VIVA BLIP !

A day of waiting and hoping and checking and hoping.

The new dishwasher was due to be delivered today. I had been disappointed over the delivery timescale when I placed the order last week with the British HQ'd consumer electrical goods online supplier "AO" but I accepted the delay as they had previously done a great job on a fridge and a few days without a dishwasher is hardly life threatening.

AO ventured outside the UK in autumn 2014 with a base in Germany which is now officially their "Rest 27" HQ with their aim to become Europe's biggest online electrical consumer goods company.

Their order system had thus said from the start delivery today. Then last night I got a text message giving me a 4 hour window (13:00-17:00) and then from this morning onward I have been able to track the van and gradually the delivery window gets revised, even got delayed to 17:45 at one stage causing me grief. However then it got better and finally 30 minutes before arrival, the drivers called to say they were nearly there. And it worked well, the delivery took place at about 14:15.

So can't fault AO and will certainly continue to have them as a "preferred supplier" as price, online ordering, telephone support and delivery system cannot be faulted.

The reason for my "panic" was that a Blip Meeting was planned for early evening, around 17:00-18:00 but in Austria! Although Angie was at home today and would have been able to take the delivery, she had a specialist docs appointment at 16:30 an hour from here. And I still feared the kidney stone attack from yesterday may return although this morning was "re-leaved" to see around 10 stones do a brexit. Even if small, they are the ones that often cause the pain as they close off the remaining fluid passageway in the tubes.

Delivery done, then did try to get to grips with dishwasher installation but soon realised it would be too complicated. Mad dash to get the animals and myself sorted and finally at just before 17:00 left for the 90km drive to the Austrian town of Riezlern in the "exclave" Kleinwalsertal - lit. Small Walser Valley. The Walsers were a tribe/folk from around the 10thC.

The weather and sinking sun made for one of those unforgettable drives, past countryside ablaze with autumn colours and a backdrop of the Alps. I kept trying to take photos with the mobile phone but could not do it any justice. In my panic to leave, I had forgotten my camera!

Getting close to the border I got a call from Tochterpleach who had stoically being coordinating the meeting with myself and the initiator EvelyneNC to say I was actually further than she was (I had given her a live tracking link of my journey), so I took the opportunity to fill up the car and take a photo planned for Facebook and my one time English Liverpudlian boss David who has made at least one previous Blip appearance. I wasn't trying to make him jealous of the surroundings - he knows the Alps far better than I do and was for many years #2 and Finance CFO of the oil company OMV, I think the largest industrial Austrian company. The petrol station business includes the non oil parts of such sites (food, snacks, etc) under the brand name "VIVA" and a few years ago, David hired me for 24 hours to do a small consultancy job in Vienna with the management of VIVA.

Enough of this  - VIVA BLIP - and within a few minutes had passed Oberstdorf, entered Austria (no border controls) and found the apartment Evelyne and her husband Don from Reno, Nevada, were renting for a few days during their tour from Alsace to here and then northwards to her family in Hamburg. Tochterpleach is a local "old" Blip friend although we haven't seen each other in person for at least a year.

Well Blip certainly "came alive". A simply wonderful evening with wonderful people in a wonderful setting. Our Blip friendship of the last few years made it so easy. No standing on guard nervous of what one has let oneself in for, no lengthy introductions needed, we just got down to chatting, just as if we had known each other for decades.

Treated to a glass of wine and "canapé" (Alsace liver sausage) in their exquisite Airbnb apartment before we were again treated to a lovely meal in a local restaurant. Evelyne and Don were perfect hosts; Evelyne with her bubbling curiosity, positive "lebensfreunde" and Don in his wonderful quiet, relaxed manner, always a smile and a twinkle in his eyes. Quite something given he is not a "full" Bliper but more a victim of this contagious vice which forces him to go places and hear about events around the world and probably look at the odd empty dinner table when his partner says "I just need to get this Blip posted".

Eventually the evening had to come to an end and we made our farewells but knowing this would not be the last - American, German, Scottish, English meeting we would have. I had a broad smile and happy heart for the 56 minute journey home arriving at midnight.

I can't thank them both enough for setting up this evening and Tochterpleach for her steadfast work coordinating it all. And very importantly, the "mediator" which made this all possible - BLIP. We are so lucky to have such a tremendous, safe environment to have.

VIVA BLIP


PS I would have liked to have posted another photo but for now the petrol station will have to do it's best to record the event.