curtains are washable, right?

here's V in the post office in Puerto Plata, which was one of two errands we needed to do there today. the post office errand was successful and the other was not. let's start out on the positive with the post office. we went there to pick up a book that V had ordered.

here's the story on the infamous book. V had ordered it in July (yes, July) for a class that she wanted to take online. it was going to be hand delivered by one of our clients, Dennis, who was coming down from NJ. unfortunately the book did not make it to his house prior to his trip down here. so upon returning to the US, Dennis shipped it by Global Priority Mail with a promise from them of it being in the DR within 5-10 days. so by mid August it should have been here. it wasn't. we prodded our office to send someone to the Sosua post office more frequently than the usual once a month trip that they make to pick up the office's mail to see if it had arrived. (yes, once a month they go and pick up the mail.) well, of course, it's not so easy to ship something to the DR and days and weeks went by without the book arriving. V canceled her class because how could she take the class without the book? i said i thought it would take like 3 months and V would have to pay a duty of some sort, as that is what happens when packages are held up usually. it's a way for them to make money because of course you should have to pay some tax for a new book. well, the other day, a blue notice arrived from the Puerto Plata post office that there was something there for V. so off we went today to get the book that is no longer needed.

V had to pay the man at the post office 100 pesos (slight more than $3) for reasons not totally known as V couldn't really follow his explanation. probably the duty. that was a relief to her as she was expecting it to be 1000 pesos. i just took pictures of the place while she negotiated her way with the guy behind the bars that look like what they used to have at banks in the old days.

here's the post office:


it is run down one the second floor but could be a very nice looking building if it was restored. it's 2 blocks from the Malecon and the ocean. it is for sale. i wonder how much they want for it.

now on to the unsuccessful part of the trip. we went to Hidelisa to pick up the curtains that had been made for the Blue Fish condo. we had selected white material. probably the wrong choice since when we inspected the curtains, we found that half of them were dirty and/or had water stains. remember from my previous blog entry that sometimes the fabric rolls are strewn on the floor there. on the roll of material that we had chosen, we had seen that it was dirty at the beginning of the roll and told the saleswoman to make sure to not use that part. i mean it seemed like such commmonsense, but we did feel the need to say it because, you know, you have to not assume anything here. well, they used the dirty part anyway. :-(

so tell me, what do you think went on in the brain of the seamstress? "oh, let me use the dirty part of the material." or "geez, they're going to get dirty anyway, who cares, i'll just use the dirty part." or "oh this dirty part, they can just wash the curtains before hanging them up." or maybe they just weren't thinking.....

the funny thing is the saleswoman who we had worked with us on the measurements didn't have much of an apology nor did she seem surprised in anyway with the situation. probably happens all the time....

well today i was not amused by the STUPIDITY. it's a 40 minute drive to Puerto Plata and back. so we have to slog there again on Saturday to pick up the rest of the curtains that they will redo. i'll take a picture of the inside of the shop so we can remember the strewn fabric rolls and chuckle at it all later.

i certainly hope that this is the only folly with the things that we are having made, but somehow i suspect we still have some glitches to encounter with our furniture and other curtains. nothing is easy here.