Hello world, it's me again, still from my old armchair in my old home. Some of you may know that as of yesterday I have rented a flat in town. It's in an ooooooooooooold house, 1789 or something like that, no straight walls, some of the doors quite low, you get the picture (no, it's not THAT bad, this pic is from www.bilderkiste.de). Those of you who've seen the exposè - the photos were cleverly taken to make the rooms look more spacious than they actually are. The entrance is through the back and up some ancient wooden stairs. Once could say we are really well hidden. Nevertheless, it's going to be MINE i.e. for me and the kids and for the first time in twenty years I am completely in charge of everything. This is quite a daunting thought, on the other hand I also have the ultimate power of decision making of what goes where or if it enters "my home" at all.
So, how does all this connect to this post's title? Well, the flat was supposed to be ready for me yesterday (first day of rental) and I had simply assumed the official handing-over-of-the-keys would take place then. I had been chasing the landlord to arrange time since Thursday but only talked to his answering machine. Yesterday I finally drove by the house (not his, that was plan B) and found the current tenants still in there, right in the middle of moving. Funnily enough it had been them who had wanted to move out earlier since they already had a new place and didn't want to pay twice for too long. And again, I had simply assumed it would be empty and ready to be handed over on the day.
This very friendly family apparently has a different concept of time, the one called living "in time", being in the here and now and not too bothered about dates or deadlines. I wasn't too bothered about them still being in (a little surprised though), I was glad there was someone who could give me the keys because I had arranged for a technician to come on Monday morning to install phone, tv and - most importantly - internet connection!
As a through-time person I would have hated to cancel that appointment at short notice - the same way I would hate to be stood up by someone not arriving (vaguely) on time or not at all. So I'll be there tomorrow morning between 8 and 12 hoping for the best. And yes, the landlord rang a little while ago and asked if everything had worked out (yeah, surprisingly it did - I managed to find some keys) and if I had moved in (How without keys and the family still being in there??) Oh well, different maps of the world and communication lost in translation. We'll get there somehow, sometime. I'll keep you posted, have a great week!
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