Wearing flipflops in Rome

Traffic congestion and fashionistas in silk dresses and oversized sunglasses

Apr 8, 2008 2:48pm
And the office has moved as well! Who would believe it. On schedule and everything - well, apart from the fact that the move was meant to happen 3 months ago, and has constantly been put off, but finally, here we are. My department is not important enough to get an office with a view on the sea, such as this one, but at least I have four walls, a window, and hey, some time soon…. electricity, possibly a phone connection, maybe even all my boxes and the furniture!The bathrooms are really impressive. You have to admire them. There’s little else to do anyway, as it looks like connecting the computers and sorting out which labelled boxes go into which labelled offices (a complex operation) is going to take some time. Oh, and you can only admire them because there’s no water yet, so you can’t use them.The water will be installed “as soon as” a certain problem is resolved. Inchallah. Lucky us, we get to use the bathroom of the next door offices, the ones with the pool. Or rather, we attempt to enter the place, and get stopped by a terribly over zealous guard, who cannot let us in as we “have no authorisation”. The power has gone to his head, he’s almost barring the door so’s we don’t walk in. I wonder how visitors are allowed in, if they have no written invitation…I decide to go home, at least there’s internet and I can do some work here, rather than just sit around and wait for boxes to arrive. Back home, the voltage regulator is going mad, the indicator swishing from 220V to 300, and more if it could, and clicking away. My computer keeps giving me short and sharp electric shocks. Maybe I should just pick up a book? 

And the office has moved as well! Who would believe it. On schedule and everything - well, apart from the fact that the move was meant to happen 3 months ago, and has constantly been put off, but finally, here we are. My department is not important enough to get an office with a view on the sea, such as this one, but at least I have four walls, a window, and hey, some time soon…. electricity, possibly a phone connection, maybe even all my boxes and the furniture!

The bathrooms are really impressive. You have to admire them. There’s little else to do anyway, as it looks like connecting the computers and sorting out which labelled boxes go into which labelled offices (a complex operation) is going to take some time. Oh, and you can only admire them because there’s no water yet, so you can’t use them.The water will be installed “as soon as” a certain problem is resolved. Inchallah.

Lucky us, we get to use the bathroom of the next door offices, the ones with the pool. Or rather, we attempt to enter the place, and get stopped by a terribly over zealous guard, who cannot let us in as we “have no authorisation”. The power has gone to his head, he’s almost barring the door so’s we don’t walk in. I wonder how visitors are allowed in, if they have no written invitation…

I decide to go home, at least there’s internet and I can do some work here, rather than just sit around and wait for boxes to arrive. Back home, the voltage regulator is going mad, the indicator swishing from 220V to 300, and more if it could, and clicking away. My computer keeps giving me short and sharp electric shocks. Maybe I should just pick up a book? 
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