Bingo!

The day before yesterday, a local friend of ours invited us to the yearly Sologno bingo night. Sologno being the village, or better the metropole, where Danilo and his clan are in charge and where Christine and I stayed during our first months in Italy. Every Italian town worthy of this name has a so-called "pro loco", a committee which organises just about every social get together. Such as this bingo night. The Sologno pro loco people think, let's just say, a bit high of themselves because they're such good friends or even family with the Apenninian mob boss. But Christine thought it would be fun to go there nonetheless; even if it's just to participate in the Italian social life and to be together with our many friends over here, who were also going to the event. I, on the other hand, was quite reluctant to go because I've never been good at social venues and certainly now I wouldn't be able to cope very well. It's all become a bit too much for me and the thought of all these many people cramped together in a reasonably small hall frightened me a lot. So I asked Christine if she wouldn't mind going there by herself. Of course I didn't want to force her to stay at home with me. She's a very sociable lady and I realise that she needs to get out from time to time. It's something that I wouldn't want to take away from her because having to live together with an autistic man must already be more than demanding enough.

- "Bring back the big prize!", I told her, just before she went.

- "You can rest assured of that", she replied with a big smile.

And off she went, into the lion's den.

A couple of hours later she returned home with an even bigger smile. I immediately sussed that she hadn't just been enjoying the evening out. Oh no! There was this twinkling sparkle in her eyes that told me that she hadn't come home empty-handed. Suddenly, she brought her right hand from behind her back and showed me this...

Can you actually believe that she had won one of the main prizes??? :-D The leading ladies of the pro loco apparently went green of frustration and jealousy! It can't be... Not that bloody Christine again!!! Hehehe... Can you also believe that Christine used to be a keen and, dare I say, very good tennis player when she was younger? Perhaps it's a hint that she should take it up again? ;-)

Once more this confirms that fortune has finally taken a turn for the better. Christine holds the strong belief that her late grandfather is watching over us closely. And who am I to disagree? After all the pain we've been through, the sun is finally shining. Today it actually shone so warmly through the veil of high clouds and Christine and I really enjoyed an afternoon walk... our first walk through our new home in 2011.

A very happy New Year to all of you!!!