Reconnected

Those that visit this page regularly and check the map to see where I am walking will have noticed that I have been stuck in Colle di Val d’Elsa for a week or two. Well, I am not there. I actually walked on to Pentolina, Chiusdino and Montieri, but my iPhone broke down so I couldn’t update my whereabouts. 

My phone had been slowly falling apart in the past year, but he’s had a tough life with me on the road. I already had it before I started my journey so it isn’t a big surprise that after three years of service, of which two on the road, it should throw the towel at some point. But now what? I don’t have the money to buy a new one and if there is a tool that is essential for my journey it is this one. So I decided to post a cry for help on Facebook and Twitter: “Is there anyone who is now very happy with a new iPhone 5, so that they would be willing to donate their old phone?”

The social media did not disappoint me and neither did my followers. I got several offers, but there was one that was of the ‘an-offer-you-can’t-refuse’ category: a brand new Samsung Galaxy III. It was Dutchtel that came to my aid. 

I used to be in primary school with Patrick Balleur, one of the founders of Dutchtel, a telecom company from Breukelen in the Netherlands. We lost contact when I moved away at the age of nine, only to get back in touch again years later through the internet. At that time I was a barista trainer and had just written a booklet for a big Dutch milk company about the secrets to making the perfect espresso and how to pour latte art. Patrick turned out to be a fanatic coffee lover with the tools at home to do what I taught the professionals. So that is how we got reconnected after more than twenty years.

You can never be sure in your life whether things happen for a reason. And if they do, it might be that you were important in someone else’s life instead of the other way around. But it can be fun to trace the steps that were necessary to bring two people in the position that they are able and willing to help one another. In this case, I don’t think I would have been able to do what I am doing today if I hadn’t moved around so much when I was young. And if I had never gotten interested in the coffee roasting and serving trade and I hadn’t written a booklet about it and Patrick had not been interested in coffee and Facebook hadn’t existed and Patrick wouldn’t have been in telecommunications… then I wouldn’t have owned a brand new Galaxy right now, and you would at some point think that I had settled down in Colle di Val d’Elsa.

Thanks Patrick and Dutchtel for your support! I guess I will have to change my slogan now.

You can find Dutchtel also on Facebook. Please like their page as a thank you for their support !