An Escape From Plumbing Hell

Hi everyone. Brit Boy here just dropping by to make sure that everything is still tidy around the Yellow House :-) And also to give you all an update on what has been going on in the last few days.

We have spent most of the week, indeed most of the last month, waiting for our shower to be fixed. I mentioned over at my blog a few weeks ago, that the plumbing in the Yellow House leaves a bit to be desired, and yet again we have had issues with our electric shower. This is a shower that is only a few months old too, having been installed when the previous one fell into such disrepair that we were told we would be taking our lives in our hands if we used it!! The new shower worked fine for a while, but then a few weeks back the shower head started to fall apart every time we used it. So we replaced the head ourselves, at our own expense, only for the wall unit to the start gushing water from the bottom with next to no water now emanating from the head.

At this point our hearts sank. We knew that this meant dealing with the property agents, and through them with our landlord. Past experience has taught us that this would be a tortuous process, and indeed this time was no different. To cut a very, very long story short, I am now sat here four weeks later – yes you read that right FOUR weeks later – waiting in for the plumber to finally come and install a new electric shower. The list of excuses has been laughable, but at least something finally appears to be happening. What our phone bill will look like when it comes I dread to think as I have had to call the agents virtually every day to force them into some kind of action. Apathy doesn’t even begin to come close to describing their attitude.

Okay, sorry, rant over now! To take our minds off of our interminable plumbing woes, Dori and I decided to go to the movies this week. We are probably the last two people on the face of the earth to see Toy Story 3, and so that is what we plumped for. We apparently watched it in glorious 3D, but I have to say that I really didn’t see that. I guess the picture looked like it had a little more depth to it, but there wasn’t enough of a difference to me to warrant an extra £1.50 on the ticket price. Anyway, that being said, we had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the film. We even had a KFC beforehand. Don’t tell me we don’t know how to live the high life!! :-)

Oh, and one last thing before I go. I want to wish Dori a very Happy Anniversary!! It isn’t our wedding anniversary, but the day of another important event – one that changed the course of both of our lives. I will leave it to Dori to tell you what that is, if she so wishes, when she returns.

Have a great weekend everybody!

On Patience

Just an update, we’ve gone three nights now without the honking of our car alarm I’m happy to report :-) I’m still not sleeping soundly as usual yet, because I’m expecting it to start all the noise again. I’m crossing my fingers that we’re in the clear. But I imagine it will float out of my mind the more days we go without incident. So it’s all good. I didn’t realize how much it had freaked me out the first time it happened. Anyway, that anxiety will pass and it’s onward and upward :-)

We should be seeing some action with our shower getting fixed tomorrow. Thank goodness. One of my dear bloggy friends said that I have the patience of Job in dealing with this :-) I tell you, my hubby and I have had our moments when we really have been ticked off by this whole ridiculous situation and we’ve let their office know it. We seem to always run into supreme red tape in dealing with things through them. I think it’s just that we have to go through a third party to get to our landlord, so there is a lot of dropping the ball. We know these people so well now ;-) It’s almost comical. LOL. Brit Boy and I always joke about us developing the patience of Job in dealing with these people, so I laughed when I read my bloggy friend’s comment :-) I’m just glad that our perseverance has seemingly paid off.

I thought about that word… ‘patience’ and how it has cropped up in our life together as well as individually. I think about how Brit Boy and I had to be really patient in waiting to be together, simply because we had been born an ocean apart. We spent lots of time apart and sometimes it felt like we were never going to see each other again. There were many, many, many partings at airports that make me shudder when I think about them. But loads and loads of patience got us through those times. When we have to go through a million hoops with our landlord it often reminds us of our life the past few years, as we’ve worked on being together. Sometimes we feel like we are in the perpetual hoops zone…lol. So I guess that I’ve got to the point in my life where I’m seeing all of this as a huge lesson in patience for me. I’ve rushed through so many things and emotions in my life in the past, so now I laugh when I see myself in action, a bit more mellowed out :-)

Of course sometimes I just say, “forget that”, and I let it rip. LOL. I guess I’m a work in progress…aren’t we all (wink). I think a balance between both is where I am now and that may be the best for me.

So I wondered about how others feel about this. Do you find yourself more patient now or less patient as you age? Do you find that a happy medium is best for you? Or do you say, to heck with patience? I’d love to hear what you have to say :-)

Honkless, Showered, and All Shawled Up

Hi everyone! :-) Well I have better news today. I told you yesterday about Brit Boy coming home a little early and we were going to check out the whole alarm thing, well he came home and we went outside and gave it a once over. We tinkered with things a bit and then decided to wait and see if our tinkering helped. Then we headed off to the store to pick up a few things so that we could avoid the Saturday crowds. I love Friday night shopping and Brit Boy does too :-)

So we were in the vegetable section when Brit Boy’s cell phone starts ringing. He answers and it was like the clouds just parted. The landlord FINALLY authorized the fixing of our shower. Whoopee!!!! :-) The property management lady said that the contractors should be contacting us in the next couple of days to set up a day to start their work. So after many, many calls by both of us, we finally got a result. I tell you, we were so excited that we almost broke into a bit of celebratory break dancing right there. LOL. Oh boy, to have a shower again that works!

After that, we just kind of skipped around the store and finished our bit of shopping. And as a bonus, when we went back to our car, the alarm wasn’t honking or anything…so it was a great afternoon, after living through the night before. :-)Sometimes the simple things just make your day.

And I’m happy to report, we actually had a full night’s sleep with no honking to interrupt us. It was wonderful. We were a bit sleep deprived, so the full night’s sleep was just what we needed. We were both a bit anxious after the night before and separately wondered if it would happen again, but we confided in each other this morning that fatigue had taken over both of us and we went right off to sleep. So maybe hopefully our tinkering has helped and we won’t have any more alarm problems. Fingers crossed :-)

In other news, I got a package this morning that I’ve been waiting for. I had to send off to get a lingerie bag to wash delicate things. I couldn’t find one anywhere in the stores, so I ordered one online and it cost next to nothing. I ordered it because I wanted to wash two nice scarves that I bought in London when we were there in December. They were the pashmina-esque scarves (the real ones are cashmere as you may know but mine are so not). They come in all of those vibrant, rich colors and are so warm. I only paid £8 for two. They’re perfect for the winter we have been having. They come in gorgeous solid colors and patterned styles. I opted for a blue one, which is my favorite color and a patterned burgundy one. I plan to also have them to double for just a nice shawl when it warms up. Here are a couple of photos of what they look like. I love the rich colors.





I figured that I would wash them in a lingerie bag so that I would save some wear and tear on them.

So today has been a much better day and hey, the sun is shining and the sky is blue…here’s to a good day to all :-)