Moving from Toronto to PEI : Confirming the confirmation!

There’s a lot to learn when you’re coming from away to the island. One of my biggest pet peeves is what I call confirming the confirmation

There is a classic Seinfeld scene that truly captures the spirit of confirming the confirmation.

In MANY of my interactions with islanders, I’ve learned that the following conversation isn’t enough to get work done

• <Rishi/D*> Great, so we’ll see you as such and such date at 3pm. Will that work?
• <Random repair guy/labourer> Absolutely! I’ll be there at such and such date at 3pm
• <Rishi/D*> Awesome! Is there anything you need us to pick up or have prepared for your visit?
• <Random repair guy/labourer> Yes, please pick up XXX mortar.
• <Rishi/D*> Will do and you’ll be here at such and such date at 3pm
• <Random repair guy/labourer> Yes. I’ll see you then
• ….
• ….
• …. <The day before Such and Such date at 3pm>
• <Rishi/D*> Calling RRG/L … Hi RRG/L, just wanted to let you know we picked up the XXX mortar
• <Random repair guy/labourer> Oh sorry, I can’t make it tomorrow?
• <Rishi/D*> What? I thought we confirmed the date?
• <Random repair guy/labourer> Well I didn’t hear back from you and I took another job. I didn’t want to be without work for that day.
• <Rishi/D*> I don’t understand, we confirmed that we needed you on such and such date at 3pm. We called our insurance people and told them the work would be done on such and such date.
• <Random repair guy/labourer> Well sorry, but I didn’t hear back from you.
• <Rishi/D*> …. mutters to himself in his head … (YOU F^^@^@ DUMBASS!!! I TOLD YOU THREE F%@@%@#% TIMES THAT WE NEEDED YOU ON SUCH AND SUCH DATE AND YOU AGREED!!! YOU’RE SUCH A F@@%!! MORON but I can’t break your neck off and shit down the hole because then you would just openly refuse the work and I couldn’t find someone else in time)

  What Rishi said openly … “Well I guess you can’t be there on such and such date. Can you be there a week from such and such date at 8:45am

• <Random repair guy/labourer> No problem, I’ll see you guys then.
• <Rishi/D*> Yes, see you a week from such and such date at 8:45am

So when moving to the island, keep this in mind when setting up appointments or having work scheduled to be done. This place is so similar to a Caribbean island, I shudder sometimes. That being said … it’s pretty and islanders here will flake out on your appointments in a super nice way 99% of the time.

There’s an excellent buzzfeed article regarding the confessions of people who flake out… but this one point stood out to me.

It’s yet another similarity between Islanders here in PEI and people from Trinidad … except that in Trinidad, there’s no rage eating … people will outright be abusive and call you out on your shit!