Sir There's A Waiter In My Wine ( Part Two )

Mia sat cross-legged on the sand facing her gran and played with her bracelets rolling them around her wrist eager to hear Ellie's story. “Come on then gran, I'm listening.” The wall kept any direct sun off them giving a perfect place to spend the afternoon, so Ellie began.

 

It was an Indian Summer back in 1974, a day very much like today, except there was no sea breezes to keep us cool. Having been hunkered down all day under a late September Italian sun, I was under no illusion that harvesting grapes would be hard work, in fact I'd more describe it as back breaking even for an eighteen year old like myself who I must say was pretty fit back then, but for a girl who dreamed of one day owning her own vineyard, I was under no illusions. Me and my best friend Anna had never had so much fun and the Italian guys were bellissimo, I would throw a kiss into thin air whenever talking of them with Anna.

 

Every now and again I'd put down my cutters, remove my gloves and look up shading my eyes and browse the wonderful scenery of mountains that surrounded the valley of vines, smiling when I thought of the previous evenings sitting on the terrace sipping glasses of sparkling champagne and feeling in high spirits as the bubbly flowed freely, yes! It was all free served by the family at no extra cost, but that we worked hard that summer.

 

Although the sun was going down that late afternoon, I remember the air left a contented drowsy feeling of tiredness, as I heard the Chateau trucks coming along the dirt track to pick up the grape harvesters and their bounty. This was my favorite time of day as we looked forward to the evening's festivities, especially as it was our last day.

 

My olive skin had turned a gorgeous bronze color after mum had advised plastering my arms, legs and face in suntan lotion, though it did leave me feeling extremely greasy at the start of day, but there was no doubt mum was right. Rebellious as I was in some respects, when it came to my looks I listened to her, remembering seeing my older brother suffering with a red blistered back, in the end the greasy feeling was nothing a good dip in the bath wouldn't sort out at the end of the day.

 

My friend Anna was now waving frantically and mopping her brow, poor girl had turned a lobster red and very sore during our time there, but had refused to cream up not liking the feeling of looking like she'd just jumped out of a bottle of oil. She'd felt her face was red enough as it was, so made sure to cover up with a long sleeved blouse and sunhat and was glad to be going back to the Chateau.

 

Although fair skinned and now burning, Anna with her blonde hair still had those killer looks and personality to go with her huge blue eyes that would light up any room. Her figure said it all and she was lucky enough to be able to eat whatever she wanted and never put on weight. “I burn a lot of calories with all the physical activity I take part in,” she would declare, much to my annoyance. I on the other hand did the same amount of activity but still had to watch my weight, but it was all about swings and roundabouts back then, we both had our own positive points with enough zest and energy for life.

 

The heat of the day had left me melting beneath my yellow straw hat which I removed, waving back to Anna. Blowing out air I wiped my forehead with a red spotted hankie from my shorts pocket, I was proud of my long slim legs that seemed to go on forever. My hair was jet black back then and I would plait it each morning before starting work. We both felt whether in shorts or a pretty floral dress we had the formula to drive the male population crazy and how we did.

 

We had taken a year off deciding to go backpacking around Italy, my most favorite place in all the world. I had aspirations fantasizing about owning my own vineyard in this beautiful romantic country, but knew not having any money would put a spanner in the works of my ambitions, the only way forward was to be hands on and serious about learning the trade exploring every avenue.

 

Anna on the other hand was interested in business studies, where as I was more into the wine making and had become quite the connoisseur. Having parents who owned a hotel back in England I'd become quite the dab hand at learning the trade, even Anna was impressed at just how much I knew about hotel work, but for me it was something I'd grown up with, Dad had always let me be hands on with every aspect of running the business here in Cornwall.

 

Even though our grape picking labors were unpaid, we managed to get board and lodgings, breakfast, packed lunch and evening meal all in, so any money we did have was still available if needed.

 

I would always say, “don't worry, we'll be fine and we've still got cash to fall back on. Something will crop up and we'll be saved, you wait and see.”

 

Anna wasn't so sure even though we'd been harvesting grapes for two months and seemed to be getting by. "How many crates do you think we've managed to fill?" Anna inquired when approaching me. We had wooden boxes which we would empty into the large crates when full, ready to be taken by the tractors or trucks.

 

“I reckoned it was about six crates if my count was right.” I said, gazing over at the others of our group noticing them making their way towards the trucks. “Come on, we'd better get off or we'll be left behind.” Taking the last of our bounty,  I put my arm around Anna's shoulder as we fell into step smiling but feeling totally knackered and ready for a good wash.

 

The four others in our group were middle aged, it seemed that we were always the youngest as we sauntered towards the vehicles. I gazed once again over at the mountains that surrounded us. “I'll miss this view every day.” I announced pursing my lips, then blowing out hard. Anna smiled agreeing but more interested in getting back.

 

The vines seemed to go on for miles with nearly 40 hectares of land devoted to the fruit. At this time of year the grapes were at their juiciest and we'd have to be careful not to loose any that were hidden under the large leaves that might fall off. We were allowed to eat some because it had been such a good year which made our job a lot easier.

 

Then there were the olive groves which were separate but we never had much to do with them, apart from eating the produce which tasted wonderful. It was sad to think that this was our last day and that we'd be moving on. All our plans seemed on track until...

 

To be continued...