Gratitude

Sunday afternoon my newly bought used BMW broke down. It was only two and half years old and it should not happen. But shit happens. What would you do in this situation?

I stopped the car and immediately called ADAC. Thanks to my wife who applied for me the ADAC membership before I arrive in Germany from Shanghai. The ADAC angel came within 20 minutes and checked my car for failure. Then he suggested that the car should be picked up and sent to car shop.

I waited another 20 minutes. The truck came and the driver very professionally loaded my car into the truck. And we drove to the shop. Since it was Sunday the shop was closed, so we parked my car and I took a taxi home.

Monday morning I rode the bike to the shop and explained the mechanic the situation. He started the engine and said that he needed some time to check up. Two days later, he called that the car was finished. I was happy and went there to pick up my car with the consciousness that I might be surprised with the invoice.

And I was really surprised when he said that BMW took over all the cost on goodwill. I am not sure how many people are involved in the whole process. But at least I would like to say thanks to the following people:

- My wife who applied the ADAC membership for me
- The ADAC person at the service centre who took my call
- The ADAC angel who checked my car
- The ADAC driver who picked up my car
- The receptionist at the repair chop
- The capable mechanic who repaired my car and negotiated the cost with BMW
- The BMW service personal who received the call from the mechanic
- The manager who decided to take over the cost to make a customer (me) happy
- Some one from the BMW finance department who will book the cost to the right account
- Maybe many more…

Is this not a reason for gratitude? Think about how many more people in the world are involved to make our whole life comfortable? Uncountable! Is this not a good reason for gratitude?

I Had a Dream

July 9, I experienced a couple of events that I would rate them as unfairness.

- A friend who deserved a large pay raise got only a salary increase of few percent.

- An Ayi (house keeper) who was challenged by her employer that she charged the battery of her electro bike in the employer’s house quitted the job with anger.

- An employee who works in a large company could not claim back the difference of transportation expense, because he was not informed about the budget raise.

- A landlord who was offered a house leasing contract with less favourable terms than the standard rejected the contract.

At that night I had a very strange dream. I was about to enter into a shop and the owner requested me to pay 50 Mao entry fee. This is really unheard. You never pay entry fee for a shop. But I had to go in for some reasons. So I paid the entry fee and told owner that I will put this story into my blog.

After I finished the shopping, the owner paid me back the 50 Mao and in addition he gave me another 50 Mao and asked me: “Please just do not write any thing about this in your blog.” At that moment I woke up and could remember the dream clearly.

Since the internet, people having power could do less unfair things because they are afraid of bad publicity.

And I have a dream that all unfairness of the world will be cleaned up one day!