ESPECIALLY after you've been without hot water for 24 hours!!
That's right, HEAD FOR THE BOMB SHELTER!! We were without hot water for 24 hours last week from Thursday to Friday!
Is it the beginning of the complete breakdown of Swiss society as we know it??? Probably not, but THIS may have been!
Other than the fact that Mrs. TBF had to take an ice-cold shower on Friday morning before going to work (I just showered at the gym), in hindsight, being without hot running water in Switzerland proved not to be too big of an inconvenience. You see, both the washing machine and dishwasher have their own built-in heating elements, and therefore only have cold water feeds. Of course, I didn't think about this until about 20 hours into the 24 hours, so I guess... YES! It was rather inconvenient being without hot water. But next time - IF there ever is a next time - I'll be ready.
It's when things like this happen that I realize one of the major things I like about owning a home as opposed to renting: having complete control over a situation.
As a homeowner: I would have called a repairman, he/she would have shown up, and the problem would have been solved.
As a renter: I called the absolutely-no-sense-of-urgency rental office, the person told me that they would relay the message to their colleague, and then I proceeded to sit around with my thumb up my ass. Every fifteen minutes or so, I would remove said thumb from ass to walk over to the faucet to see if any hot water was coming out.
Finally, I got tired of waiting, so I went to talk to my downstairs Swiss neighbor who speaks absolutely ZERO English. Somehow, through a complicated system of semi-German words, grunts, and charades, I managed to ask her to call the management office to see if she could make any headway with them. I headed off to the next-door grocery store to buy a couple of things, and when I returned a few minutes later there was already a note from my neighbor stating that the repairmen were now working on the problem, had not yet determined what the problem was, but assured her that the hot water would be working by the end of the day.
By 3:30 on Friday afternoon, there was still no hot water, and I was getting nervous. Was there a chance that we'd have no hot water for the entire weekend??? I decided to head of to the gym for a workout, shower, and a good thumb scrubbing. When I returned home, the hot water was back on.
All was well with the world again.
1 comment:
Hey, at least you had some water. As an American expat in Southern Spain, it is more often than not, no water at all. Or no electricity. Or no water pressure to fire your hot water heater. Or no phone or no internet. Take your pick, most likely on a long holiday weekend!! And I own my home, but many times there just is NO solution. All part of the fun.
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