In China...LOL
Yesterday the shower drain in the MB decided to take a vacation...ie not drain as was proper, that being it's only job.
So I called the front office for some assistance. I made an appointment for them to come and clean it out or what ever needed doing. These two workers show up to fix things. Mind you, these are the workers who usually hang my pictures or put in new light bulbs. She always carries a dust pan and towels and cleans up whatever mess the guy makes with her tools. This is her job, she does it day in and day out....with a smile:)
I answer the door and there they are, her with the dust pan, him with a ladder.....not sure what that is for so I pantomime the shower action, say water in Chinese, and try to indicate the drain.....wish I had all that on video, must have looked pretty amusing from their side. They did figure out what I meant and left the ladder behind. Up we went to the 3rd floor....I hate those stairs and do everything in my power to only go up them once a day and that is at bed time!
So, in the shower I resort to pantomime again trying to show that the water won't go down. I remove the plastic removable drain part and set it aside, point to the hole the water is suppose to go out of and say "Bu shui" and look at them. He picks up the plastic part and starts inspecting it.....really? I put it in the corner of the space.....I tap him on the shoulder as he is crouched in the shower, "Bu, bu" as I point to the pluggy...
He starts to adjust it with a screw driver....really, omg I can't take this. I call my friend, my lifesaving, Chinese speaking friend, but she texts she is teaching and cannot talk now. I call Mikes admin. she picks right up. I explain to her and she explains to him.....this takes a bunch of time I do not have as I am trying to prepare a nice birthday for Olivia.....We finally get him to inspect the drain but he thinks it doesn't have a problem till I turn on the water and let it run for about 40 seconds and it starts to fill the shower and go nowhere. Then it is determined he doesn't have the right equipment to fix this and will contact the office....The conversation with the admin about that took forever because she wanted them to then call me and make an appointment and I couldn't make her understand that when they say they will send somebody it is usually in a matter of minutes, no appointment needed once they have shown up!
Those people leave, the doorbell rings about 5 minutes later. Two guys with a compressor are now at my door......All I was hoping for was a snake....I guess they don't have those here. They bring this thing in the house, it is ancient and covered with dirt. They wheel it across the room to the stairs, they carry it up to the third floor, they set it down, planning to drag it across the bedroom where I have my silk Iraqi rug!!! I make some sort of noise and they got the idea they had to carry it. In the bathroom again I am looking at this trying to figure out if it is gas or electric.....yes they would start up a gas engine inside a building with no ventilation....luckily it is electric. They start it up at which point I see that the fan blade cover is non existent! It is loose and rattles like it could fly off at any second! I make all kinds of comments and tell them that is bad and make a cover with my hands....they smile and laugh. Now, Mike likes to take pictures of unsafe working conditions he sees to use at work to show the people what NOT to do. I get the idea of taking a picture so I rush down those awful stairs grab the camera and run back up. I show them the camera. "Wo de airen xihuan zhe ge."
"My husband will like that one". "Dui". he says....that means right so I took that as approval to take the picture.
Here it is in all its glory. And here are the guys. And look at that tiny hose they have...
(I want to write beside the picture and can't figure out how:( )
I don't know what the wobbly fan is made of but if it flew off there could be issues with work related injuries!! The best part of all is once they turned the thing on there was this hissing then spewing of water, disgusting drain water out of the sink and all over the bathroom. While they stood there and watched, I threw out the toothbrushes:( It was so gross!! I didn't have time to clean it then as I was, perhaps you remember, getting ready for Olivia's birthday celebration!!!
The drain was cleared.....
Maybe we need to invest in a snake!
Love, fondly, sincerely,
Zaijian,
Ramona
