While my dad’s in hospital I do some business appointments for him, along with the italian boss of the company we’re selling shoes for. I picked him up at the airport yesterday morning and after paying a little hospital visit we set out to drive to the client. Thankfully he has no problem driving my dad’s big Audi…if I had to do that in german traffic I’d die…or cry. German people are mean when they’re driving and they have no patience for someone trying to figure out a vehicle three times as big as the one they’re used to and so crammed with shoe cases that you can’t see a thing behind you. And automatic…I’ve never even driven automatic before.
We got to the client’s office and it was a big villa. Once we stepped inside we were literally taken back to the 70’s. Dark wood paneled walls, brown plush armchairs, brown stained glass coffee tables and on the walls pictures from the client’s shops as they were in the late 70s/early 80s. It was all in good condition but I could totally picture my dad starting out business as a young guy in these very rooms 30 years earlier. It was quite fascinating.
Heck, even the coffee cups and milk trays were totally still stuck in the 70s!
It’s actually a bunch of really important clients who do this appointment together and there were about 10 of them. I’d previously thought they would just cram around the shoes on the shelves and poke them and discuss them.
But no, they filed into the room quietly, made a big circle around the first group of shelves, looked at me expectantly and said “You may start”. Gulp. I’ve presented a collection before, but usually that is a one-on-one interaction with one client. Also this collection is brand new and I am not really familiar with it yet. Still, I dove in and made an impromptu presentation of the whole collection and I think it went pretty well. Phew.
To leave you with another picture, this was our way back at dusk in awful weather and bad traffic…so glad I wasn’t driving 🙂
little home by hand
little home by hand 
I had no idea your daddy was in the hospital. I’m sending all the positive thoughts your way, I hope he gets better soon. How do you know Germans are mean drivers? Were you ever there? And also, Brazilians are bad drivers, most of them don’t respect the rules for driving. But I do! I’m an excellent driver, seriously. LOL
Love the 70’s decoration! And wow, you did an amazing job with that presentation. That’s nice. Love the road picture! Looks like the federal road that connects Macaé to Rio de Janeiro. Awesome.
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Thanks so much! My dad had a heart attack early in January but he is doing a little better now.
I am german, so that’s how I know they’re mean drivers 🙂 I live in Duesseldorf and traffic is really bad here. I’m a pretty awful driver, I’m just not very confident and it stresses me out to drive in the dark and in much traffic, even in my own little car 😉
I’ve never been to Brazil and if I ever go there I’ll surely be too scared to drive around 🙂 When I went to Italy on vacation last year I made my boyfriend drive all the time, because Italians sure don’t respect the rules for driving either! He was going mad at first, but after about two days he said:’I think I get it. Here you just drive as if there were no rules and everybody shouts at each other but it all works out somehow.’!
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Oh, I’m sorry about your dad’s heart attack. Mine is constantly worried with his heart but he just doesn’t have the guts to go to a doctor and have it checked. He never had a heart attack or anything similar, but there was this one time when his pressure was just really high, really high and no medicine would work (we were at the hospital back then). That episode never happened again, thank God.
Then I guess Italians and Brazilians are a little bit alike in the driving department. I’m not saying the whole country is made of terrible drivers but, my God, in some states it can be called a suicide. LOL
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Thank you 🙂 Your dad should get himself checked out too though! That episode with his blood pressure doesn’t sound too good.
Not wanting to scare you, but my dad wasn’t feeling very well either for a couple of weeks. Over the christmas holidays he went to see a doctor who told him he should get himself checked out at a hospital, but there was no need to hurry. My dad got back home from the holidays and planned to go to the hospital first thing in the morning, but then he had the heart attack that night! He was very very lucky that he could still call an ambulance himself and there was a specialist clinic nearby, but even so his heart was pretty heavily damaged by the attack.
Do tell your dad to get a check, it is so much worse to wait until something bad actually happens than getting it checked out and facing it and being able to prevent something like that! And maybe it’s nothing at all and he can stop worrying. All the best to him!
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