Well now, it started in the usual sort of way. I got up at 6.15am, showered and had my breakfast, ready for my client from the UK on Skype at 6.45am. While I am on the phone in our open-plan living kitchen, Conor does his ablutions in the bathroom and bedroom. Its the hottest time of day in the living area as the sun is rising up a bit higher and shining straight in the windows, so I am usually sweat-soaked and ready for a second shower by the time I finish. We have 15 minutes to say hello, exchange dreams, and then I leave to cross the road to the department. (Incidentally, they have put hard core down on the road, in preparation for the tarmac, and the reduction in dust level in the flat is quite astounding. We take our shoes off at the door and walk on the tiles in bare feet, and they would be covered in a grimy, gritty layer before a couple of hours were up no more. So much more pleasant.)
Anyway, I left Conor as usual this morning, and he prepared his breakfast ready for his day of clients starting at 9am. While I was in the department, I noticed a large cherry picker working with one of the electricity poles immediately outside. I didnt give it much thought same as they had been doing with all the other poles in the street. But, on the other side of the street, Conor was standing with his head phones on, starting to work with someone when he noticed that the men were going up the pole and that the cherry picker was very close to the cable which the local Broadband company brought from the pole into our flat, joining the medley of wires crossing from one side of Albert Street to the other. He warned the person he was working with that there may be some interference. Forty five minutes later the connection was cut off. Conor looked out, and saw a man in the cherry picker look at him a bit sheepishly through the window. Conor looked further and could not see the wire! The men and the cherry pickers moved on to the next pole, at which point Conor saw half a wire dangling from the pole by my department building. He phoned the cable company, who said speak to the men. He went out and told them that what had happened.
Youve broken my cable.
Yes.
Ill have to contact the cable company.
Yes.
So he did! He confirmed that the cherry picker had broken it, and they said they would be there straight away time being 10.45am. There was no way Conor could inform the client he was working with or the next ones on the list what was happening.
When I came across for my lunch hour, Conor was still waiting. I went back to the department, and around 3pm there was a rattling and calling on the wrought iron doors that the folk queue behind on Thursdays and Fridays. A member of the department went over to a man with a bicycle, who had an official white sheet of paper with stamps all over it and my name. He explained that it was for a parcel which had to be collected before 4pm. I explained that I was nipping over to give it to Conor to go and collect, and he warned that you would need to pay some money to the post office.
Conor was still waiting for the men to mend his cable and to resume his connections with his clients. He was concerned about leaving the flat because they would be bound to turn up, and in time-honoured style disappear again. In the end he decided to go, and told the woman in the shop downstairs that if they should turn up, to keep them there and that he would be back in 10 minutes. As he left, I reminded him he would probably need some ID as it was in my name. We have some copies of our passports, both his and mine on one sheet, which we have been warned is safer than carrying around the real thing, to be either lost or stolen. It seemed ideal as it identified both him and me.
I went back over the road, and Conor set off to the post office, opposite the Caye Caulker Water Taxi terminal. Conor had already picked up one parcel a few weeks before, so returned to that building, confident that he knew where to go straight away this time.
- He was told that he had a white slip, not pink, so he had to go to another building.
- He crossed the car park to another building, and presented his copy of the passports, only to be told he had to have the originals.
- Back he trekked in the heat, collected the passports, and thankfully no sign of the repair men.
- In the correct parcel office, the man wrote out all the details of both passports onto the white slip.
- He handed the passports back to Conor, and went off to find the package.
- As he approached the window, package in hand, Conor thought Thank God hopefully I can get back now before the men arrive.
- But the man veered off towards another member of staff at another window around the corner without indicating anything. He seemed to think that Conor knew what was going to happen next.
- When he returned to the shelving area, Conor made a pointing gesture, questioning whether he went over to that window. He nodded.
- Conor lined up at a window saying Customs.
- The customs officer opened the package in front of Conor with a sharp knife, pulled out the contents, and rather than being the antibiotics that he had so confidently told her they would be, discovered something else!
- She appeared nonplussed as he said he was expecting a different package.
- Conor asked whether he needed to pay anything, and was told no customs duty, just 75 cents to release it.
- He handed her 75 cents, only to be handed a pink slip and told to go round to the furthest window at the other end of the row of windows to pay.
- Conor waited in line again, under a sign saying Package Cashier. He paid the man 75 cents, and got a yellow receipt.
- He returned to the Customs window, handed her the receipt, and at last was given the parcel together with a slightly sheepish look from the woman!
By the time he returned to the flat, the cable company men were in the middle of repairing the wire across the road. It was well past bed time in the UK by now, but better late than never.
When I got home from the department, there was a lovely photo of my son Aaron and his partner Niamh, saying on the back that having read through the blog and our failure to bring our water bottle insulator over with us, he thought that we might like to have it!
THANK YOU!!! MUCH APPRECIATED! Especially when accompanied by such a lovely photo!
And meanwhile, when Conors antibiotics arrive he will have to go through the whole procedure again…..