How hackers nearly railroaded the project - and work starts!
On November 13, our 19th wedding anniversary I took Robert off for a surprise visit to Dinant, a teeny tiny town in Belgium where Leffe - his favourite beer - originated several centuries ago in a riverside monastery (yeah yeah I admit it's my absolute fave tipple too).
In fact, this incredibly flavoursome ale was born because the monks of Dinant wanted to stop people drinking contaminated water in a bid to stave off the plague. How it unfolded is an intriguing story so if you're interested in Leffe read all about it here. We took the Eurostar from Kings Cross St Pancras to Brussels and on via local trains to reach our beer fest and it was great fun - Dinant and its rocky citadel is beautiful and the food was great. Honestly though, I had other things on my mind...the trullo.
We'd made the decision by then to jump off the deep end and buy using our retirement savings. As I've whined about before ad nauseam I'm sure, my loss of residency in Australia meant the Federal Government took 33 per cent of my super so, a big hole...why not throw the rest into a pile of rocks?
The deposit was set up and scheduled for transfer to the charming Swede's bank account via a forex company at 4pm on the 12th of November, ready for our lightning visit a few days later to exchange contracts.
We were on the platform waiting for our train from Brussels at 2pm that day when the forex guy called the husband with a query: "Are you sure the bank account details you provided for the transfer are correct? They're not Swedish or Italian...the account you've provided is in Bulgaria."
As trains pulled in, amidst the shriek of metal on metal, passenger hubbub, porter whistles and a rising bilious horror and panic we realised that our emails with the vendor/agent had been hacked and while we thought we had been corresponding with our agent, in fact a Bulgarian scam merchant had taken over the conversation - and subtly changed the account numbers.
An immediate stop was put on the transfer with less than an hour to spare! I will be forever grateful to Jimmy, the guy at Foremost Currency Group here for his vigilance and attention to security and detail. In one, short horrendous swoop we could have seen a fair whack of what was left of our retirement savings disappear east. And let's face it, once gone that would have been it.
I still feel sick thinking how close we came - and hope this might be a warning too.
That night, we salved our nerves with ....
Adrenaline still flowing we returned to London and the next day boarded a flight to Bari (in winter, they're cheap as chips, less than 60 quid return (Two years ago on a news feature assignment I managed to nail a ticket for 29 quid return.)
Our final reconnaissance mission to exchange contracts, thankfully, went swimmingly.
The local notaio - similar to a solicitor - who witnessed and oversaw the exchanges was helpful, efficient and I was so excited I snapped him signing our documents. I know, it's a zzzzz but just indulge me!
Despite pelting rain and dark skies the day before, we arrived to a lovely day and a block of land transformed from dry red earth in summer to a soft green grassland in winter which gave the property an entirely different, gentle feel. The sun was much lower in the sky, dark grey skies highlighted the deep greens, the shadows long and a quiet broken only by the call of the odd crow. I immediately imagined myself around an outdoor fireplace, hot drink in hand gazing at the sea beyond.
During my last recci and picture mission in the afternoon, the clouds kept swirling photogenically while every now and then the sun peeked out to warm our faces. As we walked around with the architects plans and various designs in our hands, we were able for the first time to reconcile what was on paper with the physical block and "buildings".
Suddenly, what had been a fantasy until now solidified into a slightly scary reality.
That day we also met Mimmo Collucci a local specialist builder (Trulli per Passione on his Facebook page) who had provided the best fixed price contract for the restoration and reconstruction. He was midway through another job for the vendor (which we also went to see) but agreed that weather permitting his team would start ours within the month.
Their first job, he said, would be to embark on a kind of stone inventory to see just what would be needed to return the cones to their former glory.
We left the next day in a state of high excitement although to be honest, I was sceptical about the timelines.
True to his word however, on November 25 - exactly ten days later - these two photos arrived via WhatsApp.
Mimmo and the boys had started! The adventure had already begun.
In fact, this incredibly flavoursome ale was born because the monks of Dinant wanted to stop people drinking contaminated water in a bid to stave off the plague. How it unfolded is an intriguing story so if you're interested in Leffe read all about it here. We took the Eurostar from Kings Cross St Pancras to Brussels and on via local trains to reach our beer fest and it was great fun - Dinant and its rocky citadel is beautiful and the food was great. Honestly though, I had other things on my mind...the trullo.
 |
| Dinant with a statue of Charles De Gaulle in the foreground |
The deposit was set up and scheduled for transfer to the charming Swede's bank account via a forex company at 4pm on the 12th of November, ready for our lightning visit a few days later to exchange contracts.
We were on the platform waiting for our train from Brussels at 2pm that day when the forex guy called the husband with a query: "Are you sure the bank account details you provided for the transfer are correct? They're not Swedish or Italian...the account you've provided is in Bulgaria."
As trains pulled in, amidst the shriek of metal on metal, passenger hubbub, porter whistles and a rising bilious horror and panic we realised that our emails with the vendor/agent had been hacked and while we thought we had been corresponding with our agent, in fact a Bulgarian scam merchant had taken over the conversation - and subtly changed the account numbers.
An immediate stop was put on the transfer with less than an hour to spare! I will be forever grateful to Jimmy, the guy at Foremost Currency Group here for his vigilance and attention to security and detail. In one, short horrendous swoop we could have seen a fair whack of what was left of our retirement savings disappear east. And let's face it, once gone that would have been it.
I still feel sick thinking how close we came - and hope this might be a warning too.
That night, we salved our nerves with ....
Adrenaline still flowing we returned to London and the next day boarded a flight to Bari (in winter, they're cheap as chips, less than 60 quid return (Two years ago on a news feature assignment I managed to nail a ticket for 29 quid return.)
Our final reconnaissance mission to exchange contracts, thankfully, went swimmingly.
The local notaio - similar to a solicitor - who witnessed and oversaw the exchanges was helpful, efficient and I was so excited I snapped him signing our documents. I know, it's a zzzzz but just indulge me!
During my last recci and picture mission in the afternoon, the clouds kept swirling photogenically while every now and then the sun peeked out to warm our faces. As we walked around with the architects plans and various designs in our hands, we were able for the first time to reconcile what was on paper with the physical block and "buildings".
Suddenly, what had been a fantasy until now solidified into a slightly scary reality.
 |
| Husband surveying his turf |
That day we also met Mimmo Collucci a local specialist builder (Trulli per Passione on his Facebook page) who had provided the best fixed price contract for the restoration and reconstruction. He was midway through another job for the vendor (which we also went to see) but agreed that weather permitting his team would start ours within the month.
Their first job, he said, would be to embark on a kind of stone inventory to see just what would be needed to return the cones to their former glory.
 |
| Mimmo Colucci, the magician in charge of the project |
True to his word however, on November 25 - exactly ten days later - these two photos arrived via WhatsApp.
Mimmo and the boys had started! The adventure had already begun.
 |
| The boys, the trullari, Giovanni, Giacinto, Tonino and Domenico, who are working on site |
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