Tuesday, January 6, 2009
H2O Works
In case you solely get your updates from this blog, my water works again. Woohoo! Welcome back to 19th Century living! Ha! Now I can solely focus on the cold weather. It may snow tonight (it snowed two nights ago).
A Strong Case for the USA
If you have been following my Facebook status updates, you will notice there are two updates related to no water. Yes, I have no water in this house. Scratch that... there's cold water running in the kitchen, but no where else. This means there is no hot water and the toilet tanks don't refill itself unless you go fill the bucket up to take to the tank. Is this a third world country? No, it's freaking the London suburbs!
As a condition of our basically rent-free home in Enfield, Dan (and sometimes me) are fixing up the joint (or as the locals say, "Do a bit of DIY!"). Dan bought a complete kitchen (solid oak cabinet doors, frames, and appliances) on eBay for really cheap. Dan's uncle did the electrical and plumbing bits to get the basics of the kitchen in. So our oven and stovetop (they call it "cooker") work, as well as the kitchen sink. But to install the kitchen sink, the water had to be turned off. When the water was turned back on, only the kitchen worked--nothing else!
Dan's uncle thought that it was just airlock. So before he left yesterday he said to just keep the cold water tap on and water should come out again. At that time we had a little bit of hot water too. By the time Dan came home from work, we had no water whatsoever (except for cold water in the kitchen of course)! He went into the attic (they call it a "loft"), and that tank was completely dry. And since that tank feeds the hot water tank, that became dry as well. Dan tried all the stopcocks for the water, and nothing will fill the tank in the attic. I'm hoping that it isn't a frozen pipe, and Dan doesn't believe it is a frozen pipe. Regardless, we have no water and have no clue when water will be returning, if at all. We are staving off a phone call to a plumber, as that would probably cost us a fortune. Dan's uncle is coming back to check out the problem again.
One thing I have noticed about England and their water--they always have separate taps for hot and cold water in their bathrooms. Occasionally, you'll visit a home with a "modern" bathroom and a "mixer tap". But for the most part, even in the house in Cornwall (built in 2000), the bathroom taps were separate. In the US you'll find these in old homes, like most apartments in NYC. I just find them rather annoying when you want to wash your hands, but most especially when you want to wash your face!!! Do I want to scald my face with the hot tap, or just freeze it and remain frozen the rest of the night as this house is freaking cold 24/7? These are hard life choices I tell you.
In other news... I got your letter Teresa!!! Yay! It felt good to get real mail! Woot! Thank you!
Aside from that, I'm pretty damn miserable right now. :(
As a condition of our basically rent-free home in Enfield, Dan (and sometimes me) are fixing up the joint (or as the locals say, "Do a bit of DIY!"). Dan bought a complete kitchen (solid oak cabinet doors, frames, and appliances) on eBay for really cheap. Dan's uncle did the electrical and plumbing bits to get the basics of the kitchen in. So our oven and stovetop (they call it "cooker") work, as well as the kitchen sink. But to install the kitchen sink, the water had to be turned off. When the water was turned back on, only the kitchen worked--nothing else!
Dan's uncle thought that it was just airlock. So before he left yesterday he said to just keep the cold water tap on and water should come out again. At that time we had a little bit of hot water too. By the time Dan came home from work, we had no water whatsoever (except for cold water in the kitchen of course)! He went into the attic (they call it a "loft"), and that tank was completely dry. And since that tank feeds the hot water tank, that became dry as well. Dan tried all the stopcocks for the water, and nothing will fill the tank in the attic. I'm hoping that it isn't a frozen pipe, and Dan doesn't believe it is a frozen pipe. Regardless, we have no water and have no clue when water will be returning, if at all. We are staving off a phone call to a plumber, as that would probably cost us a fortune. Dan's uncle is coming back to check out the problem again.
One thing I have noticed about England and their water--they always have separate taps for hot and cold water in their bathrooms. Occasionally, you'll visit a home with a "modern" bathroom and a "mixer tap". But for the most part, even in the house in Cornwall (built in 2000), the bathroom taps were separate. In the US you'll find these in old homes, like most apartments in NYC. I just find them rather annoying when you want to wash your hands, but most especially when you want to wash your face!!! Do I want to scald my face with the hot tap, or just freeze it and remain frozen the rest of the night as this house is freaking cold 24/7? These are hard life choices I tell you.
In other news... I got your letter Teresa!!! Yay! It felt good to get real mail! Woot! Thank you!
Aside from that, I'm pretty damn miserable right now. :(
Monday, January 5, 2009
Road Trippin'
Happy New Year! I hope everyone rung in '09 with a bang. My New Year was a little low key, and definitely sans ball dropping--I'm left slightly unfulfilled. Anyhoo, an update to start off your '09 work week.
I did my very first UK road trip. I love road trips because it gives you a chance to see a country and experience local culture. Dan and I left on the 29th to go to Kent then to Dymock. On the 30th we went into Wales to see a castle. Then on the 31st we went to Cornwall. We left Cornwall on the 4th and stopped to see Stonehenge. It was terribly cold and a little disappointing here and there.
As a seasoned road tripper back in the States, I thought that I had this innate ability to navigate my way through any pickle. I rarely get lost and I usually know my way around any foreign city in a day. Here in the UK, it has taken me awhile to get to know the area, and it is harder when you don't drive. But I miss the grid and interstate systems and it's organization! Living in England for a few weeks now, the roads remind me of Maryland--they suddenly change names or suddenly end--it's awful! What disturbs me the most is the UK highway system. M means motorway, A is a smaller motorway but can go through rural towns at low speeds. That's fine, label the type of road you are going to travel on. But the numbers attached have no rhyme or reason like they do back home. Everyone in the US should know that odd numbers means you travel north/south, even east/west, when there's three numbers if the beginning is even you travel in a loop around a city or odd then you go through a city, etc. That's organization I can appreciate. You definitely don't have that here, so one road can theoretically take you in a roundabout fashion and you wouldn't know it. It's awful!
It's still fun to go around and see different places, though I wish I weren't sick for most of it. Oh well. But the next time you are on the Beltway, take the time to appreciate the organization before you curse it as you are stuck in traffic.
I did my very first UK road trip. I love road trips because it gives you a chance to see a country and experience local culture. Dan and I left on the 29th to go to Kent then to Dymock. On the 30th we went into Wales to see a castle. Then on the 31st we went to Cornwall. We left Cornwall on the 4th and stopped to see Stonehenge. It was terribly cold and a little disappointing here and there.
As a seasoned road tripper back in the States, I thought that I had this innate ability to navigate my way through any pickle. I rarely get lost and I usually know my way around any foreign city in a day. Here in the UK, it has taken me awhile to get to know the area, and it is harder when you don't drive. But I miss the grid and interstate systems and it's organization! Living in England for a few weeks now, the roads remind me of Maryland--they suddenly change names or suddenly end--it's awful! What disturbs me the most is the UK highway system. M means motorway, A is a smaller motorway but can go through rural towns at low speeds. That's fine, label the type of road you are going to travel on. But the numbers attached have no rhyme or reason like they do back home. Everyone in the US should know that odd numbers means you travel north/south, even east/west, when there's three numbers if the beginning is even you travel in a loop around a city or odd then you go through a city, etc. That's organization I can appreciate. You definitely don't have that here, so one road can theoretically take you in a roundabout fashion and you wouldn't know it. It's awful!
It's still fun to go around and see different places, though I wish I weren't sick for most of it. Oh well. But the next time you are on the Beltway, take the time to appreciate the organization before you curse it as you are stuck in traffic.
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