Broken

So, it's been months and I have completely abondoned my blog. For the three mere followers that I have; I am sorry. The only reason I can state for not writing anything in the last couple of months is due to my lack of inspiration. Of course I could find lots of excuses to defend myself. However, this would mean that I am not man enough to see my inadequacies. Firstly though, I will apologise for not posting my friends' contributions. Reason for that is that till now, they have simply not had anything to contribute haha.

So now to inspire my few followers and to gain some ground on what little I have lost. I will share with you a story. Off late lots of things have been getting broken in my life. Things that I clearly need to be able to function in todays world. This story has started a while ago, but I will begin it with last sunday.

I started a new job a couple of months ago. Last sunday I was choosen to represent the company at a fair which was two and a half hours drive away from where I stay. The public transportation system in Holland, although better than most, makes traveling a living hell, and on sundays especially! I had to wake up at five am in the morning just to get the journey started! My colleagues and I had decided to meet up in Uithoorn, which is close to where they stay, and move on from there to Hardenberg where the fair was.

Now I woke up quite alright. I was on time and on schedule and despite the time of the day, I was in a cheerful mood and rode my bike to the station to catch the bus. This is where my drama started. The bus was late and I hate waiting! In any case, it arrived just as I was giving up that it would come. As I sat down and looked at my phone, I realised something was up. The damn phone was simply not responding! My phone somehow broke, and this shattered my world....

I save all my information on my phone, this ranges from the contact details of my colleagues to my traveling schedule of that day. This meant that I only had a vague idea of which bus stop I had to get off. As you already can see where this is heading, I forgot which bus stop I had to get off and got off two stops later. Upon arrival, I simply hoped that my colleagues would find me there. After a while I got aggitated of waiting and decided I needed to come up with some action.

So I looked at the people around me at the bus station and scrutinized each and every one. Trying to find a friendly face that would trust me enough to let me put my simcard in their phone so that I could call because by now I was sure that my colleagues had called. Just the look of them put lead in my feet and froze my mouth; they looked frightening.

After praying fervently to God and trying to get my phone to work to no avail, I finally conceded to my fait and approached my first target, a bus driver. I told him of my ordeal and after I was done with my story, he said I will never let anyone put their simcard in my phone. And then he was friendly enough to point me to some flats in the wrong direction as I had been trying to guess the appartment of one of my colleagues (this later led to them not finding me at the busstop).

I came back to the busstop, frustrated.... I found my second victim. It was another bus driver, this time a female. She too had to listen to my ordeal. In her I had found a real rare commodity. This lady is one of the few in this world that doesn't have a cellphone! Eish, was I shocked! Even in my country of birth, almost everyone has a damn cellphone! She was however friendly enough to give me a fisherman's friend and wish me the best of luck!

My third and last try was a mother and son. The mother too, refused to lend me her phone for the same reason as the bus driver. The son however, felt pity on me and fixed my broken spirits by lending me his phone. Finally! I managed to call my colleagues who broke my heart by telling me that they had left me. I asked them what our next plan was and their simple answer was go home. For me, that was not an option. At last I decided to undertake some affirmative action and move quick on my feet.

I got in the next bus to schiphol aiport to catch a train in the right direction. In the bus I got into friendly banter with the bus driver, who like me was dark skinned. We got along fabulous from the beginning. He decided to help me more and he too borrowed me his phone to call my colleagues. I told them that I was coming by train much to their surprise.

An hour and a half later than expected, I arrived at the fair. It made my manager and colleagues appreciate me. How funny that something that is broken, could strengthen my relationship with my work mates! My broken cellphone cut off my communication, yet it strengthened my ability to come up with solutions.

This story decided to make me sit back behind my five year old laptop (of which something is breaking within it every day) and write this story.... I hope this broken story, fixed something in you!