Lost a week, wrote an email, the ebooks sale started

Buondì.

The P.S. to last week’s article mentioned that the Spring Sale at our ebooks store was coming up, on March 25th…

Well, I don’t know what was happening with my head that day, but I’d somehow managed to lose a week of my life – the Spring Sale at our ebooks store was actually scheduled to begin yesterday, March 18th.

Naturally, when I noticed the screw up with my diary – Thursday, it would have been – I realised just how much I still had to do between then and yesterday.

Masses and masses of things, in fact, and only Thursday afternoon, Friday, and Monday to do them. Panic!

In normal times, I would have caught up with work at the weekend. Isn’t that what weekends are for? Admittedly not in Italy (read on…)

But these aren’t normal times as, for the past eighteen months or so, we’ve been caring for a lost cub.

Anyone who’s ever brought home a tiny puppy only to find that within a year it’s grown into an energetic, forty-pound mastiff will know that weekends mean endless walks in the park: throwing sticks, chasing ducks, and chatting to other pet people.

At weekends, unfortunately, work is out. As am I, come rain or shine!

And talking of rain, that very same day (last Thursday) there was a ‘red’ weather warning, that’s to say ANOTHER red weather warning.

It was only a few months back that Bologna, where we live, suffered floods and general chaos, therefore the ‘sindaco’ acted rapidly and ordered that ‘all schools of every grade and level’ be closed the following day as a precaution, along with ‘public parks and gardens’, sports facilities, and so on.

Bet he doesn’t have kids…

The ‘divieto’ didn’t apply to our Italian language school, which doesn’t count as a ‘school’, and is, in any case, on the first floor of a historic building bang in the center of town.

We would be open as normal, Stefi would be at reception welcoming students and smiling at people, and I, supposedly, would be home with the computer on my lap, frantically working on the imminent ebooks sale.

E poi, a message from Bug’s petting zoo!

If we were able to make arrangements, take a day off work for example, then ideally they would prefer not to open on Friday, as a precaution in case of rain-induced chaos, like the schools.

We have to work, I replied. We’ll bring Bug as normal. Do your jobs.

The phone rang and we were told, in no uncertain terms, that the petting zoo would be closed on Friday, end of.

Bug would have to remain at home with me and my laptop.

Italians say ‘punto e basta’ (period/full stop and enough) in these situations, though they actually didn’t, just kept repeating that it had been decided – passive voice – that there would be no petting zoo on Friday.

Così. I lost my temper, shouted at the signora on the phone, and when she wouldn’t budge, sat down in a fury to write an email to her boss.

The subject line (‘oggetto’ in italiano) was:

Protesto la decisione di chiudere domani

I began with ‘Gentili colleghi’, explained in seven shortish paragraphs why I was hopping mad, finished with ‘Cordialmente, e con scuse per mio pessimo italiano’, and pressed send.

The next day was Friday.

Bug and I walked Stefi to the bus stop. It had rained heavily overnight, and was still raining a little, though not so much that we risked getting seriously wet.

At twenty-past eight a.m. we waved goodbye to the bus and walked to the bridge to look at the river, which was high but not flooding.

Then we walked some more.

The park was closed, so we walked as slowly as possible around the local supermarket, instead.

Having bought supplies for ‘merenda’, Bug ate and drank as we sat and watched buses come and go in the rain. The end of the line is near our home. Bug likes buses. There’s also a railroad station nearby, but I save that for real emergencies.

After ‘merenda’ we walked some more, in seach of ‘escavatori’, which are currently Bug’s favourite things, even more than trucks, which he loves to bark at.

Bologna is building two tram lines right now, one of which will run down our street, so there was plenty of look at. But, probably because of the rain, the ‘escavatori’ were switched off, no one was working.

So we roamed around in the drizzle some more, until late morning, then went home to watch TV.

Stefi arrived for a late lunch (the Italian language school closes early on Fridays), and finally I was able to at least catch up on a few emails, none of which were a reply to my protest missive of the previous evening.

There was no chaos, no flooding, and by Friday afternoon the sun had come out.

The rest of the day, and the whole weekend, was mostly spent splashing in large puddles (every large puddle) then scrubbing off the resulting streaks mud and clay, which even got up Bug’s nose and into his mouth. He was a sight.

Monday the petting zoo was open again, having no further excuse not to do the work they were getting paid for but had off-loaded onto me, so I dropped Bug off and returned home to start on the mountain of tasks that I’d expected to do on Friday.

Around lunchtime Monday there was a ping from my inbox. Finally, a reply from the boss of the petting zoo, signed in the name of all the staff, Bug’s weekday carers.

Sorry for the inconvenience but… for the good of the animals… and the staff (especially the ones with children who couldn’t go to school)… and yes, in fact, it didn’t actually rain much… but we’re sure it was the right decision…

Etcetera, etcetera. The email was longer than mine and didn’t really address the points I’d made, clearly and concisely though I do say so myself.

But the interesting thing, to me at least, was just how BADLY it was written!

The author – a professional person of about my age, and a middle-manager to boot – had not troubled to use paragraphs at all, nor even line breaks. Her email came across as just a lump of words, confused at certain points, repetitive in others. I wasn’t impressed.

Nor was I pleased with the fact that I’d protested on Thursday evening, in the hope of doings something to prevent Friday’s imminent closure, yet not had a reply until Monday lunchtime.

Way to go, ragazzi, hope you enjoyed your three days off.

Anyway, the ebook store’s sale did start on time in the end, though I had to cancel lots of stuff I’d intended to do beforehand.

You’ll find details below. There’s loads of good stuff for people learning Italian, with free samples for everything. You really should take a look!

Or, if you don’t have cash to splash (that word again…) on your language-learning, just use the free stuff on the club website and read/listen to EasyItalianNews.com, which is also free.

Neither closes when the weather is bad.

Alla prossima settimana.

2025 Spring Sale! Save 25% on Ebooks for Language Learners!

(Copied/pasted from our ebooks store website)

The EasyReaders.org 2025 Spring Sale has begun!

Which means that students of Italian, Spanish, French, and German can save 25% on ebooks to supplement or guide their language learning.

Everything in our ebooks store, EasyReaders.org, is a quarter cheaper if you remember to use coupon code: 2025-Spring-Sale-25%-Off

Ebooks for students of Italian, Spanish, French, and German can be found on our Catalog page, where everything is organised by language, type, and level.

Or follow these links:

Italian | Spanish | French | German

Use the following coupon code to save 25% on your orders, for as long as the promotion lasts, with no minimum or maximum spend:

2025-Spring-Sale-25%-Off

First make your selection from our range of ebooks, which have been especially written to keep you interested and so making progress.

Then go to your shopping cart and apply coupon code 2025-Spring-Sale-25%-Off to reduce the cart total by 25%.

Scroll down to verify that the cart total has been reduced by 25% BEFORE proceeding with your payment…

Coupon code 2025-Spring-Sale-25%-Off is good until midnight on Sunday 30th March 2025.

You can use it as often as you wish until then, with no minimum or maximum spend.

Do find some time to stock up on the easy readers, parallel texts and grammar workbooks you’ll need to improve the language you’re learning in 2025 –  at an unbeatable price – as the next sale won’t be until the end of June, so a long way off!

Browse our Catalog now: Italian | Spanish | French | German

And don’t forget to apply Coupon code 2025-Spring-Sale-25%-Off in your shopping cart, to reduce the total price by 25%.

P.S.

Did you read/listen to yesterday’s FREE bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news?

If not, take a look at their website and get started on improving your Italian immediately!

Better, why not get all three text + audio bulletins of ‘easy’ news emailed to you each week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays?

To subscribe (for FREE) simply enter your email address on this page and click the confirmation link that will be sent to you.

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