What is 'chum'?

Day 8.

Another 8am alarm call and work started just after 9. I continued working through the tuning of the various sets of reeds lined up. Throughout the morning Claudio and Stefano tried teaching me Italian slang - I couldn't get my head round it! I did, though, teach them the word "chum", explaining it as "a posher version of "mate".
"What is posh?"
"Snob"
Ah yes. È più 'snob' di 'mate'."
Arriving back at the apartments, Erica asked if I would like some risotto and breaded fish. Naturally I said yes, although I still dined alone. Ivana then offered me breaded chicken dinosaur shapes, which I also gratefully accepted. The freshly deforested bread rolls were now redundant!
Back at the workshop, after eating lunch over episodes of The Vicar of Dibley, I didn't do any tuning. Sort of. Claudio showed me a Dallapè Liturgical accordion; a veritable monster - 6 sets of reed in the right hand, a lowest note of the C 2 octaves below middle C and weighing upwards of 17kg.) Only 3 were ever made - one was lost, one was a present to the Pope many years ago but was lost in the Vatican, and the third, the only known survivor, was in my very hands. Claudio has been tasked with restoring it under very strict instructions and guidance by some authority or other. The aim is for it to be played in concert by Nadio Marenco (Italian accordionist) before being displayed in the Stradella accordion museum. We reassembled another accordion ready to be returned to the owner but first Claudio showed me how to do the final tuning on some of the reeds. I was useless. Basically, each note has two reeds (one sounds when the bellows are pulled, the other when the bellows are pushed) - I was too busy trying to sharpen one that I neglected ti notice I was sharpening the wrong one! After this I tried a 96-bass accordion, hatching a plan to ask Claudio to make me one to my own specification. Aris popped in, too, and we spoke Spanish. Just before close Erica, Ivana and I left for the supermarket to top up our respective larders. Mum, you'll be pleased to know I now have a total of 15 bread rolls in the freezer! Unfortunately, I discovered that Italian supermarkets don't stock spaghetti hoops. I suppose that would be blasphemy.
Dinner was spaghetti with tuna, chilli and garlic - a de Souza family favourite. Ice cream for pudding, too!

Saturday tomorrow.

Buona notte x