AND NOW THE DOWNSIDE...

Regular readers will know that this has to be about the Post Office or the water supply and today it's the latter that has driven me to distraction:

Our water ran out at around 11 am but at least we had both had showers and a main wash had gone through the machine. I wasn't too worried, as I had ordered a cistern refill yesterday, but by 5 pm, with a lot of cooking ahead of me, I was beginning to fret.

First I called the usually sympathetic driver, as he will normally bring a tankful a day or so early provided you have made the request to the Water Office. Today, however, he did not seem pleased to hear from me [to put it mildly] and claimed that the last time he had done this [a week ago last Sunday] he had subsequently found out that I hadn't put in the request! [I am not completely mad, reader, and I do know that I had!] So he rather gruffly stated that he could not possibly help me today, as he had no bolleta [authorisation] in his hand.

Next, I went to see the only fellow-tenant in residence at the moment, the lady upstairs. She was almost as upset by the situation as I was, but declared that she is off to her property at the sea tomorrow, so was unwilling to pay a private water carrier.

I then called our capo-condominio [tenant in charge of administrative matters] who, although away in the country until October, had left me her number for just such a purpose. "Ah, signora, there's a problem with the motore in the cistern - that's why the water is running out so quickly", she explained. [Why did I have a sense of "Been here before?"] "I will call the landlords, to see if they have had it fixed. Otherwise there is no point in your calling a private water carrier as the water will just leak out. I'll let you know." This was at 5pm. By 8 pm, I was sitting here suffering from a "Sicilian summer tummy" problem and worrying about the loo arrangements for the night, so decided to call the private water carrier anyway [thinking that if I left it much later he would not come].

No sooner had I made the call, than the capo-condominio was back on the phone, informing me that she had just called the original water carrier to ask him to deliver on a paying basis, which he had agreed to do, but not until tomorrow morning. [The carrier I had called promised to deliver within the hour.] She was not happy when I confessed that I had called the other one and I think I have offended her Sicilian sense of honour: "Signora, why did you call me, then? When I take it upon myself to do something , I do it. Why do you not trust me?" I pleaded desperation, a stomach problem and the fact that it was already past 8pm but it took a lot to mollify her! [James listened to all this and seemed amazed.] Finally I was all apologised-out and the lady very kindly offered to call the first water carrier to cancel the delivery [an offer which I readily accepted].

Not a full minute had passed before we heard the chug-chug-chug of the private water lorry making its way up the street and I dashed down to open up and greet the driver. I am now 35 euros poorer - and it would have been 42 had I insisted upon a receipt - but we have water for the time being and I have only managed to offend 3 people in the process of obtaining it [the capo-condominio, the comune driver and the second driver, for refusing his receipt!]