all we had to do was drive the last 100km to Chiaramonti where the adventure could really begin.

I suppose I really have Franco a native Sardinian to thank for my love of the island. A chance holiday to Sardinia back in 2004 opened up a new world to me. The Island offered everything I wanted in a home, countryside, farmland, mountains, beautiful beaches with clear azure blue seas and a chance to start a new and better life.

So the plan is to sell up in London and to move over there in the near future.I want a farm to grow a large kitchen garden and keep chickens( and maybe a goat called Harriet). I also want a place by the sea to visit on the rare day off from farming ; this could also be rented out as a holiday home during the summer months for a little extra cash.