Phone-me-not

The service Bel-me-niet has the purpose of preventing people from receiving unsolicited phone calls by marketers. Those reap phone numbers from the telephone directory, and use strategies to get a dubious "yes", which then will use to sell services.

I should have registered there. In general, I had fun answering those, because I used them as a way to practise my Dutch. But in some cases, awkward situations ensued.

Not long before leaving the previous house, I got 2 of them on the same day. One was from a telecom company, which promised lower rates than KPN. I don't care because I use the phone very little, and, when I do, it's mostly the cellphone or Skype. Yet, I stupidly fell: the guy at the other end wanted me to "sign a voice contract", asking me to answer "yes" clearly to each question. The second one was much quicker: I soon told them that they could send me informative material to my address.

Soon I got an answer from the first company by snail mail. It was a pile of papers, saying, among others, that my phone would have been removed from KPN and connected to their network, and that I had a few days to cancel everything. Which I promptly did, with a phone call to their call center.

I was angry at the first company, when instead I should have realised the truth. The first company, while being telemarketers offering unsolicited products, was at least transparent. They were clearly stating what they were doing, they sent a paper notice before doing it, they eventually did nothing when I told them to stop. The second company, instead, only sent me a paper notice when it was too late. Without me suspecting anything, they disconnected my KPN line, with no prior notice.

I told them that it was a mistake. They cancelled my contract. But there was a contract. Cancelling it meant creating a new contract with KPN. KPN treated me as if I were a new customer: they gave me the default subscription (I had a cheaper one, with higher rates for calling, because I seldom call: net result, I spent more money) and they wrote that I could only cancel the line after one year. "Oh ****", I thought, "I'm leaving in one month! Why do they do this to me, after being a customer for almost three years?".

Anyway, the landlord told me he intended to sell the house after I left, so I had no other option than ask KPN to cancel the contract.

KPN proved very inefficient. They said they could not cancel the contract, but they seemed not to know why this was impossible. They blamed the ADSL subscription. So I cancelled that (flawlessly: they said it would be closed in one month, and I would have left 1 month and few days later. And that happened: ADSL stopped working at exactly the right time). I tried again cancelling KPN, and this time is seemed successful.

The landlord changed his mind suddenly, and rented the house. The future tenant claimed he needed the KPN line. Therefore I called KPN again, attempting to cancel the request of closing the line. Their answer was negative: the line was being closed.

But then, I got a reminder by KPN, for a bill I hadn't paid. Well, I cancelled the line, why should I pay for a line I'm not going to use? So, apparently, KPN was not closing the line, despite claiming the opposite...

I paid the bill. And, when the new tenant came, we wrote KPN to change the name from mine to his. That worked. The line has not been closed, it is used by the new tenant now.

A happy ending for this story. But the story taught a lot about dishonest telemarketers and KPN not being able to figure what's happening with their own phone line.

In the new house, needless to say, I have a new phone+Internet provider, which has noting to do with the above ones.

Show ownership

Eventually, it happened. After so much wishing, 3 months ago, I've become the proud owner of a home in Amsterdam.

I only actually moved there on 1st March. There are many reasons. One is that I wanted to give a long prior notice to the landlord. He has always been fair with me, being fair with him is the right thing. Another one is the bad experience of my first house: I got the notice that I should leave it with only 2 weeks advance. So I wanted to take time. Yet another one was the lack of a bed. A new bed was ordered on 16th January, few days after I got the keys. The furniture shop said that the bed would have taken 6 weeks. And they were right. Even too much: the first 2 days I had to sleep on temporary beds because the real one hadn't come yet.

After moving furniture and boxes, and after sleeping on an inappropriate bed on the first day, my back became very painful. Luckily the situation improved in the following days.

But I'm so happy. It is close to my first Amsterdam home: it feels like a comeback after a long exile (almost three years). And it has proper heating. And the neighbourhood is lovely. And the bathroom has a decent size. And there is a locked space for the bike. And it's mine!!!

Know your ledikant from your boxspring

Yesterday, with -1°C outside, was time for a learning trip in search for a bedroom, involving, but not limited to, Villa Arena. Apparently, beds in this country come in 2 forms, ledikant and boxspring. Dictionaries are unhelpful (Prisma just translates ledikant as bed, and does not list boxspring at all). After analysing over 100 models of beds, I have come up with a theory, which has been supported by all experiments so far. A ledikant has a bed frame under the mattress, while a boxspring has a sort of second mattress there. So, an Italian would only consider a ledikant.

Still some way to go, but I've started making up my mind.

How to become completely Dutch

Long time ago, I heard that it was possible to get free Dutch language courses from the city. Curious, I went to the stadsdeelkantoor (neighbourhood's governing office building) to ask for information. Not only was it true, I ended up on a waiting list. After a not-so-long wait (about 3 months) and an assessment test, I started the 6-hours-a-week course. It was great, an occasion to train, in a place where there are so few (Dutch know English very well and are eager to show that off, so they start speaking English at the slightest sign the other party does not master Dutch at native levels). And the people at the course became real friends, invaluable mates in our stay in a foreign country.

The purpose of the whole class is to complete the Staatexamen NT2 (state exam for Dutch as a second language). And lately, the school pressed the students to sign up for the exam. So, reluctantly, I did. A few days ago, the result: sufficient in all 4 topics (reading, writing, speaking, listening). A big thank you to the teachers and the fellow students, you've been great. The only regret is that meeting the classmates will become less frequent. But they won't be forgotten.

A hard day's n8

Yesterday I went to my third consecutive Museumnacht. And, as always, it was frenetic. The hardest part is to decide what's unmissable, and plan a route which allows you to get to them all without wasting too much time moving from one place to another. A valuable trick is to avoid queues. If there are too many people queuing to enter, it's better to move on to somewhere else: there are so many open museums, and life's too short, and the night is even shorter. 7 hours sound a lot, but they run out quicker than you plan, and you have to plan that. So, among others, Foam, Artis and Geelvinck were simply skipped. What was left:
- failed attempt to find the Huis Marseille (nobody noted down the address...)
- Archaeological museum
- Huis Marseille (this time with the help of the brochure with the correct address). Very interesting, if a little shocking, exhibition about refugees around the world
- Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst (a letdown)
- City archive (been there 2 years ago, yet always a pleasure)
- Skipped Hermitage because of the queue
- Portuguese synagogue. When candle-lit in the night it's spectacular.
- VOC ship
- since it was 0:45, made a second attempt at the Hermitage, and this time the queue was shorter! 2nd tip: leave the most crowded places for last, so you get there when most people are already sleeping. Hermitage is a beautiful museum: new, light, spacious... the only letdown is the collection: it was mostly a description of the tsar's times, with no "real" art. Time to plan a trip to the real one in St.Petersburg.

Some people visit porn sites

I, instead, go to Funda. So many objects of desire can be found there. I look at each one, look at the pictures, and dream of what I would to with them if only I had them. And, when looking is not enough, I ring the agent to book an appointment, so I can be by the object of desire, even inside it. And, of course, dreams stay dreams, and I cannot have any of those. For how long?

In memoriam

My father has died.

Everything happened quickly and suddenly. According to what I heard at the phone, he was riding his usual Sunday morning bike ride, when he fainted for unknown reasons. He had a heart attack several years ago, so some heart problem is one possible cause. When falling, he hit his head on the road. He was transported to the nearest hospital, Lucca's, but he died some hours later.

He was 63. I spoke to him yesterday, and we spoke about normal things. We actually spoke about my mother, not about him. There was nothing to worry about him.

It is hard to think about good things in this moment. One is that he suffered very little. He was perfectly OK in the morning and dead in the evening.

First news came at about 12PM, he was in the hospital, but nothing about his conditions. Then less than reassuring pieces of news throughout the afternoon. Then the horrible news. It was so much news, and so fast, that I was not really realizing anything about what was happening. I only cried 20 minutes after I heard about his death.

When he left home for his ride he left his PC on. On Skype, he is still online.

A piece of heaven for sale

Forgetting to say that my former piece of heaven is now for sale.

I don't know why I feel bad (just a little) about that.

Privacy in a public blog

There are several reasons why this blog does not get updated, if not sporadically.

The main one, of course, is the novelty effect (the lack thereof). It is not the newest coolest thing anymore.
Then, writing a blog is ultimately a waste of time. And, lately, there are other wastes of time competing with this. Facebook (it is a waste of time, but I'm spending (too much) time on it these weeks), the old classics Google Earth and Google Maps (Street View is the ultimate violation of privacy. That's why it's so cool)...
But there is another factor. Privacy. So, why does privacy matters in a blog that can be rad by anyone? Well, for some imperscrutable reasons, the process of creating the post is private, even if the completed post itself is not. I feel shy/embarrassed/add your favourite lame excuse here writing a blog post with someone in the same room. That someone obviously couldn't care less, but anyway. Nobody said human beings are simple things.

Incidentally, the latter's one reason why I spent so much of my life in front of a computer (Commodore 64, then Commodore Amiga, but with my faithful 64 on one side, then a 486 which was my introduction to the wonderful world of PC. The rest is history).

Incidentally again, I grew more fond of my fellow human beings with the years. That changed me from a pathologically shy person to a shy/very shy person with occasional moments of extrovertion, and even some friends.

Enough incidents. The long period with no posts has not been uneventful. Job-wise, I did some sort of jump into the dark, by moving departments within the company. So, I stopped being a well-known and respected member of the old department, and started being the new guy in a department I didn't know deeply. Eventually, I slowly discovered that I was not so well-known or well-respected in the old one, and I wasn't so new or unknown in the new one. What happened after simply made me think that the jump in the darkness was actually a good idea.
Still job-wise, the company I work for is less rich than it used to be. There was a downsizing in January. It was incredible to see that the fired people were accepting their fates, while the people who stayed were more emotional. One would have expected the opposite. But everything was so sudden and unexpected, therefore one could expect the unexpected to happen.

About Dutch life: I begon an inburgering language course. The purpose is to turn a foreigner into a burger, that is a citizen integrated into society. A little hard (6 hours a week, all during work days), but great fun. And my Dutch starts to suck a little less. Still a long way before becoming a burger. Also, I got my first fines. Once I went through a red light with my bike, and a police's motorbike was standing there. The second time, my bike lights stopped working shortly before a place where policemen were waiting. And, of course, they resumed working shortly after.

The four seasons in Dutch, with English translation

lente or voorjaar - autumn
zomer - autumn
herfst or najaar - autumn
winter - autumn

Well, there have been 6 consecutive sunny days! So, that's not too bad.

A sign of life

The frequency of posts has dropped dramatically lately. This does not mean that nothing happened. It only means that I'm lazy.

Summary of what happened.

• 1st-5th May: Paris, guest of a friend who lives there. Marvellous city.
  
• 18th May: visit to Brugge (or Bruges. In Italy, the French spelling is generally used. Which does not make sense, since it is in Flanders. But French is more familiar, or better less unfamiliar, to Italians). Excuse was that my friend Nicola went there to the TERENA Networking Conference. Fine city, fine company.
• 31st May: went to Naples, to be present at the marriage of a friend. I had never been to Naples before. It is a city with a bad reputation, considered as one of the unsafest in Italy. Innumerable stories about how drivers disrespect traffic lights are famous. And the waste problem is world-famous. Well, I found it a beautiful city. True, many streets of the centre are not in the best state. But nothing I haven't seen also elsewhere. True, the traffic lights near Beverello pier (where ferries to Capri and Ischia leave) are chaotic. But elsewhere it's OK. True, I saw some people whose look was not reassuring. But I was not harmed nor robbed by anyone. And I even walked around the old center between 4am and 6am (long story. To cut it short, when a hotel says "reception open 24h", it does not mean 24h. Or, maybe, the 24h are not all in the same day). True, there was some rubbish around. But not that much (admittedly, in the outskirts the situation was worse than in the centre). The marriage was fun, everyone was happy, and the bridegroom's speech was not boring! The day after, short visit to Capri. Marvellous island, small but with a savage beauty. The sea is almost as beautiful as Sardinia's (I'm still a proud Sardinian). Only downside: the pizza was not the best I ever eaten, it was only good.
• Beginning of June: Elisa came back
  
• Throughout June: European football championship. Italy didn't do too well. But I wasn't too unhappy (the same cannot be said of some other Italians who live here), it deserved what it got, and anyway it beat France. Disappointments: Netherlands (after such a splendid first phase), Portugal (ditto), semi-final Germany-Turkey (Turkey deserved more). I also discovered what happens when Turkey wins a match. The Turkish community is numerous, and the Turks themselves behave in a very Mediterranean way (which is the same as Italians behave). Therefore, thousands of people around, honking cars, flags, fireworks... And the square near my house was the centre of celebrations. Unbelievable, even more chaos than in Italy.
• 3rd-6th July: Rock Werchter. Loads of big names: Lenny Kravitz, Moby, Neil Young (incredible energy for one who looks like my grandfather), Beck... And of course Radiohead. Sigur Ros were surprisingly good. It was also an experience because of the camping: fun, the tent was waterproof so the rain wasn't too annoying, the mattresses were surprisingly comfortable. Not many people were sleeping, judging from the constant noise.