Friday, October 17, 2008

Es riecht wie Zwiebeln!

Our washing machine is on its last leg. A repairman came out last Friday to take a look.

Repairman: What seems to be the problem.

TBF: When I use the gentle cycle, the clothes seem to be coming out partially wet and partially dry. I don't think enough water is going into the machine. Sometimes, after the cycle is done, the door won't open without me pressing a bunch of different buttons. And finally...the machine smells like onions.*

Repairman: What?

TBF: The machine smells like onions.

Repairman: (sticking his head into the machine) You're right! It does smell like onions.

TBF: We don't really eat that many onions, so I'm not really sure where that smell is coming from.
The long and short of it was that the repairman called the building management and advised that our 13 year old washing machine would cost CHF 600 ($525) to repair, and a new one would cost about CHF 2000 ($1750). After he got off the phone, he told me that the owner would have to decide between repair and replacement.

This afternoon, I received a call from the repairman. Our new washing machine will be installed next Tuesday afternoon. Man, I LOVE it when things go the way I want them to go!!

One problem is solved (Thank GAWD!!!) But now I have another problem:

How am I going to get rid of this craving for French onion soup?

* Since the repairman spoke absolutely zero English, I had to speak in German. For the reader's benefit, I wrote down in English what I THINK I was saying in German. Just transpose some of the words, completely leave out others, and throw in a dash of gibberish (while gesturing like a mad man), and you'll have a more accurate idea of what I was actually saying to the repairman.

2 comments:

CanadianSwiss said...

I must say, that's one of the nice things about Swiss rental apartments: When you move in, they're usually freshly repainted and cleaned, and almost any repair of an older household machine exceeding CHF 200.- will be replaced.

The Big Finn said...

cs - Is there any repair in Switzerland that DOESN'T exceed CHF 200?