Wasteful time....

My stay is Tirana is winding down, and, as usual, the last few days here are always hectic.

All the things that were postponed because .... “oh, there is plenty of time ahead”, as they say here, must be crunched in at the last minute. I am much happier planning ahead, and I always try, although I know that is not always possible to do so here. I am forced to wing it to adapt to this trend of life, but the results frustrate me because I don’t accomplish as much as I want, and I am used to otherwise.

This afternoon I had booked an appointment for a hair cut, and I had the full attention of the hairdresser that gave me also an invigorating head massage while washing my hair. It was an unexpected, but welcome treatment that totally relaxed me, and I certainly needed it. This soothing time was briefly interrupted by two different appearances of other customers, who just dropped in and were expecting to be taken care of immediately. The owner of the shop calmly refused and after they made their exits, she felt obliged to explain, with a smile, that was not unusual here because most people do not make appointments ahead of time.