A day off today for the Immacolata and it's been nice just to be at home and relax. Now it's beginning to seem like Christmas, though I don't think there's much seasonal cheer at the Water Office, as the service is "sospeso" yet again. So once again we pay for a private delivery and are thus charged twice for our water.
The Post Office, meanwhile, chose last week to change its "ticket" system: regular readers may remember that, as you enter [with the phrase "Abandon all hope" in mind] you take a numbered ticket for the service you want to use - bill-paying, other financial services,postal, business and so on - and then wait till your number comes up on a screen. Only now someone has had the brainwave of lumping all the financial services together, so that if you just want to pay a bill - which doesn't usually take long once you actually get to the counter - your ticket has the same letter on it as that of someone who is there to draw their pension, a process for which every document in Christendom appears to be required, plus laborious signing of slowly printed papers and the noisy stamping thereof. I suppose this system might work but for one problem - the fact that there is only ever one "financial" counter open. Pazienza.
Never mind: it is certainly Christmas over at Bar Edicolè [the one with the bookshop behind it] and the staff have worked hard at this tempting display:
The Post Office, meanwhile, chose last week to change its "ticket" system: regular readers may remember that, as you enter [with the phrase "Abandon all hope" in mind] you take a numbered ticket for the service you want to use - bill-paying, other financial services,postal, business and so on - and then wait till your number comes up on a screen. Only now someone has had the brainwave of lumping all the financial services together, so that if you just want to pay a bill - which doesn't usually take long once you actually get to the counter - your ticket has the same letter on it as that of someone who is there to draw their pension, a process for which every document in Christendom appears to be required, plus laborious signing of slowly printed papers and the noisy stamping thereof. I suppose this system might work but for one problem - the fact that there is only ever one "financial" counter open. Pazienza.
Never mind: it is certainly Christmas over at Bar Edicolè [the one with the bookshop behind it] and the staff have worked hard at this tempting display:
Meanwhile, this is how to buy citrus fruit, I've decided. It is so deliciously fresh that no half measures will be permitted in this house!
Oh, before I go, Simi wants to show you "how to make a bed":
Quite right, Simi!
7 comments:
I agree, you can never have too much citrus this time of year!
Simi's looking well.
Why is there no final resolution of the water situation? Is it the chance to make money out of the residents by feigning that the water supplier can't find a solution?
Bless little Simi, must show Arni..even a dog can make a bed!!!
Citrus fruit looks lush, and so fresh :-)
Oh the ticket system of Sicily, it amuses us all. One day things might click with them ..ha ha ..!!
Those citrus fruits look so tempting and I think Simi has claimed that bed ;-)
Hi, Lost. Glad you agree! Hi, James. I don't know why. Maybe they haven't paid the drivers again. Hi, Anne. Haha! I can imagine you showing Arni! Hi, Cherie. I think you're right!
I believe that bureaucratic "improvements" are usually similar to what the U.S. army calls "retrograde operations" and often have the same outcome: going backwards.
I read the other day that that "a man described as Cosa Nostra's No. 2 fugitive boss, identified as Giovanni Nicchi, is held by Italian police officers after his arrest in Palermo, Sicily." Any repercussions to the arrest?
I will send Alex over to see Simi's photos. You may tell Simi that the woofie doggie in those pictures is adorable.
Hi, Nick. Yes, retrogade steps, usually. Nothing new on the Nicchi arrest except that the government, justifiably, I think, is congratulating itself on its anti-mafia results this year. Of course the real heroes are the arresting police officers. Simi is glad you like her photos and sends hugs to you and Alex. xx woof!
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