Wednesday, September 21, 2005

It’s always a bit unsettling when plumbers leave your lovely bathroom in this state and go off to buy “parts”.



That two hours that they were gone was one of the longest two hours of my life. It’s nearly half four now and the bathroom still looks more or less the same as in the pictures.
We haven’t had water all day and haven’t been able to use the toilet. Kamyar is happily using his camel qualities which means not drinking a single drop of water all day and still being able to function perfectly.

The worst part was definitely this morning when the plumbers had first arrived and Kamyar had gone to buy a sink and I was in the living room happily doing my little drawings ‘la la la’ and at the same time eavesdropping on the plumbers’ conversation and all I could hear was them going, ‘Oh that can’t be done can it?’ ‘no it doesn’t fit.’ ‘maybe we should put it on the other side’ ‘We might have to raise the tank a little then if we want to do that.’ ‘No but we don’t really have time for all that do we?’ ‘Let’s just try it this way and see what happens.’
What a nightmare! To me it really sounded like they didn’t know what they were doing. So I had to go over there and do that whole, ‘Gentlemen I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation. Is everything alright?’ And then in a roundabout way tell them not to mess with my lovely bathroom if they don’t know what they are doing, or else.
The younger one (the son) was very sweet and started explaining to me how the pump works and everything but unfortunately my mind started doing that thing that I really hate again which always happens when someone is explaining something technical to me. It goes like this: my brain goes into a kind of standby mode and all I can hear is, ‘doo dooo doo doo…’ until they stop talking. It really is very annoying. Which means when he stopped talking, as usual I just smiled and said, ‘Sounds like you know what you are doing then. Tea?’ They didn’t want any tea, which was a very good sign I thought. Hard workers. They just wanted to get stock in. Stock in to ruin my bathroom or sort it out? We will just have to wait and see.

PS We are trying to change our cracked bathroom sink and put a shower in.

16:52
Now the downstairs flat’s sealing has stared leaking :-( We have angered the Palestinians.

18:22
They are still here. There is another leak. I’m hungry.

19:25
Finally we have a shower. But I’m too weak and hungry to appreciate it properly.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is a lovely scene Shirin! Good Luck!

Shahin

Shirin said...

Thanks Shahin. I can’t believe they’re still here, it’s half six! I keep egging Kamyar on to go and see what’s happening but he’s not having any of it.

Anonymous said...

Well he is probably a bit shy about this kind of stuff, like me :-) Hope you get back your bathroom peacefully, without any UN intervention on Palestinians behalf.

Cheers,

Shahin

Shirin said...

Yes I was getting a bit worried about that myself but luckily it all finished without the UN having to get involved.

linda said...

Gee, I can't think of anything worse than a broken bathroom!!!
And I just love it with the Brits when they want to get things in order they go like " Tea anyone?"
Reminds me of one time in S.F airport I was standing next to this two british ladies who had absoultly no expression in their faces, and eavsdroping, one of them went like :" Oh darling I am so excited, I haven't seen him for 10 years."
The other one went like :" Me too, can't hardly wait to see him. Let's go get some tea."
Next to them standing my EYERANIAN family tearing themselves apart cause somebody was going to Iran for like 2 months....
BTW if u were in California the plumbers were most likley Mexican or Vietnamese and you weren't able to undrestand what they were saying, and couldn't even communicate with them...
Unless u knew their language

Anonymous said...

I sincerely hope that the cracked bathroom sink went to fill the empty place left by the white toilet at the entrance of your apartment! ;D
If so, U just created one "historical monument": congratulations ;)

Anonymous said...

In a very depressing day, you made me laugh twice (1. drawing & the "lalala". 2.Brain going dududududu)I also LOVED Kamyar's "camel attidute" hahahaha.

Now you must show us your new shower! Don't worry, not when any of you is using it!Although it would be VERY interesting and we wouldn't mind, would we folks?