意大利之旅（2）

had a very good sleep on the first night.. since my touchdown in bergamo, we had been visiting some italian friends in 2 towns not far from us.. by the time we returned back to richie's place, it was well past midnight.. we could have reached home earlier, if not for a short jam caused by a traffic accident on the highway..

we went to collect a table set on monday which had just arrived at the warehouse today.. some interesting facts: the table was ready in october, but due to some administrative issues, it could not be shipped here; when it finally arrived in 10th december, it has to stay on the ship for three days; and it came on shore on that monday when i arrived.. was it coincidental or was it fate??

we had tried to reach the warehouse before 1230pm, before they close for lunch, to complete the papers, but failed to due to the traffic and difficulty in finding the place.. it was in another town and we did not have the map, luckily we had lucia on board to help us navigate and ask passer-bys for directions.. so we had lunch in the car at a petrol kiosk which is also closed for lunch.. in italy, most offices and shops are closed between 12pm to 3pm for lunch, i don't know why, perhaps their lunch take a long time to prepare, or they are extremely slow eaters.. haha..

the table set was dismantled into sixteen parts, and luckily we can fit them all into richie's mitsubishi grandis in two trips, so by the time we finished transporting all from the warehouse back to bergamo and carrying up to richie's place, it was already 730pm.. another incident which i think is fated also: the big table top with glass weighed 48kg and did not fit into the small lift in his apartment, italians like small lifts i think, most can only fit four passengers comfortably.. so it wad fated that the table arrived when i was around so i could help him carry it up the 6 storeys..

dinner never tasted so good, especially when you are so hungry after a day's manual work, even when it was just congee.. richie couldn't hide his enthusiasm to see the end product that straight after dinner, we started to assemble the table.. indeed, the assembled table set is very beautiful, simple yet elegant.. the worksmanship is fantastic.. we just sat and admired it for quite some time..

but so tired am i that i turn in early that night..