Some days, I love living in Luxembourg. I am so glad we moved here. I marvel at its beauty, the incredible cleanliness, the politeness of its citizens. Some days, I find myself hoping we can live here forever.
Today is not one of those days.
And the reason? It's so petty I hesitate to even mention it. But here it is.
I want my cable television. I want it when it was promised to me (weeks ago now). I don't want flowery letters of apology from the cable company, expressing their hope that this latest delay hasn't inconvenienced me too much. (Chere Madame, blah, blah blah blah blah. No TV for you).
First, they said it would be available the end of March. Six weeks without TV? Okay, we thought, we can handle that.
Then we got a letter. It very politely and apologetically informed us that they wouldn't be able to provide service until the end of April. Okay, another month without TV. No big deal. A week later, I got yet another letter delaying installation till the end of May. Now I was getting nervous. And rightly so, it seems, since just two days later, I got yet another letter saying no service now till the end of June.
The end of June!?! That's six months after our arrival, six months without TV, six months of watching the same DVDs over and over!
Ugh. So no TV for the foreseeable future. How many more letters like this can I expect??
I also would like to be able to park my car and feel confident that I won't come back to find a ticket on it. I want the convoluted parking laws to be clear to me. Even though I've polled everyone I know and accosted a handful of parking police, I'm still not sure why I've been getting parking tickets. According to one parking policeman, the resident vignette and parking disc entitle me to two hours of free parking anywhere in the city UNLESS fewer than five hours are permitted with the purchase of a parking ticket. In that case, I can park free for only one hour. According to everyone else I know, two hours are allowed anywhere in Lux city.
I don't get it. What I do know is that I've spent so much on parking tickets that I could've bought a couple of months of the pricey (but quickly installed) satellite TV we decided NOT to get since we were only going to have to wait a month or so for the much cheaper cable TV.
Sigh.
Oh, the joys of moving to another country and attempting to decode their rules and regulations. It's bad enough in my native country where I can speak the language. But here? It just makes my head hurt.
If only I could unwind by watching some mindless, trashy TV or one of those ridiculously funny French game shows I love so much. But I can't. Phooey.
I feel for you - I have been having frustrating problems with Tango too - although we did eventually get installed (after various 'chere madame' letters like yours) I now am yet to get a single bill without some bizarre charge on it for which they apologise and ensure me it will be reimbursed the month after.
ReplyDeleteEnjoying your blog and it's good to hear other people have good days and bad days too. You can check out my blog at http://luxxlait.blogspot.com.
If you have internet access - try out www.blinkx.com where you can catch up on all your favourite US series for free. We don't have TV yet as the landlord is being a little (to put it mildly) slow.
Alex, thank you. I'm feeling much less bitter today; I think the venting helped. I actually discovered your blog a few weeks ago and am enjoying it very much, particularly your descriptions of all your little day trips -- all of which I want to do myself. There's so much to see here!
ReplyDeleteYou can come over here and watch Questions for a Mushroom with us. Or borrow some DVDs.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I may just take you up on that.
ReplyDeleteHave you heard of Slingbox? We've used it since moving abroad and I couldn't live without it! It allows us to watch TV from the US right here in Europe--all thru the internet. It's amazing--check it out: http://www.slingbox.com/
ReplyDeleteExpatresse, I just got it! Questions for a Mushroom = Questions pour un Champion. I've been puzzling over that one for a while. I think when I first read your comment, I hadn't heard of that show. And now I have. So now I get it. Duh.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm very slow... I won't blame you for not commenting on my journal anymore! :)