If you’ve been following my posts, you should know that when I first switched to Mac – I was a little disappointed with my first MacBook experience. One month – two issues. But I did not tell you how (if) did it end up. I guess it’s about time.

As it became clear latter – the charging issue wasn’t actually about the battery. Worse – it was about the motherboard. But the interesting thing is not what it was – it’s how it was solved.

So, the next Friday after the battery stopped charging, I decided to give Apple Genius Bar a chance to prove they can be better. And, to my great surprise:

1. The Genius actually spoke English (Don’t forget – it’s France we’re talking about)
2. The Genius did not take my Mac promising it will be fixed ASAP (yeah, 2 weeks is usually the “fastest possible” for most)
3. We even managed to agree on a call from the Genius when he receives the spare motherboard and when someone is available to address the issue in a working day.

I should note he wasn’t 100% sure it was the motherboard yet. He just said: “Well, when you bring it here, we’ll check if it’s the motherbord and if not – we’ll check what is it, return you your sick MacBook, order spare parts and call you again when they’re here.

It didn’t take long to get the call (I think it was three days) and, as agreed – I instantly took the MacBook to the Genius. Well OK, it took them more than a day to fix it – it was three working days and I was getting mad already (I never took my primary notebook to the service before), but in reality, I’d say that three days is good. Very good.

Almost five months passed since then and the MacBook is doing just fine.

Meanwhile, you can check our photos in Marija’s public photo album.

A puzzle: how many days does it take FedEx to ship a pen from Shanghai to Paris in two days?

Gotcha! In two days FedEx can deliver a pen from China to UK, from Shanghai to Berlin, or to Vilnius, or to.. Atlantis! But not to Paris.

So, the correct answer is – four days: one – to ship it from China to Paris and another three for local delivery attempts to the same correct address. If you don’t believe me, you can always ask my girlfriend – she’s having fun with them today all-day-long as she ordered a really cool Wireless Laser Pointer which should’ve been already delivered earlier today. Now it’s 22:00 and it’s not here! Check out the tracking report (click on the picture to change scale):

I can imagine this guy going back and forth, always returning at the same wrong door, knocking every few minutes and asking: are you sure, this is not your address? No? Are you sure? Common..

Funny thing is – my girl was tracking the status quite actively and once she noticed the first failed delivery, she immediately contacted FedEx to clear it up: the address FedEx has was actually correct, they were only missing code to our tower block electronic lock and so she gave FedEx the code. I should note that as most of Parisians, we have a house keeper working 9 to 5 here who takes care of lost guys like this one.

Anyway, pointer’s not here yet, but.. guess what we found in the mailbox later today:

Mailbox is inside the building, so he only needed to get on the second floor and pull our door rope (we were home all day).

Dear FedEx, I know it’s not you. I just wish you to find some better partners here in Paris. You should try making friends with Paris Firemen. They’re really good!

I really miss Vilnius..

UPDATE: The next day, my girl called FedEx again. I couldn’t stop laughing:

• At first, FedEx Smarty asked for a cellphone number saying they got it wrong on the cover letter. My girlfriend asked the number they have on the cover letter and.. they matched. Well, I understand – it should be really hard for an international company to get the international phone numeration, especially that with “+” symbol in front.
• Then they found one more excuse: “The address we have is incorrect. Well, no, actually, address is correct, but the messenger got it wrong, he got the house number as 7, not as 97″. First, I can’t really imagine messenger going four times to the same 7th house, not finding the addressee and not taking a deeper look at cover letter (when it was finally delivered, I’ve checked – there were three copies of cover letter enclosed – all with correct props.). And last, but totally not least – how can messenger, going to the 7th house accidentally drop an undelivery note in a mailbox located in house nr. 97?

Anyway, we finally received it. You might want to take a look how funny the delivery report is – notice how many hours did the gadget spent traveling from China to France and from Paris to Paris:

When I first saw that, it made me wonder: how do they do it? All the cars are so nicely and closely parked to each other. Distance between every one of them is no more then 10 centimeters and sometimes – there’s no distance at all! Look:

Nice, huh?

But as days passed, I began to realize that the idea of Parisian drivers being really cool was just an illusion. Common, do you think there’s some kind of crane waiting for every car driver so it could drag out the car nicely? I guess the “Golf” driver would really use one:

Or these “Peugeot” drivers:

You think the distances only looks relatively small? Now how relative is that:

Ain’t that love..

If you’re still not convinced, spend some time on google maps. Don’t know where to start? How about here, where I took most of the pictures.

OK, I’ll make it clear: there’s nothing wrong in scratching other cars here! You will not be punished or scolded. Actually you will only get the attention from tourists and city guests like us, but not from local people.

Pity I didn’t have a chance to make a video stream of parking in action yet (although I had a chance to watch few really smooth moves) but as soon as I will succeed, I’ll definitely share it with you. For now, please enjoy what some others guys were lucky to capture:

Guess what they eat for their lunch? Right you are – anything, but.. with baguette. Same for dinner.

At first it seemed a bit odd. However my every morning now begins with same tasty crunchy French loaf. It’s addictive! If you think you don’t have a shop to buy baguette nearby, don’t worry – I’m sure you didn’t take a look through the window. Every other corner of the house has it’s very own boulangerie (bread shop). No problems with rye yield here in France.

Not only do French have baguetties, which seemed very strange at first, but also – a very strict eating schedule:

- 8:30 – breakfast
- 12:30 – lunch
- 19:30 – dinner

No debates, no exceptions, no excuses.

Guess what’s the best time to rob a bank here?