First, there was leaking gas in the kitchen and the people from Natural Gas got someone to the house as soon as possible, well they arrived 3 hours after I called. No problem with that, and luckily I had decided to take lunch before heading off to stock up on supplies. A nice pair of public sector workers, with smiling faces and politeness; one older man and a quite young looking partner, whom we nicknamed "Gaston, the gas man".
They crawled under cupboards and lovingly splashed soapy water on copper pipes and rubber hosing, hoping to see bubbles, but no luck. So, we have to get someone to come and look at the oven itself. A little girl had fun taking pictures and trying to figure out what the men were doing with the bubbles. We also had to entertain just ahead of them the crew (6, and I can't understand why so many) who were delivering our sea shipment; it had arrived several weeks ago but had to take a longer vacation at the port while we waited to move. They arrived what seems to be the customary one hour or more late and did not seem concerned: "We're here, aren't we?" I retorted that they should try doing that at an airport, but as I had to repeat it twice, I figured that they don't get it. Apart from that, they were a strange bunch of mainly older, feeble-looking men, with one younger fit-looking driver, who took his rests as soon and as often as he could. Maybe it's how they arrange things in that company but it looked odd that the old guys humped the boxes while the youngster shifted them around on the truck or goofed off. They also acted like they had never unloaded a shipment before and no matter how many times they were told they kept on putting boxes in the wrong places. Worse still, I had to point out that it was no good filling the kitchen with all the boxes of stuff for that area as we would not be able to move around! Same for some other rooms. A lot of "Duh!" It's always a shock to see how some people can hold down a job with what seems like no capacity to do it. After living in Africa for a while I understand that economic development is more than just about having skills.
Then, just after our super little run to the supermarket, the man and woman team to fix curtains arrived. I guess that if they had been a bit later they would have waited. So, we now have dapper drapes in most bedrooms. Waiting for service people or having them show up unannounced is often how it goes and when you move it's no major surprises. We have a roof over our heads and food in the cupboard. The air is fresh and people think that we live in Paradise. The little person in the house is very happy to see her books and toys again and reconnecting with them will be an absorbing activity in coming weeks. That quickly put out of her mind the return to school, which had been a bit traumatic first thing this morning, but had soon passed as a regular day.
Life is great when you are kid. That last sentiment hits me even harder as I just got a call from a former colleague who has just been fired after 11 years. He says that he will look at this as a positive development. Good for him!
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