David's Diary: Friday, September 20, 2002

Picking Up The Mobile

Our Nokia mobile phone is suppose to be ready today. Jocelyn is ahead in school so she set off with me for the long walk to Microkey, the service center where we left our phone on Wednesday. We took the dinghy across Brindisi Harbour and moored it among the fishing boats. We walked along the quay, passing more fishing boats and ocean going tug boats, before heading into the center of town. We went over the railway bridge and walked along a boulevard until after a half-hour we reached our goal.

Alex

We met up with Alex at Microkey. Alex told us that our phone had been fixed for free. I asked why and he explained that his manager had visited my Web site and when he learned that I had spent twenty-five years in the technology business, he was pleased to fix our phone for free. Alex, the person who I had met on Wednesday, even had a printed copy of my professional Web site with him and a copy translated into Italian. It was a pleasant surprise all because of a business card and a Web site.

Brindisi Public Transport

When we left Microkey it was just before 1:00, lunch time in Italy. As we walked around the corner we saw a large group of school girls who had just been let out for lunch. We followed them to the bus stop and took the bus back into the center of Brindisi. The girls all looked to be teenagers at least fifteen or sixteen years old. Most were standing, as was Jocelyn, and even with three inch high heels not one of the Italian girls was close to Jocelyn in height. Jocelyn and I could tell that several of the girls were looking at her and we wondered what they were thinking of this tall, blond, Canadian girl. We left the bus and the girls and walked the rest of the way back to our dinghy after an interesting morning retrieving our mobile phone.