Pieceacake

The furniture we purchased for our house was delivered and it was . . . well, somewhat of an ordeal - sorta like most everything else.

Ikea (where we made our purchase) instructed us to have a 15 meter space available for the truck and furthermore if there was no space to pull up in front of the house, they would return to Brussels with our furniture and we could offer another 125 Euro for them to come back and try again.

We decided we'd do our best to make sure it happened the first time. So our nice realtor told us how to get the city to post signs stating that the parking spaces in front of our house were not available on that day.

We completed an application and returned it within the 10 days prior to delivery requirement and received the permit in the mail and all this for only 30 Euro! Well, sure enough, the day before our delivery there were signs instructing those who usually park there to look elsewhere.

Of course on delivery day, I walk (in the pouring rain) over to the house to meet Ikea (sometime between Noon and 16 uur). As I approach, I say to myself "surely those aren't cars in our 15 meter space". But indeed there are cars in our 15 meter space!

Now what? Track down a Dutch speaker and ask them to call the politie? Then sometime in the next decade these cars might be ticketed or towed? That shouldn't be a problem. And all this before Ikea drives by headed back to Brussels?

So I go (in the pouring rain, remember) in search of the car owners. As luck would have it, one showed up and apologized that he was from Antwerp, didn't know the city and would move right away. All in perfect English, I might add.

Then, shortly thereafter the owner of the other car showed up appearing apologetic, but speaking Dutch so I guess she said something like "I'm moving my car right now" and did.

Our landlord (aka pharmacist next door) had the foresight to ask the painters for buckets to place along our 15 meters and lo and behold Ikea pulled up within minutes.

Thankfully the landlord's son appeared and was able to communicate with the French-speaking Ikea delivery guys and then tell us in English just what they said. Then later we "talked" to the Dutch-speaking painters with his help.

We Americans are so not equipped to live here :)

Anyway, here's what we got. So this shouldn't take long to become a place to sit, sleep, and eat, right? Pieceacake!