It has been one of those days. I awoke early here at Bellaugello Gay Guest House, flung on a pair of shorts and made a cup of tea and went outside and had the breakfast table laid before 7am. It was well past dawn, but still a crispness in the air, a loud clamour of the dawn chorus otherwise tranquillity.
Stephen left today. He had been here a month and was a keen helper and fun to have around. It was his first experience in such an environment and he did in a weak moment admit to sometimes being a little sad when guests departed at the end of their stays – funny I thought it was only me that felt like that. He is studying economics at University and off on an exchange to Canada to meet who knows whom… but he would also make a great hotelier. In the past month we have met many interesting people from many countries and served and enjoyed several dinners together as can be seen in an earlier post.
His train left from Perugia Ponte San Giovanni at 14.00. It is a 45 minute drive to the station and just an hour before we were planning to leave I received a phone call I had to get to Gubbio (the opposite direction) to sign a document, and it had to be done now! So a rush to Gubbio and then to PSG. We got there with minutes to spare and with ticket bought and convalidated headed for the platform. The train was in and after big hugs Stephen went across to the other platform. I didn’t see him board the train and evenually as the train was pulling out went across the rails myself. It was like a scene from the film “Brief Encounter” the train pulling out and a guy with luggage standing at the far end of the platform. Aparently the doors did not work and he could not board the train – and the guard did not help – or maybe did not speak Swedish.
Luckily there was a train soon after and I have just received a message to say he is safely on the plane bound for Stockholm.
I returned home to Bellaugello Gay B&B and decided on an hour of relax near the pool. Fortunately for me there were others by the pool and we struck up conversation. Usually when I go to lie by the pool and catch a few rays and perfect that all over tan, I do not settle and instead think of all the jobs that I should be doing, and go off and do them, but this afternoon was different. The conversation light and easy and I was soon in full relax mode and let the jobs pass me by.
Tomorrow will be a different day!