When It All Goes Wrong, Buy Ice Cream

Today was an opportunity for growth and personal development.

Don’t you just hate days like that?

Being an ever-sentimentalist, I have a very special necklace that I wear every day. Back in Lagos, I accidentally broke the chain while changing. Because the chain links are super tiny, I can’t connect the links back together myself.

I was going to need some professional help.

When I got to Lisbon, I set out to find a jewelry repair shop. And here’s another example of how every day errands prove to be difficult while abroad — I couldn’t find a single repair shop anywhere! After stopping into countless jewelry shops and asking about repairs, I was recommended a small shop close to my hostel.

After talking to the repair clerk for a few minutes, we agreed on 5 euros and that it would be ready for pick up in two days. I informed him that I had a morning train to catch that day, but he reassured me that it would be ready when the store opened at 10am.

You can probably see where this is going …

When I arrived back at the store at precisely 10am, I discovered the shop wasn’t even open. Like it still had the barred fence on it. Very much closed.

My brain went into panic mode.

What was I going to do?? My train was leaving at 11:30am. And I can’t leave without this necklace. That’s not an option. I waited and waited, but the workers to the shop never showed up, and I eventually missed my train. Finally when a worker did show up, I discovered that my necklace wasn’t even fixed yet.

*rams head into wall* Seriously??

They were trying to push me off until late afternoon, but I countered with 1 hour. When I came back, this was on the door:

It translates to “be right back.”

*rams head into wall again*

A half hour later they came back, they gave me my fixed necklace, and I left the store. After that whole ordeal, I treated myself to ice cream.

Moral of the story:

I was really upset this morning. I was so frustrated by the lack of respect and concern to their customer (me), the unreliability, and the overall inconvenience.

But you know what? My necklace got fixed, I got on another train later that afternoon, and I eventually made it to Porto. In the grand scheme of things, it all worked out just the same.

Sometimes I get so upset when things don’t go exactly to plan. I get stressed out and flustered. But I’m learning that that’s life. Things will go awry. Fact. But if you have a flexible attitude towards it, you’ll enjoy the ride a lot more.