FRUSTRATING TIMES BUT A NEW BEGINNING AWAITS

There has been a long silence on this blog but there is a good reason for it: we have moved to a new apartment. Still in the same neighbourhood, so not a biggie. We also love the new place and are very happy to have found it.

Moving to a new apartment is an excellent opportunity to discover all the useless stuff which has been hiding in cupboards and dark corners in the previous place. This time I will be ruthless! "If it has not been used for the past year and a half, it is not needed" is my new motto. 

Nevertheless, this has been a very difficult and frustrating three weeks and during this period I have almost started questioning the decision to come and live in Italy in the first place. Honestly, I can barely believe that we are in Europe. The endless delays and explanations why something cannot be done today but next week are driving me to the point of utter exhaustion. The lessons I have learned in the last couple of weeks are priceless and the next time I know that moving must be planned like a military operation. 

Perhaps the most infuriating issue was discovering that there was no electricity meter in the place and a new one had to be ordered. This has turned out to be a very difficult thing to solve. Customer service is the last thing the electricity company is interested in. For them it is totally reasonable to ask people to wait anything between 4 to 6 weeks while they are getting their paper work in order. The gas company was not much better. There was a long delay in getting the gas connected because the gas people could not come to an agreement which gas meter belonged to our apartment. Luckily, this has now been sorted out and we finally got our gas cooker to work last week. Hot water and heating system is also now operational (only that there has been a general problem with gas in Genoa and everyone has been asked not to put their heating on or to use gas for cooking only, but that is another story!). Even though we started the process of getting new gas/electricity contracts well before moving into the new apartment, it has taken a lot of time and effort to settle in properly. We are also only dreaming about the internet connection inside the apartment at the moment. It is probably going to take another six weeks as the telephone company people have to come and sort out the telephone line.... 

However, we are finally in the new place. Hopefully all this will be a distant history very soon, my blood pressure will return to normal levels again and all the unpacked boxes have dissapeared from the lounge. Patience, patience. 

This Christmas tree seems to be in the back of the building more or less permanently. waiting for another December. Quite practical as there is no need to decorate it again.