Ossi's Blog

The Adventure of The Real Man's Wallet

Jos’ wallet was somehow left in the car of Alex, his friend, who gave us a nice ride to Italy and to Switzerland. In short, Alex went back to Holland the next early morning while we were still sleeping and the wallet was also gone all the way back to Holland with him. We both just realized that before noon, when we were getting ready to walk in and around the village called Oberdiessbach near Thun. The wallet made us down a bit, kind of blaming ourselves or a bit of blaming each other for not checking the front seats of the car when we arrived and stepped out of the car last midnight. However, we still fortunate as God let us surrounded by good people and friends who helped us generously. So even though we had no cash on hand, somehow we still managed to enjoy our holiday and paid our spending. The wallet was also mailed from Utrecht to Florence by Alex, and it was arranged to arrive in Florence on a day or two after our arrival.

We got a series of numbers, a code from PostNL to trace the package. Guess what? It’s been two weeks since we arrived and yet we haven’t got the package, and sadly, we or it was more I, began to worry. It was a period of test of my patient endurance. Checked on PostNL site and asked the package under the code number at PosteItalia were also not helping. I prayed that night for God’s help to find the wallet coz I believe He knows where it is exactly. That day when Jos has his 1^st day meeting at school and I was home alone, browsing the site of PostNL, wondering why the package was remained untraced. Finally, I found the customer service number and gave the number to Jos when he came back home. Jos spoke with one of the customer service shortly after that, and got a new Italian code number to trace the package in Italy. He was also informed that instead of handled by PosteItalia, the package was handled by an Italian Int’l Courier Service called DPD.

We were so happy with the information, immediately googled for DPD site to find their phone number. The next challenge was when Jos calling the phone number and a female voice on the other side said,”Pronto…..bla…bla…bla….” all in Italian, and we both looked at each other’s face, confused, and started to giggled as we both understood NONE of what she just said.

The First Indonesian I Met in Florence

How I met lovely Erna

I left home early morning, hop on my bike to get to the Questura (Immigration) office. I had an appointment at 9am with Ulrike to get my Permesso di Soggiorno. I got there on time and found her sitting on one of the bench. The Questura was crowded as usual. We talked to kill time, about her dogs, about her house, about her work, about her daughter. She spoke English, very friendly, very talkative and loud. I could feel some eyes turning to us when she was talking.

Italian Hospitality?

Diusir Pemilik Toko

Pagi ini suamiku sudah bertekad berangkat pagi ke kantor pos (PosteItalia) di tengah kota, dengan harapan staff kantor pos dapat membantu menemukan paket penting kiriman dari Belanda. Setelah selesai sarapan, dia langsung berangkat dengan sepedanya. Hari ini suhu di Florence 38 °C, lumayan dibanding kemaren yang 40°C.

Sayang sekali, setelah petugas kantor pos memeriksa kode kiriman paket, ternyata dinyatakan kode paket tidak dikenal. Alhasil PosteItalia tidak dapat membantu menemukan paket tersebut. Dengan kecewa suamiku meninggalkan kantor pos dengan tangan kosong. Saat berjalan gontai, matanya tertumbuk pada etalase salah satu toko dasi, dompet dan asesoris pria lainnya yang menawarkan diskon. Suamiku langsung tertarik pada beberapa dasi yang ditawarkan, maka masuklah ia ke toko tersebut dan mulai memilih dasi.

Angels Are Around, Angel #2

How would you feel? If a good looking man in suits, drove his Mercedes, came to you and helped you dump your garbage..............

Another blessing we received was that we had our own garden, a backyard and a little shed. We knew there's a small balcony but we didn't expect the house would have a garden since it's a 2nd floor apartment. So we considered that as a surprised bonus from God.