That cheating gas man

When I arrived home today, there was a gas man in my house.
How did he get in?
Well, he showed my guest his badge and convinced him to open the door.
No worries there, I would have done the same.

He was making a mess, that gas man.
Throwing his trash around, walking in the house with his shoes on (I did scold him for that and felt somewhat vindicated in the release of frustration.)

Some gas company man came only 5 months ago, and I'm supposed to have 6 months before things start expiring. My memory of the last argument I had with a gas man hasn't even faded yet.

I told this guy that I didn't need what he said I needed.
He said that, yes, I did.
What he thought I needed for my kitchen stove was:

• a new hose
• a black spring thing to put over the hose --adamantly refused that dirt collector
• a cleaning kit--have 2 or three I've never opened, so refused that
• some metal put-over-the-flame thing that is supposed to make it use less gas--refused. But he made me watch the demonstration anyway.
• and the megnetic gas saver--no, no, no, how I refused this thing, but he'd already put it on. And it was so expensive!

He then tried to charge me 250 for the hose, though the package clearly states 60-90rs. On top of that, his bill had a 150 service charge, for a service I never asked for.
Argh.

After the gas man left, I apologized to my guests. "I'm sorry you had to see that," I said. Wish I could say, "It'll never happen again."
But, oh, it will. :)

Melted plug

I had to call the electrician today.
Actually, I began calling him yesterday (I think there are around 26 calls to him logged on my phone); it was only today that he decided to come.
The hot water heater and water filter share a an electrical outlet in the kitchen. During the night, when the power was low, the outlet sparked and melted the plug for the hot water heater. There are a number of outlets in the house where this a potential problem. I decided to have them all fixed.
So the electrician came. Actually: after I called him about fourteen times, he said, "I can't come now. Call my father, he's also an electrician."
So I called Mr. Senior Electrician. He said he'd come in ten minutes.
Two hours later when I called him, he said he'd come in five minutes.
There were about a dozen calls and then he came. He listened to all that I needed him to fix, nodded and seemed to understand. He said he would go and get the needed materials and be back. He even left his toolbox behind as a measure of good faith.
TWO HOURS later he really did return. With a second guy. "There's a lot of work," he said. "I brought a laborer."
Great. Do the work, then.
While Mr. Senior Electrician took apart all the little outlet boxes and neatly stored their screws, the other guy did...the labor.He pounded holes in the wall, cracked the kitchen tiles, and made a mess. He got tired of it so he told Mr. Senior Electrician to go get him a drill.
Mr. Senior Electrician hurried off and I heard his motorcycle start up down below. He was back in ten minutes. What! His tools were that near by yet it took him more than two hours to get to my house?
He went back to work on the screws.
And the other guy installed five new wall outlets.
Hooray, no more meltdowns. Everything can be plugged in again, and there is once more hot water in the kitchen.
I watched the work being done on each of the outlets. I watched the electrician test them and saw the power light up.
All except for the last one; I didn't see that one tested.
After I'd paid the electricans and they left, I went around the house cleaning up after them. When I got to the last plug, I realized there was a problem. One of the power cords had been wired to the wall and it couldn't reach the outlet. What kind of quality work is that!?
It took half an hour before I could even get Mr. Senior Electrician to answer his phone again. But when I told him there was a problem, he actually made it to my house in fifteen minutes.
He groaned when he saw the error, fixed it, and went off again.
NOW I have five new working outlets.
Shew, that's enough for today.

Noisy gecko

There's a gecko in the kitchen determined that I don't sleep very well. I didn't know they could be so noisy. I didn't know they wanted to be so noisy; I thought they were stealth creatures sneaking up on bugs.
Anyway, the one living in the crack in my kitchen wall starts his chirping around 10pm and continues until the sun comes up just after 6am. At first I thought something was wrong with my fan, that it was making a funny noise. Nope. Gecko.

Ignore the poor video. I couldn't find the "record sound only" setting on my camera.

Peas

I connected my stove yesterday. So I cooked for the first time today.
Peas. I don't know why peas. I didn't even want peas. The vegetable man told me to buy them. That they were good peas.
I told him I didn't want peas, I wanted tomatoes.
He gave me the tomatoes and I gave him money, then he said he didn't have change and he'd give me peas instead.
So I took the dumb peas.
Peas are work intensive. I shelled them for an hour and then they made this tiny little pile in the pot.
Ayah.
So I had peas for dinner. Before they went bad in my refrigerator.

Thirteen hours later

Now there is shine. Now there is sparkle.
After seven and a half hours of cleaning yesterday and another five and half today, the kitchen is now clean. It has cupboards; it has all the necessary walls and gaps sealed up; and it is clean.
Ahh.

Particularly beautiful to me (now) is this power outlet. Before I started on it it was brown with years of baked on grease from those who previously lived and cooked here. Disgusting.
It's still not perfect, but so much better.

And a good thing the kitchen is clean, because I got ahead of myself and unpacked dishes the other day. Now I have somewhere to put them.

New cupboards

The cupboards were another thing in very bad shape when I first arrived. Warped from weather and years of being unused, termite eaten. The formica was peeling off the cupboard doors and they were a mess.
I had the doors removed, thinking maybe new doors with new formica--known here as shamica--would do the trick and be enough. But two carpenters came to give me estimates on the work and both said the whole thing needed to go because it was in such bad shape.
All right then. Give me something new and pretty.
Six days later I had new cupboards with nice, green shamica. They just needed painting, and no problem there because the painter was still hanging around painting things.
Behold the transformation. I have kitchen cupboards. And when the paint dries, I'll put something in them.

The gaping hole

One of the worst things about the apartment when I first moved in was the fiberglass covering the pipe shaft in the kitchen. It was dirty, old, and warped. All the dust and pigeon dirt could float right in. And it's next to the sink where it all gathers on the dishes.
The fiberglass had to go.

Finding someone to fix this was not easy. The carpenter said he would do it, but as noted, the carpenter did not finish all he said he would.
He did remove the old fiberglass pieces, though. Leaving a gaping hole into disgusting-ness right there in the kitchen.
Old pipes going up into the dust.
And down into a mess of pigeon droppings.
Ew gross, I do not want to stare at that all the time.
Or give the pigeons such easy access into my home.

Well the carpenter wasn't going to come back and fix it. So a sheesha wallah, a glass guy, was called in.

The glass guy arrived and said he'd charge $20 to fix the shaft and the two other broken windows in the flat--that included glass, cutting, and labor. Nice.
He was done in forty minutes. After waiting almost three weeks to have this ghastly ugliness removed from my sight.
Hooray it's gone.

Carpenter trouble

I made a mistake. I paid the carpenter.
Now he won't return to finish his job.
I didn't think I'd paid the whole amount. It was the landlord who did the negotiating and I thought there was still a little more before it was the total price.
Nope.
He finished the kitchen cupboards and asked for money. Then he took all those bills with a hungry look in his eye and slept late the next day (so I assume) knowing he wouldn't come back to finish the other little odd jobs around the place.
Sigh.
Why do I have to be so constantly on guard for everything? Can't I trust that when I hire (and pay) a person to do a job, he will then do it?
And to do it well. That would be another nice idea.
Every time I look at those kitchen cupboards I see another small thing that wasn't done right. As if doing the job right wasn't important because I would never notice anyway. But I do. And it makes me sick because those cupboards weren't cheap and apparently now it's my fault they aren't nice because I paid him.

New geezer

No, "new geezer" is not an oxymoron. A geezer is what a hot water heater is called. And I got a new one.

When we moved into the flat, there was not a geezer in the kitchen, meaning there was no hot water at the sink there. I mentioned this to the landlord, thinking it would be impossible that anything would happen anytime soon. But he said, "A geezer? Why not?" And the next day he went out and got one.

I was amazed. Things never happen that quickly here. Especially when it involves spending money for someone else's benefit.

And look: it's even a special windsurfer one. So nice, huh?