BAD CITY PLANNING

This [which I am having to put on the next post] is the pavementless stretch of road I've mentioned before, connecting the bus terminus where one supermarket is with the location of another, larger one and several other stores including Bruno's Electronics and the petshop where I was heading this morning. Quite apart from the lack of pavement, just look at the state of the drainage! You have to choose between nearly drowning and getting run over if you try to walk around the water. For goodness sake, city planners, put bus stops outside all the supermarkets and build some pavements!

Se, per caso, leggono questo blog gli urbanisti di Modica, Vi prego di pensare un po' ai pedoni! Sarebbe tanto difficile costruire i marciapiedi e mettere le fermate d'autobus vicino ai supermercati? Questa strada è davvero pericolosa per chi deve camminare. Io vorrei che i miei lettori conoscano Modica come città moderna, non del terzo mondo!

Anyway, getting splashed along there put me in an irritable mood and this was not helped by the bus deciding it wasn't even going as far as the terminus, my supermarket points card being out of date and there being no one around to renew it [not that I use that particular supermarket much - I was just out of pazienza again].

Then the wait in the bank where I pay the rent was almost as long as in the post office, due to there only being one counter operating and the woman in front of me carrying out about fifty transactions [or maybe five very slow ones!] The wait was not the fault of the clerk but rather of Italian bureaucracy and the amount of print-outs and literal rubber-stamping required for every request. For something to do while I was standing there, I opened my bank statement which I'd brought out with me and was not pleased to see that I am being charged six to eight euros for each direct debit that goes out. When I tell friends here that there are usually no bank charges in Britain, provided you are in credit, they look at me in disbelief. I don't know why these relatively high charges should apply here; there are plenty of banks and so there is plenty of competition.

So now you know that I do have my down moments: maybe you are thinking that it doesn't take much to irritate me. And it doesn't, when it's raining, the transport is inefficient and I have been unnecessarily drenched! By lunchtime the sun was out and I was ready for the g and t which was beckoning me in the Altro Posto.