Michael Ampersant: How are you doing...?

Aug 13, 2021

How are you doing...?

Michael is posting this especially for Alex (Irene Hogan), the famous editor of GFF, who was wondering how we are doing...

This is "us" (Chang and Michael, plus Charlie, our saviour (in the middle), in November '20, in the garden of our new home in Alcobaça (click on any picture for a slide-show)).

The last couple of years, when Michael was looking at his posts on these pages, he felt that people were being misled to think that we were living in paradise.

The view from our home on the Cote d'Azur ("Nichts ist schwerer zu ertragen als eine lange Reihe von schönen Tagen" (Goethe))

This was far from the truth, unfortunately, since we were in financial trouble and had to sell the place and leave France. But the housing market was down, we could not sell, and in our suppressed state of mind we suffered under this ruthlessly glorious sun rising each morning over the glorious Mediterranean.

A passing cloud comes to the rescue, for once.

But then Covid struk, the markets turned, and we sold the house and moved to Portugal, where we found---for a song---an underrated hilltop villa in Alcobaça, 100 km north of Lisbon, near the coast.

It's the structure with the red roof, not far from...

...the Praia do Norte, the beach with the highest surfable waves in the world.

But then, the internet hit in too many ways and our relocation became much more complicated than expected. Here's one trivial example, concerning our print-copy subscription to The Economist. It's a "chat" with their "advisor":

The Economist (TE): Hi, Ampersant, you are now in a queue and we'll have an advisor with you shortly.
Michael (M): I am not receiving my print edition since 2 or 3 weeks
TE: Your current position is 1, thank you for holding.
TE: Your current position is 1, thank you for holding.
TE: Your current position is 1, thank you for holding.
TE: Bill has been allocated to the chat.
Bill: Please bear with me for a minute, while I check the information for you.
Bill: Thank you for your patience, Ampersant.
Bill: I've extended your subscription by a further 2 issues to compensate for the missing copies.
Bill: Is there anything else I can help you with?
M: You have no explanation? Did you send the copies?
Bill: Actually there is a issue in delivery, I apologize for the inconvenience caused.
Bill: Hereafter you'll not face the same issue.
M: Could you just be a bit more precise..."issue in delivery"...is that the language I can expect from THE ECONOMIST?
Bill: I'm extremely sorry to inform you that there is an delay with the postal department is I meant.
M: Shall I cancel my subscription, then?
Bill: But now I have forwarded to concerned department, hereafter you will not face delivery delay.
M: I'm not happy about this "chat", I can tell you...
Bill: I'm sorry that you've decided to cancel.
M: I have not decided to cancel...I asked: "Shall I cancel"...
Bill: I'm extremely sorry for that, Ampersant.
M: You are sorry for what?
(Here the chat ended; the "advisor" disappeared from the line).

Are you still there? This is how people have to spend their days these days when they move countries.

Plus, our underrated villa revealed some underrated problems which required all our attention. Plus, Michael developed a problem with his knee.

Not so underrated after all---street view of the house in Nov. '20.

Charlie working on the gate of the driveway

Not all problems are solved yet; we are still somewhat in limbo (etymologically the first sphere of hell, "limbo", if we recall correctly from memory).

And Michael is not---he's excepting Chang from this, because Chang is everything---we are really not self-help people that believe in self-help slogans.

Anyhow, there we are.