Hot water. Thursday May 13, 2010

If anyone ever says to me, “do you want the good news or the bad news first?” I always say “the good news”. Somehow, hearing good news first dilutes the bad, but if you get the bad news first, it drags down the good. This always works for me anyway.

So, first the good news. The furniture arrived last Monday and I am now in the tedious position of trying to find homes for all the things that we brought with us.

For everyone who has ever moved, there is the wonderment of discovering all those things that you own, and the bewilderment of thinking “why did I ever pack that”. Amongst the latter, a much chewed sock toy that the dog obviously hasn’t seen since she was a puppy seven years ago, nail varnish that is so old the top is permanently glued to the bottle, and my pet favourite, rubbish bins that actually contain rubbish. You would think that experienced packers would use a few brain cells and remove the rubbish before packing the bin, or at the very least ask whether I would like my rubbish wrapped, stored for two months and then shipped several thousand miles from the northern to the southern hemisphere. No such luck. Brain cells not engaged.

The other bit of good news is that with 8 or 9 guys unpacking (they never stood still long enough for me to count them) everything was unloaded, unwrapped, unboxed, unpacked and unceremoniously dumped onto every conceivable surface within 2 days. I have to say that this is pretty good going for two 40 foot containers. Furniture was assembled, beds made and all I have to do now is organize everything into some semblance of order.


Now for the bad news. For over a week now, (Thursday 6th May) we have had no hot water in the house. Steve announced this having discovered that the shower was cold when he stepped into it. We were moving out of the house anyway the following day, as the rental furniture was being removed and I knew that it would be at least Tuesday before we had sufficient organization of beds and bedding to enable us to move back in. Well that didn’t happened.

We have an odd hot water system here. We have solar panels on the roof that heat the water to a certain temperature and then what I assume is some sort of emersion heater to top up the temperature. So far, in the two months of living here it appears to have worked very well, until last week.

The guy to fix it was supposed to show up on Monday, but he was a “no show”. Similarly Tuesday, Wednesday and now at 5.00pm on Thursday I am not hopeful that he is going to show up today. The poor dog hasn’t been walked all week and although it is not a problem for me as I was planning on spending most of my days in the house anyway, I have to say it is now completely irritating. Steve is incandescent with anger and is threatening to withhold the rent until it is fixed.

Steve’s secretary has been calling the company every half hour to check that he is coming but after the 3 o’clock call the company have not been able to get in touch with the technician so who knows whether he is going to come. My money is on another no – show. Emails are being exchanged with the owner’s lawyers and in the meantime I am still sorting through my worldly goods, trying to find homes for everything.

But on a brighter note, the house warming party is being penciled in for June 19th by which time, pictures will be hung, the silver will be cleaned and I will have lost all those pounds that I have gained since being here. Assuming of course that we have hot water.