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| Better maintained than I have to put up with |
"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."Truly, I have none of those things "adequately", some not at all.
Monday update on the water situation: Phoned the insurance and explained the chain of events leading up to the current situation. They need to talk to the assessor, the plumber, Uncle Tom Cobbley, God ... and phone me back.
Several hours have passed and I'm still waiting, despite underlining the fact that there is an element of urgency, as I have the water and toilet turned off.
Phoned the town hall, who say never mind the 63 euro bill, the next one that's going to come will be even higher, 70 odd (almost 80 euros). So I said, with all due respect, this is not water I have consumed, this is your fault for sending pressure that broke everything. She's sending the water man. Sometime.
Meanwhile, I still have the toilet stopcock, inconveniently, turned off.
Though I did turn the water (to the water heater / washing machine) on so I could attempt to use the latter again and, marvel of marvels, it worked.
But then it was sick all over the floor for me to mop up again. Twice again.
Then so was the dog, who has also had a bath while the water was on, as well as the fact that I had to do another lot of "deck swabbing" to clean that up.
The water is now turned off again to prevent leaks as I wait to see if the insurance will cover anything. If they don't, at the very least I shall have to find, await - and pay for - a plumber, a gas engineer for the water heater and a washing machine technician (or a new washing machine.) Not to mention the two water bills that I bet I end up paying (as an alternative to homelessness), though I believe the landlady should reclaim those from the council. The plumbing and the water heater certainly are her responsibility, but I might be waiting for years again.
The washing machine(s) should also be down to her too, because I rented the house, furnished, with a washing machine included in the inventory. Because I happened to have my own, she took hers away. (Notice that she never reduced the price after removing this and other items.)
Nevertheless, I replaced my own washing machine, last year, at my expense too, but I don't think I should have to replace the replacement.
Not that I have the money to pay for these things, but I will have to.
And, I could be sat around here for weeks waiting for the various "experts."
This is all quite apart from other losses, such as the time when the hall ceiling caved in, in a storm, after I'd been putting up with and constantly asking them to fix leaks for 18 months. I've lost ALL my decent clothing (my business stuff from the UK, mounting to a value in the thousands of pounds) that came here on a hot, dry day from the south of the island, then promptly all went green in the wardrobe. Work I've lost because I was mopping up floods, or couldn't get to because I had no access to hot water to adequately present myself. And, rightly, many of you are going to be asking why I've stayed? Well, apart from not being able to afford anything else, in the 16 years I've lived here, these are the best landlords I've encountered. You wouldn't believe it if I told you some of the stories, but lets put it this way, they all take the piss out of single women.
Taking me (financially) for a c*nt is the least of it.
