hi all :)
it's been a while i know but we're a lazy breed we are .
just thought i'd share an amusing story about the joys of language barriers and intercoms with you.
first you should know that we live in one of those security blocks where people buzz you from the street to be let into the building. now you should know that we often get a few people pressing the wrong button and ending up confused as i am about the situation.
ok. i'm going to write this like a script to save writing "he said" and "i said" alot.
Lucy: hello?
Guy at the door: (along stream of dutch ....... )
L : i'm sorry, my dutch is not very good. who were you looking for?
G : errrrr.. i'm from the newspaper.. i have presents... please open the door, i need to give them in person.
L : i'm sorry... you are from the newspaper and have presents? for me?
G : for everyone, i need to come in to give them in person.
L : you have presents for me? what name are you looking for? are they for someone at this address?
G : it is called " ........................" in dutch i need to come in.
L : i'm sorry but i don't feel comfortable letting you in unless you can give me a name... who are these presents for?
G : oh ok........
so, i'm pretty scared because it sounds like one of those scams and i'm telling evyn via messenger about it just to make sure i haven't lost it.... and i hear that he's rung another buzzer and has been let in... so now i'm thinking it's either a normal thing over here for the newspaper to send a guy round after dark with presents, or someone in our building is gulible.
i resolve to not answer the door... despite the fact that he knocks ( i know i sound paranoid...) because i saw through the eyehole that our neighbour handed him money in exchange for something.. so now i'm really confused. is he selling something?
after enough time has elapsed i check outside the door to find a package left there addressed to one of our housemates.... and the penny drops
what he ment was that he was delivering the post and had parcels and deliveries for people in the apartment block and probably was supposed to collect signatures for them..... with the maddness of christmas that has engulfed the city he used the word 'present' instead of one that made more sense and the language barrier between us grew about a meter.
just goes to show you how different things are over here than in sydney as well. the packages that have arrived here for us, we have gone down to the door to sign for.... but apparently the thing to do here is to take their word for it that they're delivering a package and to let them into the building unchecked..... i can't imagine many people doing that in sydney.
ah well.... enough about me making life difficult for the postman :) i'll let you alll get back to what you were doing.
love, lucy
Merry Christmas everyone!
