20-21 August, TH and Friday

Thursday I shopped, got Luciano some new tires, did banking, and tried to install the DSL kit Swisscom sent me. I'll spare you the rest. Friday was a bureaucratic day involving Sylvia, the former owner of La Perla, and the Notar. I don't want to risk a libel suit so I'll keep my vilification of certain Swiss "professionals" to a minimum, but, suffice it to say, not only were my concerns over the last year reaffirmed, Sylvia agreed wholeheartedly. The upshot is that we can move in and do whatever we want but Sylvia remains the owner in name for three to six more months. I have written more details for those who want them sent privately, but here are some highlights:

Just for kicks I asked Herr L why he didn’t apply for the visas until June. Easy, he explained, he hadn’t received the paperwork from Vikas until then. He makes a good point. He sent us the forms in early June and I returned mine within a week. Vikas was traveling in India and it took him two weeks to get his back. The fact that L didn’t send us the paperwork until June (rather than, say, September 2007) is of course moot. I decided not to press the point since he was squirming already and the answer, of course, was ultimately, “I’m sorry Herr Breimhorst, I’m really just an incompetent fool.” But, I must admit, I really did hope he would say that – it would have made me feel better. As he squirmed, however, he did mumble something about waiting for the bank. But of course we all know that’s fairly irrelevant.

In any event, if we don’t get our visa (I asked), we can appeal. Since there is no reason we’d be denied in the first place, we should win the appeal. I wonder if Tautology 101 was a prerequisite to Contradiction 102 or Obfuscation and Delay 103 or Stealth Vacations 104 at L's law school.

A La Perla
After the meeting Sylvia and I drove to San Nazzaro. She showed me how the washing machine works. Marianne had the order of the button pressing wrong which is why she wasn’t abe to help me get it started before. I apologized for having made changes to the house but Sylvia thought they were mostly good. She was glad that I cut down that tree since it really did open up the lawn. She had been on her dad’s case to get new furniture, etc. but he was a very practical man and said they weren’t worn out yet. She also had tried to get him to paint the outside of the house but he never wanted to because he thought it would attract thieves. Although, she added, La Perla had never been burglarized. I showed her where we were thinking of making a bar and she thought it was a great idea. We walked throughout the house and I asked her tons of questions about details I won’t bore you with. She apologized about its shortcomings and flaws. We spoke about Signor P and she was impressed we had a signed statement from him that we could trim that tree. She said her father had been around with him for years but had no success. Likewise, her father wanted the land next to the street but had had no success. However, one party awhile ago that had been interested in La Perla had been able to secure an agreement from P to get the land. Also, concerning trees, her father regretted putting the palm trees there, he didn’t realize they would grow so quickly.