Moving House and all that goes with it
As May 2004 came to an end, Felice and I were busy packing up boxes ready to move from one decent sized apartment to one much smaller but in the centre of town that is a mere two minute work from the lovely port of Trani and its glistening sea.
The apartment is situated in a small cobbled street and has a small balcony where we join the rest of the Trani community in hanging our washing out for everyone to see!
On our second day here after we had found somewhere to put everything we discovered our first problem. The key to the apartment kept getting blocked in the lock. It became so difficult to actually get into the apartment that we had to call in an expert to take a look who confirmed that we really should get the lock changed. Naturally we had to call the JP to check that it was okay to go ahead. Surprisingly he agreed. However, the day after when we went to collect the money from the JP, he decided to argue. This is what he said; I don't remember agreeing to pay for this! When I spoke to you on the phone I wasn't really listening! After further persuasion on the part of Felice (I still don't know enough Italian to argue my case succinctly!) the JP gave us the money but muttered how he has a lot of things to pay for (even though he owns several properties and regularly collects rent money!) and had to borrow the money from his daughter!
Lock sorted, we then decided to buy a washing machine and having waited over a week for it to be delivered and with a pile of washing building up, I was keen to get started! That led to problem number two: something wasn't right and when the washing machine started 'walking' from one side of the small kitchen to the other it took the force of Felice and me to hold it in place! Needless to say we had to get someone out to take a look and discovered that a particular part that should be removed hadn't been!
Now, with living in the heart of a town centre, weekends are extremely lively at this time of year and with a narrow street without much room for cars to manoeuvre, occasionally cars do get blocked in. I watched something in disbelief last week when I witnessed a lively argument outside because a car couldn't get through. The owner of the parked car refused to move it which would allow the second vehicle a clear passageway. So two men from the second vehicle decided to take action and physically moved the parked car leaving just enough space to get through!