staking out - my new hobby :)))

Another story that I haven't told so far was that sometime in July I have ordered on the internet a refrigerator from a firm established in Paris. I have chosen the brand and model and paid for it online, the money being cashed in after 2 days. The promised delivery delay was from 8 to 20 work days.

As probably you have guessed already, cause if it were not the case I would not have written this post, after more than 30 work days no delivery was made. I have called the firm and I was told that my refrigerator was not in stock and that it will take until the second half of October to be delivered. OK, that was a little too much for me - from 20 work days to more than 60. So I have decided to cancel the order and to buy a refrigerator from somewhere else.

When I have canceled the order I have been informed that I will be reimbursed in 8 to 15 days. This was on 14 September. As usual, the deadline for reimbursement has passed and no transfer was made to my banking account. Big surprise :) Further more, each time I have talked with the folks at the overcharged hot line of the store they told me that they will send the cheque next week or that their boss was absent and that there is no one that can sign the cheque. Of course no cheque was received.

One fatal mistake that the reimbursement office of that firm was that it had added in the cc of the mail containing the order cancel confirmation all the people that made a cancel order demand in the same time. This facilitated an exchange of messages between the customers, that helped us see that no reimbursement was made for anybody on that list. Some people on the list started talking on getting a lawyer and suing the company. But nothing was made to this date.

Seeing that my attempts were totally ignored by the hot line support team I have decided to do a rather "nasty" thing: I went to one of the Paris stores of this company and demanded to talk with a supervisor. If they would not put me in touch with a supervisor I have warned them that I will not leave the store. Although I am not a mean person, this situation made me act like one.

So I talked on the phone from that store to a supervisor and as usual he told me that my cheque was sent to me that very afternoon. Really???, I have told him. From that moment on I started talking loudly at him in order that all the customers in there to hear me. He kept telling me that he can't do anything and if I would like the cheque I should go by myself to their offices located somewhere in the suburbs of Paris. Well, that was not my problem, I have waited more than two months for the reimbursement, so I am not supposed to do this trip to get the refund. I am in one of the company's locations, location that sells stuff, so somebody could write me a cheque and I will be on my way. The supervisor started yelling at me and invoking the same old excuses that his employees used on me before. I have told him I do not believe him even a little bit and that I would stay in the store until someone handed me my cheque.

As you probably imagine after the conversation was over I was invited to leave immediately the store, because I am no longer a customer of theirs. Really? I did not wanted any trouble so I have exited the store and stood right in front of the building. Starting from that moment I have began talking with every man that entered the store in warning him that what has happened to me could happen to them too, if they buy from that company. Very surprising, most of the people were very cooperative and received my message very well. Some even told me when they have left the store that they haven't bought anything and thanked me for the advice.

After one hour and a half, the employees of the store seeing that I was not going to give up in talking to people that entered the store decided to call the police :) And although I was standing on public property - the very street with the store, at one meter in front of that building - I was asked to leave the premises, on the reason that I cannot perturb in this way a business. I do not know if the police was right but as how I am not a law specialist and not wanting to learn it using the hard way (plus that the lunch break in which I did this was long time over :) ) I obeyed the recommendation and left.

Finally, this Monday I went straight to the company offices and requested personally the cheque. After the small show I have done in front of the store I was well known at that office and my cheque was handed to me right away. I have told them also what they can do with their excuses :))

I was a little bit disappointed if even in France there are people that do business in this way, by violating the contracts and mocking people around. I was not sure all the way if the effort was worth it, because the amount of money they had to refund me was not that significant, but it was more a question of principle. And finally I have discovered that the satisfaction you get finally makes up for all the effort invested in such a story.

Still, if I think about it now, maybe I will put this in my CV, because how many people can say they have done this and did succeeded in the end ? :)))))))

if you can feel it, you believe it

I believe in the wonder
I believe this new life to gain
Like a God that I'm under
There's a drugs running through my veins

I believe in the wonder
I believe I can touch the flame
There's a spell that I'm under
Got to fly, I don't feel no shame

The world is mine
The world is mine
The world is mine

I've lost my fear to war and peace
I don't mind that (the world is mine)
You took the price and realize
That to your eyes (the world is mine)

Take a look what you've started
In the world flashing from your eyes
And you know that you've got it
From the thunder you feel inside

I believe in the feeling
All the pain that you left to die
Believe in believing
In the life that you give to try

The world is mine
The world is mine
The world is mine

I've lost my fear to what appears
I do my best(the world is mine)
You seem surprised and realize
That to your eyes (the world is mine)

The world is mine
I've lost my fear to what appears
I do my best(the world is mine)
You seem surprised and realize
That to your eyes (the world is mine)

I've lost my fear to what appears
I do my best (the world is mine)
You seem surprised and realize
That to your eyes (the world is mine)

...hayling...

...don't think about all those things you feel, just be glad to be here...

...so empty...

Although I have said that the previous post will be the last for today still I cannot leave without saying that once again I have that feeling deep inside my being, the feeling that tells me that I am missing something, something that once was there without knowing it so and who's absence now makes my life look rather black and white. It's a hollow and empty sensation that rises up in my soul, it's like a small pain that has no psychical cause, an imaginary knife planted deep inside my soul.

And maybe this is due to the music I listen, even if I know that I should stop listening to some tunes that make me feel this way. Anyway, it is easy to write here, no one cares anyway... what's the use?... there isn't any... good night nobody...

Moments of hapiness

We all feel sometimes that wonderful feeling that invades our soul and that nothing can stop it. It usually catches us unprepared to accept it and most of the time it comes from a very simple and an unrealistic beautiful moment in our life.

How beautiful can such a feeling be we all know for ourselves, and for everyone I presume is a different experience. But is an experience that changes us in unexpected ways. Still it is very nice when we realize that we are happy, that you can live the moment and say "I cannot see how I have lived without being happy, breathing life through all my pores".

It is well known that is not an everlasting feeling, that event the smallest thing can break it apart. Happiness is a state of being rather than a target to achieve. And for this is such a difficult thing to have.

Anyway, maybe sometimes later on I will fill in the remaining of this post, but for now something prevents me from doing it right. Maybe the state of feeling I have....

Life is a flower...

...but what is a flower if not the image of the love we seek? a flower with thorns but with a fragile content that sometimes reveals itself with such a beauty that we are afraid not to tear it apart even by doing the smallest wrong gesture.
Not long time ago, I could not see the beauty of such a thing, the richness of such a simple feeling, the way a life can be changed by a soul burned out by this feeling. I do not know if there is anything more than this in this life, but if there is, I can bet that loving someone is by far the most heart filling thing, the only thing that raises our soul to the heights of the Elysian fields.

I should have written this entry in Romanian, because in my native language we have two words for "love": "iubire" si "dragoste". The two are used with almost the same co-notation, with the difference that when we use the second one it is always implied that it involves more than a friendship. "Iubire" refers to a much pure feeling, it is the kind of love you might also have for a close friend. "Dragoste" refers to a much deeper and "head over heels" kind of love, a love that is not conditioned by anything.

Still in Romanian we have another word for which I have failed to find a correspondent in any major known language. It is called "dor" and describes the feeling that you have in your heart when you are missing a loved one. It is not the action of missing by itself, but rather the feeling you have within. Yes, you could say "I miss you" or "Tu me manques" but it would not have the same meaning. It is only a dear person that can make you feel this way when she/he is not near.

There are a lot of persons for which I have this "dor" feeling right now. There are a lot of simple things missing for me that sometimes seemed to be there by default. But if all this trip in the unknown helps me find the thing I was always searching for, even in the times when I did not realise it, than all this effort is worth while.