« Innocence and the Soft "U" | Main | Happy Tax Day and assorted rambling »

April 14, 2005

More Trouble With Phones, Trams and Trains!

From Michelle, doing a lot of walking these days...

So last Friday Oh Patient One and I had to go to the American Embassy in Amsterdam to get our house sale documents notarized. Also, I needed to go to the British Embassy to get my passport renewed.

Oh Patient One was arriving back in Amsterdam's Schiphol airport from a business trip to India that morning, so we made arragements to meet in Amsterdam Central Station at 8 am. We would coordinate the whole meeting up thing with our cell phones, of course, just in case of his flight being delayed, etc. So, what could possibly go wrong?

The Cell Phone

Teenager #2 went on a school trip to a water park thing last week. He took my cell phone with him. When he arrived home he was dripping wet, and my cell phone was buzzing very angrily, and none of the buttons worked...

"Um, it accidentally got a bit wet," Teenager #2 told me just a bit sheepishly.

It seems that he was attacked by a giant wave leaping out of the feature swimming pool. If only the wave had attacked him before he dried off and got dressed!

So after I pushed poor Teenager #2 into the bathroom for a hot shower, I dismantled the angrily buzzing cell phone and put it on the windowledge to dry. Mebbe it would work once it was dry?

Wednesday. Cell phone still buzzing angrily when battery reinserted.

Thursday. Same as Wednesday.

So I went out and bought another cell phone, and then called Oh Patient One with my new number.

The Train

Off I set on Friday morning for the 7 am train. Got to the station, bought a ticket, acquired coffee, climbed on train, off it went on time. Yes!

Unfortunately, three quarters of an hour later, I was stuck in Den Haag. Apparently, there was a problem with the line, so we all had to climb off the train and await further instruction.

I called Oh Patient One, who had arrived in Amsterdam and had heard all about the trouble with the trains. So, after a bit of a discussion, I caught the next train back to Rotterdam. I would reach Amsterdam via the other Rotterdam/Amsterdam route.

In the meantime, the track problem was solved so I got the next train out of Rotterdam, which just happened to be a high speed train. Yes! I'd be in Amsterdam in plenty of time for the American Embassy's closing time of 11.30 am. And still time to get to the British Embassy...

Unfortunately, the normally high speed train stopped at every station along the route to make up for the delay. I finally arrived in Amsterdam at 10.30 am, so we had to make a dash to the American Embassy. Of course, this meant that I missed the British Embassy. No problem! I would go back to Amsterdam on Monday.

The Tram

Owkey, there I was at the tram stop on Monday morning. And then, after half an hour of waiting for the tram and puzzling about why it hadn't come, I discovered that the tram line would be out of commission for the next two to three weeks because the tram lines are being upgraded...

I walked to the station. Because knowing my luck, there was probably a problem with the bus, too...

By the way, I put my old cell phone back together and it's working perfectly.

Michelle

Posted by Michelle at 4:31 AM