Angelina

Since it has been a while since my last “donna” post, I think Angelina Jolie is a good follow up for Monica

I hopefully don’t need to explain why she should be on

Please keep in mind that the pictures are my view on beautiful woman and there is nothing sexist about it.

Some nice views

Although there is no snow (yet), Bolzano and Laives have some beautiful scenery…

Meeting expectations (service question)

This is a ‘fun’ story…

I started with my new job as Enterprise Consultant at BRAIN FORCE in Holland on the 1st of October. Since I left my AUDI at Comsoft and started with a temporary contract, I’m not able to look for a car which I’ll drive for 4 years. So I get a car which is temporary too…

I first got an Opel Astra (told you it was going to be funny). But someone decided it would look better with a dent in it, I had to change it with another car. Since it was going to be winter (don’t know IF it will ever start), Hertz (this is where LeasePlan rents the cars too) decided the winter shold be driven in a Seat Leon.

The Seat Leon also wasn’t pretty enough someone thought, so he decided to drive into it too, so 1 week before going on vacation I got a new Seat Leon.

Thursday the 23rd we went to Italy and on Christmas eve the front right tire decided it was time to go and it ran flat. Lucky us we were in Italy already, but then again… Did you ever try to get a new tire during Christmas?

So that evening we decided to do nothing and check again on the 1st day of Christmas. I called Hertz and after only 30 minutes they decided I had to call LeasePlan and see what happens. Seems that LeasePlan leases the cars at Hertz, but when you break down, they use ANWB for assistance.

So that evening I called LeasePlan (since the whole day we were wining and dining with the family overhere). LeasePlan connected me through with the ANWB who then (after 30 minutes) told me they couldn’t help me either (I am in Italy remember) and I was called back the next morning by their Internation Service Company (Mondiale???). They called me on the 2nd day of Christmas at 7.30 that they received a call and that they were going to try to call some garages in my neighbourhood at 8.30…

Of course that’s good news, but why call me to tell me that? Just call me at 8.30 to tell me what actions you did take and what the solutions are. Anyways… The called me at 8.35 telling me they didn’t find any garages open (duuuuh) and I had to wait until the 25th and see what’s possible then.

The ANWB called at 8.40 asking me if everything was solved, which was not the case and thay told me they would check in the 27th.

On the 27th they called me at 8.30 they were going to pick the car up at our holiday address and tow it to the garage. Now remember that I’m in Italy!!!

At the garage the people first didn’t know that I was coming, so they had a discussion about that. I followed it a bit, but you could see they were not happy… Then they asked me (after 15 minutes of discussion) where my car was. It was at the end of the street, what (of course) was a reason for a new discussion… *sigh*

Eventually the car was inside the garage and the next ‘problem’ came apperent… The guy who had to fix my car was not in yet (it was 10 am the day after Christmas…) and they didn’t know when or if he was coming… He had to take a look at the wheel first and try to fix it and if not, then it would take 3 to 4 days because they had to order new tires… Aaaah welome in Italy

Because Hertz only arranges a new car when it takes more than 4 hours I had to wait… But in a industrial zone ther’s not much to see accept a lot of trucks driving by. So after waiting for a few hours, I calles some people in Holland if it was possible to arrange a car. But it was almost 12 and then everything closes and nothing is possible for 3 hours…

So 12.05 I got a go to rent a car… And yes… The stores are closed… So I had to walk back to the appartment where we stay… Which is only 1,5 hours walking… Then the big waiting began again… And eventually I started calling again, since Hertz didn’t call me back as promised… First to Hertz if there was a spare car and eventually the garage to see if it was fixed. And yes it was… So at the end of the day (around 18.00) I got the car back.

As for this story for me there is a main difference between the service in Italy vs Holland, which is all about meeting expectations…

In Italy you’re used to a service that when they say, we’ll be there in 10 minutes it will be in 1 hour. Also with calling back etc you don’t expect this to happen.

In Holland you expect that when you hear, we’ll call yu back in 5 minutes it doesn’t take 3 hours before you get an answer.

Is it that I’m used to getting a high service in Holland and did I expect to much from Hertz and LeasePlan or am I flabbergasted by the service in Italy which I didn’t expect to get?

****** UPDATE ******

Yesterday I was called by LeasePlan asking more about the above story. LeasePlan will call me back next week to discuss a possible complaint from me. My guess they handled good…. Let’s wait and see

****** UPDATE 2 ******
By the way… This was in my tire

Christmas 2011 in Italy

Hi all,

I’s been some time, but finally I have some time share a short update with you all.

Guess you all saw some changes… New address and a ‘new’ name. No more blogger, since I really got fed up with them. To much hassle and saw some really nice WordPress blogs so I thought lets change it. I also changed the name, since I couldn’t remind my password and the mail address it uses… Well I don’t have access to the mail address since a month of three, therefor I ‘changed’ my name

As I’m writing this I’m enjoying the view of the Dolomites, where we have our Christmas holiday and a small reunion with my wife’s Italian family.

We arrived on the 23rd and the first few days were filled with seeing the family and since it’s Italy, everywhere you go the festivities are accompanied with food… Lots of food and lots of GOOD food.

It’s good to see the family of my wife again. They are like you expect the Italians to be… Friendly, warm, welcome, helpful and willing to share what they have… One big family

Although I can’t understand everything, I can make myself understandable and they understand me sometimes I’m totally wrong, but it’s no problem… They know I didn’t mean to swear at them

It’s bad there isn’t any snow…. It’s the first time my father in law remembers there is no snow here, so they might see the effects of the environment after all here

Maybe there will some during new years eve… So let’s hope we can see some white dolomites in stead of the brown ones…

Fijne muziek

Nou daar is ie dan. Mijn eerste stukje tekst in het Nederlands is een feit. Waarom? Gekeken naar mijn volgers, zijn jullie toch Nederlandstaliger als gedacht en gebleken. Daarnaast ben ik benieuwd of er nu meer gelezen (en gereageerd) gaat worden.

En waarom nu meteen een blog over muziek? Eigenlijk heel simpel… muziek is een enorm groot deel van mijn leven, niet alleen omdat ik vroeger veel gezongen heb, maar via muziek kun je een groot deel van emoties makkelijker duidelijk maken in 3 minuten als dat je in een 3 uur kunt vertellen.

Sommige mensen kunnen zo ontzettend de tekst op muziek zetten, waardoor het door merg en been gaat en de tranen komen. Dit heb ik vandaag gehad met 2 nummers.

Het eerste nummer is in het Duits en van Rammstein. Het is een vrije vertaling naar het gedicht van Goethe, Erlkönig uit 1782. Voor degenen die de Duitse taal niet goed beheersen hierbij de link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Erlk%C3%B6nig) naar Wikipedia met de vertaling naar het Engels

Het tweede nummer is in het Venloos (en dat is dus géén Duits) en is geschreven en gezongen door Frans Pollux (@franspollux). Ik heb een kort geluidsfragment gevonden -> http://195.68.237.84/bolnl/d2/247/700/ECOPLRKAZWMOGHXEYLPCRAGKMBZE.wma

Maar de tekst van het nummer greep er vandaag op één of andere manier keihard in.

Ik heb het aan mijn oudste zoon (Joep) laten luisteren, welke niet helemaal begreep waar het over ging. Dit deels door zijn gebrek aan het verstaan van Venloos dialect , maar ook doordat hij circa een jaar geleden gediagnostiseerd is met PDD-NOS. Bij Joep is het voornamelijk het emotionele stuk wat minder is, maar vandaag had hij een super mooi moment toen ik hem dit nummer liet luisteren bij het naar bed brengen…

Het leek wel of hij mijn gedachten kon lezen en gaf mij een dikke kus en knuffel terwijl hij zei dat zowel zijn overleden oma als opa in ons hart verder leefden. Probeer op zo’n moment je tranen nog maar eens binnen te houden. Het is alsof hij voelde dat ik zo enorm trots op hem ben en zo bang ben om het te verliezen en dan voornamelijk aan het autistisch verhaal en de instanties waar je tegenaan loopt.

De muziek gaf vandaag voor mij aan, dat de drukte van de dag eigenlijk maar een nietig iets is en dat ik enorm blij was om die twee jongens van mij weer te zien. En dat beseffende komt dat lied van Rammstein apart om de hoek…

Het überbeschermen tegen al het kwaad van buiten… als je er wat verder over nadenkt, is het zoeken naar de balans tussen liefde en loslaten een spel wat nooit eindigt.. en dat is maar goed ook

Trip down memory lane

The last week has been a strange one. Dees (my wife) found back a memory from long ago which she hasn’t seen for 13 years at least. It’s the Christmas stable which her grandfather made long time ago. You can imagine the last week was a trip down memory lane with tears of joy and sadness. Joy since she found pieces from the past, sadness because there is a person out there who she hasn’t seen for a long time.

This morning during our Christmas breakfast we got a call… Dees got the phone and after realising who was on the other side a short silence fell. I knew enough… It was her sister… Tears of joy but also a flabbergasted wife walking around short after that and about 30 minutes later Mira (her sister) was sitting at our breaksfast table.

They have been talking for a few hours and it’s good to see them both together. So much memories, so much in common and unfortunatly so less contact!

My christmas wish is that they can keep contact and I can see both smiling again like they did this morning…

Monica

Since this kind and loving woman keeps posting pictures of men on her blog. I decided to do almost the same. It’s not about men but about woman…

Please keep in mind that the pictures are my view on beautiful woman and there is nothing sexist about it.

The first “donna” is of course Monica Bellucci. She’s a real Italian classic woman with sensible lips and a sweat dreamy look in her eyes.