Where Did You Wake Up?

Living overseas you experience good weeks and bad weeks. I must say the last two weeks I have had to remind myself "Where did you wake up today?".

We received an email from the housing department that the hot water in our building would be turned off for two weeks due to the central water department doing annual cleaning and maintenance of the water pipes. "Hmm looks like we will be using the emergency hot water heaters in our bathrooms" I thought.

With a couple of days of poor water pressure trying to get the temperature just right and boiling the kettle for washing the dishes it all wore a bit thin. I can not believe that the apartment doesn't have it own hot water service.

How the hot water system works here in UB is the hot water is heated at a central water stationed and piped around the city in cemented covered pips. The hot water is used for heating homes as well as showering. It all seems a little weird, I am so glad that we have the emergency hot water systems in both the bathrooms even at times it seemed I could "wee" harder then the pressure to the system.

The emergency showers work when you turn the single knob on and when the water passes through the system it is heated. The more you turn the small knob the cooler the water becomes, its a bit tricky getting the temperature just right. Giving Paige a shower was a nightmare.

Picture: The emergency hot water system (white in colour)

When the hot water did return after two weeks I nearly cried as I was so happy. I think I had the longest shower I have ever had and I didn't even feel guilty.

Once again we had the maintenance department come out and fix a number of items that had broken in the apartment. The furniture in our apartment is cheap and nasty stuff that after a while breaks due to wear and tear. Seeing as we are about the third family that I know of to have lived in this apartment, the furniture just isn't holding together.

In past blogs I have mentioned that we have to share vans with the other families from the company. I decided that I would look for my own driver as sharing the vans isn't that great. With no response from my ad for a driver Ben and I decided we would then maybe look at getting our own car as they are really cheap here. We had been told by friends to check if the apartment had a car space in the below ground parking garage. To our surprise the apartment does have a car space but it doesn't come with the apartment due to the landlord is leasing to someone else. So with out a car space we can not really have a car here because the engine would freeze up in winter if it is left parked outside. The housing department is looking at seeing if the company will cover the costs of leasing another car space in the garage for us.

So all I can really say is living overseas isn't always fun and games, its the little things that really do your head in. I can now see why vodka is such a popular drink here. I think its best to see the funny side of things.

Cheers and bottoms up!!!!!!!!

Picture: Chinggis the local Vodka brand