Happy again.

And so I am, very happy and making the effort to record these last three days.
The 20th was Alessandro's 7th birthday. He had the usual party in a circus tent full of inflatable climbing gear, noisy kids, party food and balloons. Eyeore and Winnie the pooh would have loved it.

We didn't have time to buy  a present because we'd been busy  visiting a dear friend, E, in hospital. He is doing well.

Alessandro received  so many toys that I was glad of the opportunity to consider buying something totally different. I thought our non present would go unnoticed, but it didn't.

Saturday was spent pruning a gigantic olive tree. I really enjoyed that. It cleared my head.

This morning we decided to buy Alessandro a chess set. After looking a many a plastic ones, we chose a beautiful , folding wooden set with magnetic pieces which would have been admired by many an adult and was quite expensive too but Alessandro  is a tidy child endowed with such great patience that we thought he would probably look after it.

So, we arrived at my son's house. Riccardo, who will be 3 in June, said "Nonna " which means granny in Italian and would not normally be a big deal for a child of his age, but for Ricky and for me, it is a big deal.

We gave Alessandro his present who  went straight into his room with Lorenzo, 10.

After a natter with my son, we joined the boys to say our goodbyes and, (here comes the good bit) there they were, two little boys,  sitting on a sofa, engrossed in a game of chess. 

That was such a lovely and satisfying sight, all the more so when his parents were so surprised as they didn't even know that that could play. 
Imagine how smug I'm feeling since I had taught them on the sneak.
ha ha.