The personal website of Matt Henderson.
25 April 2006
Today was, as I’m coming to learn, just another typical day in southern Spain:
On the way to work, I stopped by the computer hardware wholesaler, who called yesterday to report that my two new hard drives and printer were in and ready for pickup. At the shop, I discovered that, unlike Germany, you can’t just pickup stuff and then conveniently pay later by bank transfer; you have to pay prior to pickup. (Too many problems with people not paying, apparently.) Ok, no big deal.
Seems one of our local clients has decided they don’t want to pay, and will no longer answer the phone or respond to emails. We were supposed to meet them in their office yesterday afternoon to discuss it. When I arrived to work this morning, my colleague reported that they had closed the entire office before he arrived. Seems not paying is a common thing with local clients.
We were supposed to have a sofa delivered to the office today, to be paid cash on delivery (of course.) They promised to call first, before making the delivery. It just happened that precisely when I had to run off for an errand, they arrived, without calling ahead. After some quick mobile phone negotiations, I was given 15 minutes to get by scooter to the sofa store to pay. I broke some traffic laws, but managed to make it, and now we have a new sofa on which I’ll collapse after finishing this post.
The air conditioner in our new office stopped working last week. The Carrier tech came by this morning, and discovered the roof unit had, no joke, blown over. He and I picked it up, restarted it, checked that it was ok, and I agreed to call the installation company to come secure it. Half an hour after the tech left, the unit stopped working again. The installation company arrived in the late afternoon to have a look.
While looking at the interior air conditioning unit (in the ceiling of the bathroom), the new bathroom light fixture that the electrician installed yesterday exploded in dramatic fashion, nearly killing the air conditioner guy. So I called the electrician, and he’s coming out tomorrow to have a look.
Meanwhile, the air conditioner guy discovered that when the air conditioner starts running, the voltage drops from 220 to 205, and the unit cuts off to protect itself. Apparently nothing’s wrong with the air conditioner, it wasn’t damaged by the fall, and the ball’s back in the electrician’s court. Called the electrician back, and he said it’s probably a problem with the local electrical company, but he’ll check it out when he comes tomorrow to look at the exploding light fixture.
And with that, it’s about time to go home. No wonder wine and sangria are so popular in this culture.
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