marmota_b

So, in the last post I mentioned a move that threw up more complications that it should have...

It started with the internet. The WiFi password we were given did not work, the previous occupant did not know the name of the WiFi, and to top it off it turned out it cannot be smoothly re-written onto us because it was in the name of a girlfriend of his he broke up with non-amicably over a year ago.

And the modem is only fitted for one cable so we've been rationing out internet time between ourselves. That part, at least, should hopefully be solved next week because father is a pack rat where electronics are concerned (or really in general, come to think of it...), so he has an old switch of his we can use.

We also found out the gas stove is so dirty (it really is, ugh) and / or old it smells of gas, so we're currently not using it (thankfully we have this sort of pot electrical cooker that my sister bought earlier this year, so that has been a lifesaver). The oven (electrical) is also dirty with what appears to be years and years worth of grime, although at least I managed to clean that to a state where it doesn't stink when in use...

Then there were complications with the washing machine, although thankfully father solved that.

And other things I won't bore you with.

The last straw: less than an hour ago (and not that long after a fairly upbeat call to mom where I told her the nice things about my new job), the downstairs neighbour, an elderly lady who conveniently (not) turns out to be hard of hearing, came at us that something in our flat has to be leaking because she has a spot on her ceiling.

Nothing visible in our flat is leaking. That would be too simple, and of course we would have noticed that. No, there's apparently a problem in the tub's outlet, in a place that's basically impossible to get to without taking the (tiny) bathroom apart.

My sister's at the end of her tether. Or more like well over it. She was supposed to have vacation time (which is always hard to get to begin with for her as a freelance translator). She hasn't had a good vacation in years, because something always goes wrong.

She's now on the phone to mom. What a day.

Me, I'm just starting in a new job, after six months jobless and a move, and really did not need to be dealing with something like that, either. (Although at least if it's a big repair, it's up to the owner. BUT if it turns out to be a big repair, it means life without a bathroom and loss of privacy. It basically means life without shower and bath and again without washing machine because it runs into the bath, right now anyway. AAARGH. I badly need to wash my - long - hair right now. The sink is tiny...)

*headdesk*

Just about the only good things about this mess:
1) Realising how much I'm actually a decent and responsible adulting person who would not and did not leave a flat in such a state, despite my many other failings, thank you very much.
2) The people in my new job are nice so far, and the job is just as interesting to me as I hoped it would be.
3) The town is full of nice shops, as we keep discovering. Next month, a packet-less / bulk shop should be opening. That's a little thing to look forward to.

But...

*headdesk*

P.S. The NFE story is still somehow happening, at least.

UPDATE: Not as bad as it sounded last night! The neighbour lady made it sound a lot worse than it actually was because she'd been flooded out before, and she panicked; in reality it's apparently just moisture spotting, so the problems were caught before they turned into actual problems, and it was stuff the owner-lady's husband could (fingers crossed!) solve on his own during one evening visit today.

It was the washing machine, in the end. Specifically, the hose was not fitted onto the water spout tight enough. Also, the sink outlet was slowly starting to leak and needed cleaning, tightening, and a new rubber sealing. We did not notice the leak because (small bathroom) there was a shelf hiding it, and a crack in the tiling very unfortunately siphoning some of the water off into neighbour-lady's ceiling...
Crack shall be sealed next week and future disasters hopefully averted.
Nothing in the bath after all! Which is a huge relief because phew, the prospect of being water-less or reliant on sponge baths in the kitchen sink was a pretty terrifying one last night.

It was my sister dealing with neighbour lady during the day today; and she said it turns out that when neighbour lady isn't quite as panicked she's apparently quite a nice neighbour to have, so hopefully our future interactions will be less fraught with potential plumbing disasters. :-)

And my sister's off to her vacation in a remote and lovely area of the country on Sunday. So hopefully all's well that ends well!

Current Mood: cranky

Well, I do have a cold, but it appears to be just your regular little seasonal cold - including a little bit of a runny nose and stuff in my throat.

The most annoying part of it all right now is that I'm stuck away from my sewing machine and my nicest fabrics and most of my sewing patterns and all of my sewing books including the four fabulous new historical clothing ones I got last year and this year. :-(
I do have my handsewing with me, though, and two handsewing projects that need doing anyway, and there's all of the old fabrics I haven't gotten around to moving or using or getting rid of yet, so no shortage of sewing opportunities anyway. (Probably starting with face masks.)

Plus I have my laptop.

So I suspect sooner or later my poor neglected stories will be updated. :D

Current Mood: calm

... this may be the first time I wished I were. Because they apparently get away with stuff like this. Emphases mine.

"Hammer Head, Single Malt Whisky 1989 (Czech Republic)
Hammer Head offers an initially dry, roasted nut nose, with developing cream soda. Becoming more floral and perfumed with time, plus a note of furniture polish. More leather with the addition of water, and a hint of warm, rubber diving suits. Very drinkable, with well-integrated spices, dried fruits and worn leather. Ultimately liquorice and oak. Tobacco notes at the last, with the addition of water."

Just how much of that whisky did the writer drink before settling in to write the above?!

(The story of how the whisky came to be isn't bad, either.)

Current Mood: amused

The title is a Czech pun invented by my father today. It's presumably "macaque and female macaque", except that... "makačka" is actually a colloquial word for "hard work".

The story behind it: After two macaques escaped in 2011 and were out in the open for eight months, the zoo in Olomouc invested in a new macaque-proof place for their group and opened it today with much ceremony.

Only for four young macaques to promptly escape.

(Or maybe three. What news there are say they're staying inside the zoo and there's hope they'll return on their own.)

Current Mood: giggly

I'm rather glad to be, because it's hot outside. 18:45 PM, and it's still 33 degrees Celsius. In the shade. The cats have been playing dead all day. A little bit of a wind has just picked up, so I guess I'll venture outside and finally hang the laundry.

Czech Republic is suffering from droughts.

My sister had to leave the house through the window, because our metal entrance door (to the garden) expanded so much in the heat we flat out could not open it. While it does tend to expand in the summer, I don't think that's ever happened before.

She needed to go to Prague because she'll be playing guide to a Latvian folklore dance group in the days to come. I have to stay in, because I can't leave and leave the window open, obviously. I hope it'll get better in the days to come, because there's that upcoming folklore festival and I really would like to go there!

Current Mood: lazy

I'm in the final stages of moving from one flat when at school to another. My family had been occupying the old one for over ten years, it turns out; my sisters before me. We kept finding Things. Little sentimental mementoes and practical things completely forgotten about because they were part of the landscape. A little ceramics whale I made years ago in art class. Four extension cords; I nearly forgot one. The dust pan and brush, and the bin. Father's tools. He even had a pair of jeans left behind in the wardrobe. The curtains in the kitchen window were about five shades of grey darker at the bottom than they were on top.
We have to move out because the house is a little over a hundred years old and apparently the electrical wiring in the flat hasn't been changed since it was first put in, or something. And there's a persistent gas leak. And the bath is in the kitchen, which was fun while we were there, kind of, except that there was no door, just a curtain, so, you know, the new tennants will no doubt want a more modern approach to in-house hygiene.
The old little green sink in the toilet that I'm so fond of and refused to have replaced got a stamp of approval from a member of the reviewing committee (there was my aunt, whose house it is, the young lady who helps oversee the house for her, and the man in charge of the upcoming renovation). It made me a little warm inside. Hopefully the new tennants will like it, too.

The new flat is somewhat smaller, which means now there's stuff everywhere, before I figure out where it all goes. And I kind of hate the bed; I slept on the floor in the old flat, because it turns out I like my sleeping surfaces really hard. So for now, I sleep on the floor again, which of course doesn't help the situation with stuff everywhere. And there are zero nails in the walls and we're not allowed to put in new ones, which is rubbish, especially because I have several pictures and a mirror.
BUT
There's a river at one side, and forested hills on the other side, and gardens everywhere, including right in front of the balcony that my room opens into. (The neighbours have chicken even, which is so much right, and I've heard a woodpecker and seen a jay.) And even though there's a fairly frequented road right in front of the house, it's still a considerable step up from the old place where there's one of the busiest streets, right next to a busy crossroads, and trams going underneath your window every ten minutes or so; and if your forgot your laptop open overnight, it would be covered in dust in the morning.
Also, internet. Right now, I'm sitting in the old flat with the mobile connection, which has been rendered mostly obsolete with the move.
So it's mostly a win.

All the moving and all the school stuff, though, means there hasn't been much fanfiction writing in the past months. I can't move on with The Peridan Chronicles, even though I want to. I'm stuck on a chapter that needs primarily stylistics, and an ethical/spiritual debate, and such like, which requires more thinking than I have mental capacity for for the time being. I figured out the stuff with the Polynesian heritage for Telmarines I mentioned before (it makes so much sense for this character I had had a vague idea for), and that's about it when it comes to inspiration for it.
There hasn't even been any sewing (aside from darning a sock recently), which tends to be my go-to activity when I'm intellectually depleted.

In other news, though, I wrote two limericks in the creative writing course, one as my regular assignment and one instead of a critique because the critique was to point out the rhyming scheme; so I feel rather accomplished in that regard. Me and poetry don't normally get on.

So I'm sitting in the old flat, writing a post to make sense of it. To put a thick line behind it. Something along those lines. I'll miss the green sink, but the green chairs went with me. On the bus. In three consecutive journeys over the weekend. My sister joked that the drivers on the line would come to believe there was a green-chair-wielding ghost haunting them.