New facilities

As some of you know, during this stay in Tirana, I planned to relocate from an old, rented apartment that I used for nine years both as lodging and office, and the changes have been dramatic to say the least.

My moving plans never came to fruition, as wished and have already mentioned, but the relocations were eventually accomplished.

As you have seen in my previous entries of this blog, I am now enjoying a gorgeous, free apartment as a residence, while the offices are being setup in a wing of my original property (relinquished by the government after 15 years of struggles), which is situated in another part of the city.

Partial renovations have been made so far in just one small wing of my old house to temporarily accommodate the offices until further plans and funds are found for the larger projects to follow. Suffice to say here that the state in which this property was returned to me last year was appalling, and in no way habitable.

Water, electricity, and new bathroom facilities are now available for the offices, which share a coaxial cable connection already established in the area. Through a wireless router, telephone service is also provided (supposedly to make calls anywhere) and cable TV can be added if needed.

I am using two telecommunications service providers in Tirana; one for the new apartment and the other for the offices. They both use the latest technology for online computer usage and high speed connection.

There is not a soul in Albania without cell phones, of all shapes and forms, and landline units are used only for local calls at home by the older population. I had one of these in the old place, and it was useful to me only to receive recorded messages from them, and to be able to call abroad by using minutes from purchased phone cards.

Now, with the new setups, and the split of locale, I have to adapt to new habits in communication, and, deal with different hardware and software. To complete all these facilities I had to purchase two handheld units, which I am now testing in both places.

The one in my apartment works fine and for the first time last night I was able to surprise an old friend in NY by just dialing her number, and she tested calling me back as if I were home. This unit is attached to a ‘magic jack’ I purchased in NY, which assigned me a NY number and with it I can make any call to the US for a mere $20.00 per year.

I still need to test the other unit at the office, which, instead, is hooked up to the wireless router that provides high speed broadband and telephone service, supposedly anywhere, for a combined cost of $20.00 a month. All I had to do is pay a $3.00 deposit to establish the account, which can be renewed as one needs it, with no long term contracts of any kind.

What's interesting to me is that while dealing with these new installations, I didn't even have to specify what I wanted. The service providers here have dumped the old technology, and automatically furnish now the most efficient methodology.

To all of the above I have to add the completely free Skype service, which I downloaded and also use on all my computers for quite a while. The microphone and camera incorporated in the computer allow the making of phone, video, and even conference calls with the pleasure of seeing the person you’re talking to. Ahhh, modern technology, with all its frustrating experiences can offer great opportunities!