World's Smallest Kitten

The very spot where we found the three tiny kittens 20 years ago

On May 3, 2001, at 7 p.m., the dog and I were walking up the road, no more than 50 yards from the house, when we both heard a faint little squeak. Often lizards make this sound, so we didn't think too much of it at first and carried on walking. But on hearing the second squeak, Holly dog cocked her head and we must have both thought the same thing at the same time, "That ain't no lizard!" 

We turned to see what we thought was the World's Smallest Kitten crawl out from the undergrowth to the side of a clump of canes, close to the water trough and onto the side of the road. It was the ball of fluff, later named Balu because at that time he was just a light brown with no black markings or stripes, resembling a little teddy bear. He quickly dashed back up into the undergrowth, where he huddled with two better qualified entrants for the smallest kitten record. 

Holly was down the ditch and up the bank in a shot to "rescue" them, unprompted. Needing three more cats like I needed a hole in the head, but being unable to leave them there alone to get eaten by wild dogs or squished by passing cars, I went home and got a box then rounded them up with very little resistance. All three of them fitted in a shoe box with two-thirds of the space spare.

Noting the difference in size between these kittens - Balu was the largest and measured 4½ inches from nose to bum (he fitted in the palm of my hand) and my vet estimated them to be between two and three weeks old - and the 50 lb. mutt, I first put the box on the table, out of her reach. That was not the right answer, because she paced and howled and yowled and cried. So I put the box on the floor and supervised closely as Holly stuck her snout into this clawing mass, fished out little Balu, laid him on the floor and began to wash his underparts. 

For the next three nights and days, the dog never left the side of the box and continued watching her new "adopted children". 

Three kittens in a basket and this was when they were already half grown!

While I fed baby milk in one end every couple of hours for the next few weeks, Holly took charge of cleaning the other ends, in a production line system. 

Balu was "the baby who would not be put down" and screamed his little head off if I tried to do so, so mostly I didn't. Thus, he spent most of his first few weeks sleeping in a makeshift hammock inside my t-shirt as I worked, took the dog for walks, etc. And, as soon as he was big enough to crawl up, he would crawl up the front of me, plonk a paw either side of my neck and reach up to "kiss" me on the lips. And he still did this almost every day of the 15 years of his life. 

As the kittens began to grow up, I could open the front door, in full knowledge that this big dog would carefully pick up stragglers and carry them back indoors again. Six years later and both Balu and his sister, Kitty (sadly, we lost the other brother, Khan, in November 2006), still came in to hide whenever "mummy" barked. And as soon as they were old enough, they would come for walks with the dog and I, like a line of little ducklings and it was so funny, when they started trying to bury "mummy's" poo pile that was almost as big as themselves! 

The day after we found the kittens, I learned that my friend Natalia (whose cats may have been their ancestors), had died at precisely 7 p.m. on May 3rd, 2001.

Nothing to see here, just a dog and her "adopted offspring" out on a walk.

I haz a kid

Inter-species snorgling

I love goats, which tended to be a good thing when I lived in a valley filled with hundreds of them, had friends who kept goats (and made terrific cheese), but long before that I'd joked a goat would come in handy to keep the weeds down in the garden. Those who laughed at the idea, see dis.

Every day in the late afternoon in Tenerife, you come across herds of goats, but it took lots of walks to meet the goats in a local pen before my daft dog would no longer bark at them (she was no better with horses and a lot worse with other dogs, but that's a whole other story.) Whenever I took her to see the goats, an entourage of cats (her adopted kids) would follow us too.

Betty climbed the 3 meter wire fence to get up close and personal with them and wasn't so certain about meeting goats in person once one chased her all around the perimeter of the field.

But my favourite memory is from the first time Cleo (my little shadow and then queen of the feline troupe) came with us. She was not exactly sociable with other critters normally, so it was the more surprising and touching to see her standing up on hind legs at the fence, nose to nose with a goat kid.

My good friend Natalia, who kept goats, made cheese and was usually followed around the valley by her own entourage of cats, died, at the far too young age of only 47, at 7 p.m. on May 3rd, 2001.

How I can still remember so clearly, is because I remember exactly where I was at that very moment: with Holly, rescuing three kittens, two of whom are with me in the UK. Cleo had kidney and liver problems, so I had to end her suffering in 2004. This year, in June, I had to leave Betty (and Mico) behind in Tenerife and had say goodbye to Holly, my beautiful dog and best friend. Too soon and not by choice.

As a result, all of these memories have turned bitter-sweet. I miss friends, the other cats, my dog, the goats. I miss the walks, the wild fruit, the nature, the mountains and the fresh air. I miss them all so much it hurts. And in their place is just an emptiness that makes my heart ache beyond anything I can bear.

How landlords treat tenants in Tenerife ...

Damp in bedroom

After I received a threatening phone call, this is here "just for the record." Recent problems I've had to deal with; floods, every part of the plumbing breaking and the fact that I had to effect all the repairs (mostly through my insurance) and pay for them, is well documented already on this blog.

Terminal Damp 
The photos above were taken in the bedroom, behind the bed where I sleep. Could it be Stachybotrys chartarum a.k.a. Black Mold? It was one of many places in the house with similar damage and, even though pointed out, was never tackled.

Tenants have to inform landlords when there is something to repair, which I always have, yet sometimes, I've had to plead for years to get action.

Landlords have a responsibility to maintain and provide basic minimum services, so my legal advisors tell me. It's what tenants pay rent for, apparently! And there was me thinking it's just for the sheer fun of it!

The water people, told me that the recent problems are not theirs (naturally) and that it's because the landlords should maintain things (which they should). The fact that I just had to have the new regulator fitted (and paid myself), that was the landlords' responsibility, proves they're failing in this duty.

The two-faced water people (we are not surprised) are apparently telling the landlady that the problem is not theirs (naturally) and that it's my fault, because - she claims - I hadn't told her that the toilet needed fixing.

In fact I had told her that the toilet cistern was faulty and needed fixing, around 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 years ago, which earlier she had agreed with and, that I remember clearly, because it was while my mother was here for Christmas and I was concerned that it would cause additional inconvenience (pun intended) if there were two of us caught short without a working loo, during a holiday period. What got done about it? Absolutely sod all, of course. Now, the landlady is selectively forgetting that and trying to twist the blame round to me.

Apart from the recent problems, which had me mopping and waiting around for repair men for almost all of the month of April (and, I'll just mention that the plumber, eventually sent by the landlady, who is meant to be fixing the water heater, still hasn't come back and we are now in June), I've had a list floods, roofs leaking and things that didn't work during the 9 years I've lived here.

Just as an example, when the roof in the hallway began leaking (at the beginning it was just a drip: eventually, I needed to keep three bowls under various places whenever it rained), every month, I advised the landlords that it needed to be fixed. I did this for 18 months until ... it caved in.

Guess what? We had a storm, unbelievably heavy rain, the false ceiling filled with about a ton of water, bowed down like a giant saggy hammock, finally gave in and broke all over the floor, flooding the house, ruining another load of my possessions. The repairs took 11 months to complete and, during that time, someone would turn up whenever they felt like it and do a bit more, which meant I was often disturbed and hindered any attempts I made at getting back on track. The law is quite clear that where repairs take over 21 days, the tenant is allowed to deduct a proportion from the rent for the room(s) that are not available for use. Never did deduct anything for this, despite the entitlement. 

There's also the fact that my original contract had called for me to paint the interior of the house on leaving. Painting after a repair such as this was never my responsibility, but the mean landlady decided to use the interpretation that all "painting" was my province, full stop and, this was left to me. Well, actually, my mother painted it. Gotta wear out the old 'uns first!

When you see the extent of the damp here, it becomes obvious that the landlords must have already known about it; that it didn't suddenly become damp overnight and that, pretty obviously, it has been painted over before. They act in total denial whenever I mention damp, however.

To comply with the terms of the previous contract (the later, current, one does not include this requirement for painting), "someone" (clue, not the tenant) would have to prepare the walls for the said painting. At the very least this would require removing a lot of plaster and renewing it. To be honest, the only way you'd completely deal with this damp would be to demolish the house!

By coincidence, on the same day as the storm / flood, my then webhost screwed up with my then main site that had used to earn me around $2,000 a month. What do you do, sit in a puddle, working away at a computer (that's plugged into the electricity) to fix the website, or mop up and deal with the flood? Yes, obviously, in retrospect, I should have chosen the former, but I didn't and I've never been able to get back to that point in terms of traffic, earnings, etc., for a whole list of reasons, but the basic truth is, that if the landlords had fixed that roof when I began telling them, then this probably would not have happened and I probably would not have lost my main source of income overnight.

Let's be generous and say that was 5 years ago (it's more like 7) and that, maybe I'd have maintained half of that income (allowing for economic and other factors: and giving myself no credit for any improvement I might have made.) My calculations make that 5 x 12 x $1,000 = $60,000 (€38,664.)

Pretty much the same story can be repeated for this last set of plumbing breakages that could have been prevented by some simple maintenance that they are "legally required", but obviously not morally inclined to carry out.

The only difference this time was that I had very little left to lose!

On top of that, I have a yellowed scrap of paper here (that should tell you how long ago it was done), with calculations I'd made at the time, listing my financial losses and expenses due to floods, humidity, facilities not working, etc. These are, in euros, roughly: 1. Clothing, shoes, furniture, other possessions, paperwork, etc. €6,000 2. Loss of income from outside jobs. €7,500 3. Purchase of a dehumidifier. €450 4. Additional electricity for above. €600 5. Deduction for repairs. €264 Those 5 items come to a total of €14,814.

A more minor case of damp damage can be seen on a cabinet, which had belonged to me. This was caused merely through it having been kept in the damp house. You should have smelled it though! Shoes previously kept in that cabinet turned green and had to be thrown away.

The figures for losses are exceedingly generous in the landlords' favour (undervaluing my costs and losses by about 50%) and, were based on reasonable numbers (trust me, I'm an accountant) at the time. The clothing, furniture, etc., was based on purchase prices, not what they'd now cost to replace. Back in the day, I used to compere karaoke once a week, but owing to the lack of hot water (I've confirmed with the legal advisor that hot water is a basic requirement that landlords have a duty to provide), meant I could not prepare and present myself adequately to do this job (on stage, in public) and had to turn down bookings, which eventually dried up, because I was not reliably available.

Bang went my second source of income.

Shortly after moving here, I'd lost the main work I used to do for one of the newspapers.

The cost of the dehumidifier can be demonstrated by the receipt.

The electricity to run the dehumidifier was measured by the difference between the previous and next bill at that time and is a generous estimate, because I have merely multiplied that by the number of months for 5 years (again, it's probably 7) and, have not increased that with rises in electricity prices.

The deduction for repairs (for the fact that rooms were not available to me for 11 months, while the said repairs were carried out) is based on the legally allowed formula. It only counts one room too, while another was also used to store materials for the work and, whatever way you look at it, the figure is pathetically inadequate to compensate for the inconvenience it caused.

It actually took the landlords 4 years to install a water heater that consistently worked and, then only after a relative of theirs had told them that the one that was previously installed was of a type that would never work here. Which is what I'd said. They tried to tell me that it worked fine, while they could obviously see and feel a mere trickle of tepid water that any fool would be able to work out was not going to provide a shower. And that was on a good day. On the 364 days that the wind blows here, it wouldn't even light, because it's outside!

Then they also tried to tell me that it's "normal" to hang your clothes outdoors; like everyone does this, on some regular basis or, put the other way round, if you keep clothes in a wardrobe then they always go mouldy. News, isn't it? They also tried to tell me that I must have bought the stuff with me damp. Yeah, from the desert south of the island, on a day that was so hot you could hardly bear it ...

You could clearly see the damaged roof above the area where the wardrobe is, in Google Earth. This was since painted in 2003. Only painted. Otherwise, that roof just acts as a sponge.

There was another damp and damaged corner of the bathroom ceiling, above the toilet. The roof in the bathroom leaks to provide a free cold shower while using the loo in heavy rain.

The landlady has seen this ceiling on many occasions during the 9 years, but only painted the roof outside. She can't say she hasn't been aware of the problem. I've drawn attention to it, several times and I've stressed that I get wet when I sit on the loo when it rains. Still hasn't been fixed.

While the painters were working on that in November 2003, it rained, which provoked another flood: this time with the fresh red roof paint everywhere over a predominantly white / cream tiled bathroom. It looked just like a pig-lizard had turned inside out and exploded. I was left to clean this up.

When it came to paying for the additional repairs that the painters couldn't avoid having to do to attempt to seal the roof to take the paint, the landlords had tried to wriggle out of paying. I know this, because the painter told me. He also said that they are "muy mala gente" (very nasty people.)

Next door's workman on the outhouse roof

The corrugated roof on the Jerry-built slum of an outhouse at the back of the house, leaked from day one. This was once fixed and a bodge made to fill (with foam in a can) the leaking gap between the top of the wall and the roof.

That worked for, oh, all of five minutes, relatively. A workman was doing some work to the house next door, but, without consultation, did so standing on the roof of the outhouse to this house to do so. The weight of the man created a whole load of new leaks, where the roof was damaged or was pulled away from the wall (which took a couple of years of pleading and two more winters constantly mopping up floods to be repaired).

It also had the effect of squashing the foam in a tube stuff, so that the gap opened between the wall and the roof, which has still not been fixed, despite my constant requests and their constant promises that it will be "in summer." Depending on the wind direction or the strength of the rain, this leaks and forms an indoor lake.

There are three steps down from that outhouse into the house proper, so when it floods, I have no option but to stay out there mopping to avoid it coming indoors and causing greater damage. I have spent days and nights doing so in really bad weather, when the lake was refilling and I could fill a bucket every 15 minutes.

Nobody came to help, despite the emergency nature.

The effort, as well as the conditions, were making me very ill.

And we still haven't taken into account the amount I've spent (wisely, I think) on a household insurance policy (circa. €200 p.a.); on other small repairs and parts that I've just got on and dealt with (even if they had been the landlords' job); my time spent dealing with it all and constantly mopping, etc.

In October last year, I had to replace my washing machine (another €389), because it was old, but also because it was finished off by a previous surge in water pressure, that again, could not have happened if the landlords had correctly maintained the regulator. (This is something I could not have informed them about as a regulator does not show signs when it no longer works, is some distance away from and outside the property and, in any case is a responsibility of property owners who have the contract for the water supply.)

Then there's the fact that the rental came with a washing machine provided, listed in the inventory. The landlady took hers away, because I had my own, however, she made no allowance in the rental price for this.

Same deal with the fridge / freezer, which again is mine.

I've also had to replace both a double and a single mattress (€450).

Then there's the potentially, mildly venomous damp loving bugs. A previous tenant (happens to be my next door neighbour and the landlady's sister-in-law), tells me that this house has always attracted more of them. Yes, because it's more damp than other places, which again proves it was before my time and suggests something that the landlady could not have been unaware of.

Whilst breakages and misuse would be the tenants problem, wear and tear never is. The problem here is that, for these landlords, wear and tear does not exist. Nothing is ever their responsibility. It's always someone else's. They will even try to foist wear and tear, damp, age, etc., on me, saying I caused it somehow.

What would you dare plug in here with all that damp?

There's also the fact that, the electrical wiring in this house (fitted, I am told by a son who is an electrician), is, at best dangerous.

There are shorts; the power often trips off for no apparent reason; light fittings that have burnt out, blow bulbs on a very regular basis, short when it rains and, to top it all, the contract they signed up for with electricity company, UNELCO, is for the lowest rate they offer. This is for small appliances only and is not rated for a washing machine, so potentially, this is illegal. Apart from the fact that I can only use the washing machine on cold (if I want the electricity to stay on) and, can use only one major appliance at a time.

There's also the fact that there are vines in the backyard, which someone comes to maintain, which interferes with my right to privacy and "quiet enjoyment." Chemicals are used regularly, which mean that I am unable to let my cats out.

The rent here is cheap, but compared to what's being asked for other properties available for rent in this valley, it's the normal rate for a property in good and working order in this area and the price certainly does not allow a discount for "putting up with" something like this. They didn't mention that the vines even existed in advance. Indeed, in the first year or so, they appeared abandoned, but nothing was said, when they began to maintain them.

There's also the fact that there are cables on the kitchen roof that had been ordered to be removed (by the town hall, I'm told) before I had even moved in here (yes, I have my informants too). A couple of years ago, they changed these from uninsulated cables that carried the electrical supply to the entire valley to insulated cables with just the supply for three houses. The landlady keeps telling me that those cables are about to be removed. It keeps not happening, of course.

Meanwhile, I have no idea if now, or particularly before, these cables could have had any effect on my health. Experts can't agree on the effects from exposure to the magnetic fields around electrical cables, I have no idea what voltage they were, but there are those who allege problems, such as "A University of Bristol (U.K.) study involving experiments on 2,000 pylons concluded that electric cables are responsible for tripling the effect of cancer-carrying pollutants in the air." My father died of liver cancer, my mother has leukaemia and I've already had microcalcifications found on a mammogram, which were declared to be of concern. Therefore, naturally, this concerns me too. Severe headaches, nausea, exhaustion and other symptoms that I'd suffered, suddenly and notably became less severe when the cables were changed.

By law, calor gas installations must be checked once every five years. I've been living here for 9 years. There has never been an inspection.

An old friend (since passed on, sadly) told me he had friends who lived in this house previously. He also told me that he knew it had been declared "uninhabitable", officially.

Finally, I have contracts and receipts, but I know that the rental is not registered officially and that no tax is being paid on the income from it.

At this point in time, after you deduct the parts (for which I have receipts) from the water bill that has so far been presented to the landlady (in her name and, for which I actually have no liability), then there is a difference she considers I should pay of around €20. And I owe her €200 in rent. A total of €220. (Not forgetting that she has my deposit to cover all of that.)

Even discounting most of the above that she would be sure to dispute (for those not keeping score, it came to a laughable grand total of €55,317 (£43,738), still doesn't cover anything - least of all my loss of sanity - and that she wouldn't even be able to cover even if she gave me the property) ...

She damn well knows I've done her far more than €220 worth of "favours" in 9 years. So phoning me this morning, shouting, arguing and demanding money; telling me I can leave, really redefines the meaning of "cutting off your nose to spite your face", doesn't it? Exactly the idiotic reaction I expected, mind you.

She also redefines meanness and taking money on false pretences, if you ask me, but at the end of the day, she should count herself very fortunate indeed that I have paid up and shut up (to keep a heavily leaking roof over my head for 9 years) and not, for example, responded to the electricity people who have queried my usage level and wanted the contract upgraded.

Or pressed the issue with her over the cables on the kitchen roof.

Or organized a gas inspection.

Nor spoken to lawyers, doctors, the housing department or the tax office ...

In case you didn't spot it in a previous post: these are BEST landlords I've found on this island, by the way. Most treat their fellow Canarians no better, but I do wonder if immigrants and "defenceless" single women get "special treatment". It certainly makes it specially stressful.

Domestic Darkness, Damp & Damnation ...

Yesterday, the light in the kitchen ceiling went. Well, the second half of it: the other half burnt out about 8 years ago and has never been fixed. I can't reach it, even with a ladder, so that reduces me to groping around with a torch. It's raining hard this evening and the roof is leaking again. F*ck it!

WTF Plumbing

Fontanería creativa (creative plumbing)

The council plumbers, who were due to come last Tuesday, turned up at 7.50 a.m. last Wednesday morning. It's a good thing Cat Balu has taken to waking me up early then, she says sarcastically. Anyway, the new regulator is fitted, even if they did fit more pipe, another stopcock and the whole thing ended up looking awfully similar to this bit of Fontanería creativa (creative plumbing).

The WTF element is still the fact that a regulator is needed to protect the installations in the house from damages that could be caused by ups and downs in water pressure, when a) every single bit of it already broke (because of the last pressure surge) and is now new and b) the very same plumbers still insist that they are not responsible and that the pressure never changes.

For b) to be true, a) could not have happened.

They would, no doubt, argue that I had imagined the whole scenario, but I distinctly remember being wet up to the knees mopping out real water.

So, that just leaves the leaking water heater still to be fixed.

Since the regulator was fitted and the pressure was put back at a sensible level (I'm sure it wasn't measured with an apparatus, but it's better than it was), the intermittently not working water heater and the temperamental washing machine have both behaved themselves. Now I've said that, bet they won't.

Short lived results ...

Friday marked the three week "anniversary" of having the house flooded out as a result of a serious surge in water pressure that managed to break; the toilet in two places, the pipe bringing water to the bidet, the tap to the kitchen sink, the water heater and buggered up a nearly-new washing machine. And, whilst I can't deny that we have had some progress, things are still far from liveable. I'm still waiting for the water heater to be fixed. If it can be. 

Fortunately, or not, we're having a heatwave, so I was able to withstand a shower in the slightly sun-warmed "cold" water today. This facility is only available in the mid-afternoon and only on excessively hot days (which is not many up here) and, which may not always be when one needs it most!

The washing machine that was fixed yesterday, wouldn't work today.

And, we still have the outstanding matter of the pressure regulator.

After discovering another new leak on Tuesday, the council's plumbers - to give them their due - drove up here within minutes. Guilty conscience, maybe? 

They tightened up the nut that was causing that new small escape and restored the pressure again. It seems that the plumbers, who'd been to change the tap in the kitchen had turned this down. I think they must have thought that the regulating nut was the turning off nut and turned the wrong one.

Flanders and Swann had a song about events like this, didn't they?

The council water people still say all this is not their fault and that the water pressure does not go up and down like a whore's drawers, but I know what I heard and felt as well as what other experts have said.

Anyway ... I also asked the council plumbers again about the regulator that they tell me is supposed to be fitted to stop things being damaged by the ups and downs of pressure (that they say don't happen.) And the upshot is that it's not a great amount of money, so I decided not to wait for the landlady to get round to it. All this might have been prevented for want of a less than 20 quid regulator? Oh the council will fit it free and it's obligatory that you have one, but you have to go out to the hardware shop to buy it yourself. Can anyone see the logic in this system? Why can't the council order them? I will never understand.

Anyway, to be certain, I even got the plumbers to write me out a note with what I needed to buy written on it, a "regulador de pression de media pulgada" (a half inch pressure regulator). I gave that note to the woman in the hardware shop and what do I get? Some sort of valve that has nothing to do with it.

In fact, I made the bus journey down to Buenavista specially on Tuesday afternoon, after a wash in 2 inches of barely luke warm water, which I certainly didn't appreciate. The plumbers came up straight away on Wednesday to fit it, after I rang the town hall to say I'd got it. At least I'd had the forethought to get that written down, so they know it wasn't my fault it was wrong.

Then, surprise, surprise, after all this time, they show me the regulator that's installed - yes you heard that right. There is a regulator installed already, it's just that it's several years old and "probably doesn't work any more," they say! Right. Really? Is there a test to prove / refute this claim, maybe? Does anyone tell you that regulators are obligatory, or that when you've got one, they need to be replaced on a regular basis (because of regular damage?) Nah, my guess is that councils deliberately leave you to guess about it, so that when they send you unregulated pressure that buggers everything in your house, they can say it's your fault: you hadn't installed / changed / got the right model of regulator / maintained your stuff / whatever else they dream up.

If you want a tip, it isn't going to be "install a regulator" or "change your regulator regularly", my advice is just know that whatever you do right, the council plumbers' jobsworth description manual already has an excuse to contradict you. Live with it. Their fuck ups will cost YOU money.

Tenants shouldn't have to do this: it is the landlords' responsibility. But we all know how responsible landlords are. Their obligations seem to end after holding their hands out, no matter what your contract / the law says. They truly do think that we are being unreasonable to expect the things that are listed in the contract and that we are paying for to actually work.

Meanwhile, I hadn't been able to get out to exchange this damn regulator, because I'd still been waiting for another plumber to give me a second opinion on the water heater and for a washing machine technician to call. Both of those turned up on Thursday. After the engineer promised by my household assistance insurance just failed to materialise and the store I bought the machine from only last October tried to wash their hands of any responsibility too, I decided to call an engineer I'd used some years ago for my old machine.

They appear not to be available any more, however, to cut yet another long story short, whomever answered that number gave me another number to call that turned out to be some sort of call center and a decidedly rare oasis of efficiency in Tenerife's desert of bunglers. The man on the phone made me get the make and model; no vagaries here. Normally, a "Well, it's a washing machine, init?" would suffice perfectly. In fact, usually, when you try to give people "essential information" they don't want it and brush it aside as irrelevant. Sometimes handy, generally infuriating. What it seems I got were the official technicians from Santa Cruz, from the manufacturers of the machine.

They barely got in the door, turned the tap and clicked the button, when the guy asked, somewhat rhetorically, "There's been a lot of pressure through here, hasn't there?" Well, yes I happen to think so and so I recounted the story (as short as I could make it) of all the breakages, etc., and the town hall's insistence that the pressure doesn't go up and down. They laughed.

They also advise me that the town hall is supposed to be using an apparatus to measure the water pressure at around 4 to 4.5 kilos. Are you kidding? I haven't even seen those three stooges do anything as remotely technical as licking a finger and sticking it in the air to find out which way the wind is blowing! You just wait until next time they come up and I ask them to measure me 4 to 4.5 kilos please. They'll think I mean "of spuds!"

Anyway, the washing machine technicians confirmed what I'd thought all along; that an airlock was what was causing the machine not to fill. They checked the filter, which I had put back in correctly, despite what the shop insisted was the problem. They asked me if I'd like them to change the valve just in case, as this may have been damaged by the high pressure. I said why not. And they still put the whole thing down as under guarantee (gratis).

As soon as they left, I did three wash loads that had been accumulating.

However, they did tell me to turn the water off to the machine, for the moment, until the regulator is fixed, when I'm not using it. Because it's on the same mains tap as the water heater, which is leaking, it has to be turned off anyway. But, every time the water is turned off to the washing machine, when the water is turned back on again, there's an airlock, the machine makes horrid noises and won't suck the water in. They showed me what to do to clear the problem, but it means pulling out the machine, disconnecting the pipe, letting out any air, reconnecting it. And I simply don't have the strength and can't manage it. So, once again, I have no washing machine.

I also asked the washing machine technicians about the crazy shit the town hall plumber was spouting about only ever feeding a washing machine from a tank on the roof and never from the water supply direct from the street and, as I knew they would, they also confirmed that this too was a whole load of bullshit.

Today, I also happened to talk to a man who lives in the village, further down the valley, and he was recounting his woes of the up and down water pressure. His daughter lives up here, close to where I do and he says she's having all the same problems as me: as soon as she fixes one thing, something else breaks. She's installing new regulators and meters almost monthly after the pressure surges (that the town hall deny exist) just screw them. He tells me they've done all sorts of fiddles to reduce the effects, but they can't get a water heater to work at all, because if they reduce the pressure enough to not break everything, the water heater won't light up. Exactly the same problem I have.

Nevertheless, Thursday, another plumber came to look at the water heater.

After the plumbers from the insurance company had said that the water heater can't be repaired and needs to be replaced (however pointless), I decided to ask the landlady to send her plumber up to look at it. For two reasons: one, he's a right Barry Bucknell bodger, so if anyone can find a way to bodge, I mean fix, it, it's probably him. Secondly, if anyone is going to tell the landlady that it can't be repaired and it's going to cost her 250 euros, let it be her own plumber.

Anyway, he has taken away the make and model number and is going to try to order a membrane to fit that he says is what has been damaged by high pressure (that same high pressure the council says is a figment of my imagination) and, if he can get it (we don't know what year), he'll fix it.

Oh, for the last three weeks, the water heater would work, not that well, once one went outside and turned the water on. Today, it simply does not work.

In the meantime, I wait, I wash in cold water or mostly not at all? Again.

And this plumber tells me now that he had told the (mean and nasty) landlady that the previous water heater that did not work at all and left me without hot water (mostly) for 4 years was not going to work at all up here. So she knew it would not work, still insisted it did, that I was just "making it up", just because she is too mean. Well, I knew that already, but he just proved it.

And her "faithful" plumber tells me that his "day job" is working for Los Silos council, so he says, he knows "all the excuses". Yes, I'll bet he does!

He also confirms he knows I'm right about the pressure and the cause too.

And so now I know, categorically, that so does the landlady.

Finally, Friday was the first chance I could get away to go to the shop to change the wrong valve for the regulator that I'd asked for in the first place. Only you know it wasn't going to be THAT simple, don't you? Absolutely.

The hardware store in Buenavista just gave me my money back, because, it turns out, she doesn't carry what I need in stock. So, after a journey requiring no less than 4 busses, I had to go to Los Silos and back to get one. When I got back into Buenavista, I walked back into town again, went to the town hall, sought out the girl who does the water and showed her what I'd got. She got a colleague to confirm that it looks right and she rang the plumbers. They will be coming up again on Tuesday. And, by then we'll be well into the 4th week of this bloody fiasco and I still don't know when (or if) the water heater will be fixed and there's no point getting anyone back to look at the washing machine again until that is done ... I'm so far beyond the end of my tether, it's just not funny!

Another leak ...

The company who sold me the washing machine don't want to help, which is what I expected. It should be under guarantee and, the cause isn't proven - don't forget the Town Hall say they aren't responsible and that the pressure did not go up and down - but they say they'll charge for a technician. 

The bloke in the shop claims that I haven't put the filter back in properly. 

Well, I've had it out and back several times and I can't see another way of doing it, besides, it had gone in OK previous times when I'd had it out for cleaning. Looks like I'll have to call a technician myself to check it over. 

Am I surprised? Nope. Ah, but I can't call a technician until I have money to pay one. I can't get money unless I go down to Buenavista on the bus. I can't go to Buenavista on the bus until I can have a shower ...

Then, this morning I was just double-checking again that the meter is not counting any water (that I'm not using) and found that the pipe, this side of the meter, down in the barranco, is dripping. I'm trying to get hold of those horrible council people now and, obviously, I'll have to switch the water off again ...

That's it: I really can't cope any more.

Updates on the domestic situation ...

The new tap with free shower in the kitchen. Note it has always been cold only.

Updates on the domestic situation. In a nutshell: 

• The toilet is fixed, for now. I don't want to sound negative, but it's an old cistern that's had small repairs. They aren't going to last forever.
• The water pressure is crap and insufficient for the water heater again.
• Plumbers inspected the leaking water heater and say it cannot be repaired and will need to be replaced (chance of landlord doing this, considerably lower than extracting milk from a bull), so once again, I'm without hot water, cannot shower, cannot wash my hair ...
• The tap in the kitchen had to be replaced, but as the old style sink is so old, small and, frankly like everything else here, crap, the best fitting tap they could get is in the wrong place for the sink and the right place to drench me in cold water. No this will NOT substitute for the shower!
• And, I'm still without a washing machine. Since nobody has come (as was promised) to look at the machine itself, I'll have to try under the guarantee or get my own repairer (because of the water heater problem, the water supply has to be turned off to it anyway.)

If I weren't living this nightmare, I'd think it was a comedy sketch too! 

Passport to insanity

British passport and some euros

Amongst the various things that are driving me absolutely round the bend at the moment, I've also recently had to renew my passport. Well, the application should be in Madrid, though I'm still waiting, with breath baited and crossed everything, for it to arrive. Geez, I know you can't go round giving British passports away to just anybody (though I would counter that those who want one for nefarious reasons will know their way around this ridiculous obstacle course that us honest folk have to negotiate), but the process is getting seriously stupid and it's becoming less about security and more about money extraction.

Now, first off there is the cost, an astonishing €185 (£148) (plus postage, which is extra to the Canaries, of course.) This, "... includes a special fee charged by consulates in case the holder becomes a distressed British subject." Since you have to pay them back anyway if you ever need help, this effectively means they get paid twice and earn interest on the "advance fee scam." Trying to renew a bloody passport creates distressed British subjects!

First, to take full advantage of the services I'm about to pay so dearly for (since I can't not have a passport, this money had already been put aside), I rang the British Consulate in Santa Cruz to ask them to tell me where to find a suitable or approved photographer in Tenerife, so that I could get a photo done to the new excessively pedantic standards and, hopefully, not have mine refused and sent back (at even more additional cost) as happened to a friend recently. The consulate could only list two photographers on the entire island; one in Playa de Las Americas and the other in Tenerife's capital that they know are up to the task. I decided to visit the latter, Foto Yumar in the C/ La Rosa, 21, in Santa Cruz (near the Plaza del Principe).

Other photographers, in other towns, advertising that they do passport photos are either telling porkies, referring to OLD British passport photo requirements, or to passports for countries that are less fussy than the UK (that's most of them.) The only other country in the world, this pedantic, is Canada, I was told. To give them their due, the consulate here is very helpful and the nice lady did also explain to me what bus number I need and where to get off (the bus).

The journey to Santa Cruz is a 2 1/2 - 3 hour bus ride, each way, with 3 bus changes, already. And it was raining when I got to Santa Cruz, so there was no alternative but to get a taxi for the last leg, or be drowned. The whole "day trip", with photo, taxi, food, etc., ended up costing me 35 euros, plus the cost of the buses that were covered by my Bono ticket, on top of the passport fees. Since this was not some casual drop in situation, I thought I'd give Foto Yumar a call (922 289 466) first to check and get their opening times.

These already have the details of how to do British Passport photos, according to the Consulate and I certainly hoped that was right. Hoped merely, because, after explaining that I wanted a photo for a British passport, my heart sank when the girl asked me to "take the sizes" of the photo I need.
So I took along a copy of the 3 page leaflet (it takes 3 pages of instructions for one photo!?) in Spanish.

Hopefully the resulting ugly mug shot will meet with their approval, even if it didn't meet with mine. Typical passport photo, but the bloody non-smiling thing they demand now made me look as old as the hills and as ugly as sin!

After that fiasco, one has to find someone, of the right standing, to countersign the back of one of the (pig ugly) photos and the passport application. And, the problem here is that, after 16 years in a foreign country and, having made a concerted effort to stay away from "certain elements" of the expat community here, one does not tend to know any British persons of the right "calibre". Whilst I could drum up the odd Spanish medic or member of clergy among my acquaintance, none speak English to understand what's needed (other than from what I could tell them, which is no use), read the form they're signing, etc.

So again, I asked the consulate for advice and they told me to go to my bank and get them to countersign it and plonk their official stamp on it. That, I'll bet works absolutely fine in the branches of banks on the south of the island, where they have a lot of English speaking customers and probably some English speaking staff. In the little branch in Buenavista del Norte, they give (usually) wonderful, friendly, old fashioned service ... but they know squat English.

Actually, it's possible that I might be their only English customer.

They certainly hadn't come across a British passport application ever before! And I got a new guy, who argued that the bank "never" does this and, not that he believed me, but I had to really insist that the consulate had told me that they certainly do. Then he said, basically, if it's a British passport, then the British consulate has to do this for me (no they don't).

And, isn't that who I just said sent me here?

If they did do this, don't you think ...

So I asked him to speak to the British consulate direct. I'd taken a printed compliment slip of theirs, with their number on, specifically to give to the bank clerk, so he could do so, but because the consulate is always engaged, he gave up after two tries. So then he phones his head office and since he couldn't properly understand the form (I think he could read some English) and, obviously didn't trust a word I was saying, he couldn't explain to them what it was he was being asked to do. Not surprisingly, therefore, the office said that he had to send the forms to them to get their approval for the branch to sign it.

Well, I couldn't wait for that, for one thing, I certainly didn't want the forms, photos, etc., going missing in the system and, I knew it was a "perfectly normal" thing, on the other. So, I decided I would have to get pushy.

It took a long time, because they are always engaged, but eventually, I got the consulate on my mobile phone, I told them the problem and asked them to speak to the man in the bank, then quickly handed him my phone before he could get the chance to get out of it. It was either that or no passport. What's a girl to do?

To cut an even longer saga a bit shorter, he did sign it in the end; still whining that it "didn't make sense", that the consulate should do this for me, that the bank's stamp is meaningless, the Spanish system is better, more logical ... I just smiled and agreed, but said that it didn't matter, as long as it was good enough for the silly British ... My head was absolutely done in by then!

Then I had to get it copied and send the whole kaboodle to Madrid, all of which had to be done on separate days, because of the waiting and timings of buses, etc. And never mind that my health makes even one trip painful and tiring. Yeah, I know, whine, whine, whine ... but whatever you do here is the same. Your heart sinks when contemplating even the simplest tasks!

Photo: Christopher Elison Some rights reserved

Everyone else's fault ...

This was the nearest stock image I could find to the conditions I live in

Isn't everything? Well, things are going from bad to worse really. Tuesday and the (piddling) toilet is still turned off at the stopcock, the water is still turned off to the (trickling) water heater and the (gushing) washing machine (I didn't even try to use that today, because I couldn't face the thought of cleaning up another flood) and now I have a tap intermittently dripping in the kitchen. 

The insurance company phoned me late yesterday and again this morning to ask if the water heater was still dripping, which I said it was (because it is).

They said they would send "repairers", but they didn't say what type or which year. Someone phoned me at almost 9 p.m. to ask what problem I have. I said many. They said, just give me one, so I said, I guess the toilet is most urgent.

They are supposedly coming round early in the morning.

We'll see what they're prepared to do, but the guys in the office won't confirm to me what's covered by the insurance - I've asked them twice - and it's looking increasingly like they merely wish to consider fixing the immediate emergency (irrespective of cause and notwithstanding that emergencies needing immediate action or remedy can't occur when it's up a mountain, after dark), but they seem to be ignoring any other damages resulting from the same event.
.
What I bought was household contents insurance to cover my things in the event of floods, fire, theft, etc., of which this emergency cover was just a part. That's why I expect the insurance to cover damages to my things (like the washing machine, at least), or other flood damaged belongings.

And the more I think about the questions I asked the rep when I took it out and the conversation we had, the more convinced I am that she said I was covered for those kinds of examples. They're long overdue, but I'll need to get new glasses before I can read through chapter and verse of the small print!

Meanwhile, it looks like I will have to find and pay; another plumber, to fix all the other leaks; whatever type of gas specialist to look at the water heater.

And then there's the washing machine that should still be under guarantee. That last word, mind you, seems to be generally meaningless in Spain.

The insurance company office did also give me the number of a free legal advice line that is apparently included in my cover, which should give me answers on my rights and who is responsible for what.

Unfortunately, I doubt they will be able to tell me anything that I have not already studied in some depth. The problem I've found is that knowing and claiming ones rights are two very different concepts here.

A landlord may well be responsible for all sorts of things, but expecting them to assume that responsibility is usually (in 100% of cases in my previous experience) met with a sudden end to the rental contract.

Landlords physically harassing tenants who are "difficult", i.e. want things to work, be provided as per the contract and the law, is so common here that the police just shrug it off and say they can't do a thing. Just move, they say.

Whether my experience indicates that people are more likely to harass single female tenants or not, I can't prove, but I do think so and, obviously, when one is alone and female, it is a far more intimidating and dangerous situation.

Then there are the water bills, currently running to over 200 euros. The absolute low spot of the day came around lunch time, when three "jobsworths" (what you'd expect) turned up from the council. They do the water.

About 2 1/2 to 3 years ago, they'd been working on the tanks in my lane (they now insist this had nothing to do with my water supply, something I would still dispute.) While they were working on that, I'd had to go down to them to tell them that there was a very loud noise of running water, day and night, alongside the house and that the water pressure in my house was really excessively high and that I was concerned it would break something.

Just doing my best to prevent a disaster. Not an unreasonable thing?

Of course they told me there was no problem.

Never is, til it happens to them.

What happened? The house was flooded out again, of course.

What REALLY pissed me off about it was that the bloke came up specifically to ask me if the pressure was OK. As I got up to check and answer him, was when I saw the "wall of water" coming through the house. He saw it too. He immediately claimed that the pressure had nothing to do with it and wasn't ever changed. Hello, you just knocked my door and asked me about water pressure.

Then, he turned and walked away, leaving me to deal with a house full of water on my own. Out here is so rural, he knows there is nobody in reach to help. It doesn't even matter who or what caused the flood, all I know is that I would be absolutely incapable of walking away and not helping someone in that situation. Anyone who can be that nasty, is many leagues lower than pond scum.

And he is one of today's gang of three. A good start, not!

So first he swears blind that the water pressure does not go up and down, ever, so, of course, it cannot have damaged anything. And our things are inside the house. Jobsworth says the council is only responsible for what's outside.

That means other people in the area, who have commented to me that the water pressure goes up and down and comes with airlocks in it (and that this situation has been increasing lately) are telling lies and imagining things too, are they? And the insurance company staff and the plumber they sent have both seemed to accept (they've not questioned nor refuted) my suggestion that a surge in pressure was a reasonable - possible - cause of such breakages / floods.

The landlady's brother-in-law is actually a sensible bloke and didn't seem to find it unreasonable or ridiculous of me to suggest it, when I said to him that I though that an increase in water pressure had been the cause of the problems.

Everyone I have spoken to so far, in fact, except the water man from the council, has heard of water pressure going up and down. Curious that, isn't it?

Even waterman 2 agreed with me that the pressure is higher at night. This is the pressure that does not go up and down, ever, by the way. I do hope you are following the logic here so far. (If you are, you're the only one.)

Now, after they finished the work 2 1/2 to 3 years ago, they left me with water pressure that was never the same as it was before. It was never good, but ... Then and on one subsequent occasion, I've had to talk to them to tell them that the pressure had dropped. They didn't disagree with me. On those occasions, I told them that there was no longer enough pressure for the gas water heater to start up, as an example of the problem.

Funnily, I based this statement on the fact that the water heater wouldn't start (but always had previously), after being able to note a difference in the amount of water that was coming out of any tap (incl. cold) and the amount of me it would get wet at one time. I've told them there's a problem and requested they fix it. As you do. Yes, of course, I think that increasing the pressure (putting it back to where it was), would be the solution. I don't know what they did.

And, you don't need me to explain that I did not ask them to do something that would be wrong. But no, our Jobsworth water man was today trying to twist this around to say that it's my fault if the pressure was too high and broke everything. (Pressure that does not change and could not break stuff, remember?)

So, I gave them the "wrong" instructions and they just followed like sheep?

Oh, please! Any fool knows that this is not what happened. I did not demand "the wrong thing" and they would not have done it, even if I did.

By that logic, if I told them to, they'd jump off a cliff, would they? Yeah, right!

The bloke was then demanding I tell him EXACTLY what pressure I wanted - in a snotty / snarky tone - totally unreasonable, because no consumer, Spanish, English or otherwise is going to know this. It's obvious that I can't tell them HOW to twiddle their knobs and, that I cannot be responsible for their actions.

All during the conversation, he would contradict everything I said. He would not listen to a word I said and would interrupt me to disagree, even when I was trying to answer a question he'd just asked me. Then he shouts down to his mates the virtual equivalent of "Give her the least pressure there is".

The shoulder shrugging at the "unreasonable woman" was more than evident.

The height of ignorance: they tried to get in their van and drive away.

Meanwhile, since it was "our fault" (according to him) I'd asked him to explain to me EXACTLY what it was that he wanted us / the landlords to do and kept insisting on this. It took me several goes to make him explain to me. This is not a lack of Spanish. He was deliberately spouting a load of psuedo-technical mumbo-jumbo nonsense jibberish at me while walking away. Nobody can understand that. You can't deal with people this unreasonable.

Then he says that the problem is a lack of maintenance on the part of the landlords and that only the old and already breaking things break (as a result of the ups and downs of pressure that "don't" occur.) Lack of maintenance figures, greatly and, it does account for the toilet, or at least the fact that it was more vulnerable to the effects of the pressure surge. I still say that even old things would not be so summarily seen off, other than by some serious fault in the water supply, pressure ups and downs, airlocks ... I'm not making those up.

The theory breaks down because the water heater is not that old - not old enough. And the washing machine is mine and it's virtually new.

Usually, not everything; the water heater outside, the plumbing in the bathroom, the tap in the kitchen, the washing machine in the utility room, all breaks at the same time, coincidentally.

Generally, that sort of thing only happens when it's caused by some unforeseen event. (Excess pressure, maybe?)

So then he says the landlords have to pay for a regulator to put between the water meter and the house to prevent damage from the ups and downs of pressure - those very same ups and downs of pressure that don't happen?

Next he comes out with a cracker. You must "never" use a washing machine plumbed direct from the mains water. They "have" to be fed by water from a tank on the roof. The landlords are, according to him, "obliged" to fit this.

The house was built in 1957 and it's never been "obliged" to have one before.

He also didn't say it when he was out in my utility room 3 years ago, standing in front of my washing machine, knowing full well where and how it was plumbed in. Then, he'd told me that you always have to turn the mains tap off and on to it every time. That too is ridiculous, as everybody with half a wit knows.

And everything you could say to him, he had an immediate excuse, scripted, I should think, to ensure that the council is not going to take responsibility.

There are millions of homes that do not have tanks on their roofs and who do have washing machines. My landlady's own house for one, so I think, in the end I got her to see that he was trying to hoodwink both of us with this nonsense.

She came up here making assumptions - couldn't have waited to hear what I had to say to see that I was actually on the same side as her - initially, defensive and ready to "put the blame on me" (i.e. wriggle, as they always do, out of any responsibility or cost) for not fixing the leak.

The valve wasn't leaking before, but I had told her, a couple of years ago that the cistern was on its last legs. Who's fault is it that wasn't fixed in the interim?

Then when I reminded her that she'd been here when the local shopkeeper had also commented on the ups and downs of the pressure, she couldn't argue.

The town hall also sent me up a print out today. This shows that the 63 euro bill - that my landlady has just received (in April) and presented to me, actually covers the period of November - December 2007. The bill for 70 euros is for January - February 2008 and, the one for March - April will be even higher.

They can't even send a bill for 4+ months? It doesn't help, does it?

While the landlords' lack of maintenance might not help, the council's siting of the water meter (virtually in a barranco, a long way from the house (50 feet ish), so I can't get to it to read it), the extreme delay in sending out accounts (which might help people to notice anomalies in time), plus their erratic water pressure (though they deny that happens), seem to me to be the main culprits.
The hissing noise on the toilet started at the same time I noticed stronger pressure from the water coming out of the taps, on Thursday, April 3rd. I turned off the stopcock and attempted to get the problems fixed on the following day.

There was no sight or sound of water from the mains leaking in this house before that. Obviously, I've thought over and over on this, but I'm satisfied with my conduct and that there is no way I could have known or acted earlier.

In fact, I still don't know where all that water has been going since November, because for all the excuse making they can do, the water people don't actually work or investigate anything. They have another stock answer. It went through the meter. Not our problem. For all I know, someone could have cut into the pipes along that 50 foot stretch and is irrigating their fields with it.

The mental energy I've wasted today, being forced to deal with these unreasonable people, has left me completely and utterly drained. To top it all, I'm actually writing this stuff up for a reason; to catalog the events, because I may need it all (translated) later. And this is the second time I've typed most of this today, because the computer decided to crash to the "blue screen of death", yet again, which is yet another problem, yet to be solved and paid for.

Well, unless I want to be homeless, I'll have to fix and pay for all of it.

Common sense has left the building ...

But, don't worry, I have every faith (if I did, it would be through sheer naivete, or some worse affliction) that we can carry on, without it ...

'Twas on a Wednesday morning (with another nod to the famous musical tale of woe and a succession of workmen, as told by Flanders and Swann), the plumber came to call and I need to get the day's events cataloged before I forget.

Yesterday, I'd done some head scratching and testing of my own. With the toilet turned off at the stopcock, in order to flush it after use, required turning the stopcock on again. With me so far?

This I would do, do what I needed, flush the toilet and then I waited for it to refill again ... the aim being to have it full, ready for the next visit.

Only, when I went back, for some strange reason, the cistern was empty.

No water on the floor. No visible leak. No sound of water escaping.

So, I tried it again. Same thing. Mysteriously disappearing water.

Third time lucky? An Aha! moment. This time, I waited and watched.

Have you ever stood, staring down a toilet pan before, sober?

It would seem that the water had been escaping from the bottom of the cistern, into the bowl at a barely perceptible rate. Too slow to notice, because there was no sound and even standing there deliberately staring at it, all that was evident was that the surface of the water merely shimmered - it was hardly movement - which I can best describe as being something like that which might be caused by blowing very softly on the water surface, from some distance.

OK, I can accept a theory that, with such an imperceptibly slow outflow and, previously, no hiss on the inflow, until the night of Thursday, April 3rd, when (I still maintain) the pressure went up sufficiently to cause the noise and finish off the old thing, the leak had gone undetected. If it was leaking before.

Something was, clearly, because the water went somewhere.

We probably have to assume it was that, because it fits and it will be hard to prove either way.

Anyway, I was able to explain the findings of my tests to the plumber and his mate, when they turned up this morning, first thing, as promised. They said they understood me perfectly and with a quick twiddle of the plastic thingy that fits into the bottom of the cistern, it was fixed.

They flushed the loo. We waited. We watched.

We all went down to the water meter to triple-check that it was not moving.

The stopcock is now in the on position and I keep going into the bathroom to check that I can hear no hiss. I've also stumbled down the barranco hourly to keep my eye on it. The plumbers too pointed out that it would help greatly to be able to detect and fix things like this, if the town hall had not delayed 4 months in sending out bills.

So, with luck that's 2 down (counting capping off the bidet as #1). Only:

3. The trickling water heater
4. The gushing washing machine
5. The dripping kitchen tap ... still to fix.

(And my sanity, but that will just have to wait.)

The plumber explained to me how the insurance company works. It's not a system that follows common sense as you and I know it. They fix things one by one. This, I can grasp, when each job requires a different specialization.

It stops making sense, however, when the same plumber that fixes the toilet on one journey, has to come all the way back again on a different day, different job ticket, to, say, fix the kitchen tap, but that seems to be the way it works.

On that issue, at this moment, mine is not to reason why. Just be grateful that things are moving along, if slowly and don't think about it.

Otherwise, it would do my friggin head in.

So, after the plumber left, I rang the insurance again to say "thank you for sending the plumber, who fixed the toilet and tells me that you'll fix these things one by one, is that right and what do I have covered?"

And now it's becoming clear: I do have the emergency assistance, as well as cover for damages (the bit that can be likened to contents insurance).

And they fix things one by one!

Well, they cover the call out and the first three hours of labour on each visit. Parts are down to me. Well, some might be the landlord, but try telling 'em!

Anyway, we have now synchronized lists and the girl says that I will be hearing from whomever is to come to look at items 3, 4 and 5, by phone first.

The bad news is that it "may not be" today.

No, really, I can live with that.

It's a bloody good job that I don't have to go out to work though, isn't it?

While explaining (once again) the sequence of events, I explained that it is my opinion that all of these breakages were provoked by one single cause on that specific date; the increase in water pressure. I also told her that the town hall refute that and recounted something of the argument we'd had yesterday.

Finally, I felt like some of my sanity was being restored, because she agreed with me, that whatever the cause, all of these things do not break all at the same time, just by pure coincidence, or because they were old, or badly maintained. There had to have been some particular "event" or common cause.

She also mentioned the need for a regulator, saying that is supposed to be there to prevent these damages, from pressure changes, from happening. That is something, which everyone agrees, the landlord has to do.

But this girl also understood the irony and my frustration, when I explained that Jobsworth water man was telling me that the regulator needs to be installed to protect against ups and downs of pressure, in the next breath after he'd insisted that the water pressure never changes and doesn't have ups and downs.

She also said that the water bills simply ain't my problem: they're not in my name and therefore, the landlords can try to reclaim those from the council, or through their insurance, if they have any. In practice, if I don't pay them, there's no knowing what she might do, from evicting me, to threatening me.

Sheila (next door in La Palma) says that the Spanish have a very eloquent expression; "The house is falling on top of me" to describe the feeling of being horribly overloaded. When this much of the house is breaking all at once, not only is dealing with it horribly close to the metaphor, but there have been times in the last few weeks when I've also thought that this was literally true.

What happened to my rights?

Better maintained than I have to put up with

Found it most interesting that in the EU, internet access is now considered a human right and I like the way Mashable have a tap filling a glass of water to illustrate the story, inferring that water is a right too. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (article 25, paragraph 1) determines that:

"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.

Name that bug ...

Mystery bugs

While I won't expect anyone to admit to being old enough to remember the quiz show, Name that tune, I do seriously need help naming this nasty little critter ... Hopefully in one!

More importantly, can anyone help me figure out how to eradicate a plague of them, preferably without killing either myself or my pets in the process? You can probably just make out that it's some sort of centipede or millipede (the latter, I think). They come in one color, like the Ford Model T, ias n black; they're about 1 1/2 to 2 inches long and they crawl about everywhere.

WARNING: Do not eat while reading. Prepare to be grossed out.

When I say that they are everywhere, I mean everywhere.

Outside, sometimes you can hardly see a bare bit of white wall that isn't covered with them. Indoors, you can sweep out a whole pile of them, then turn to see a bunch more crawling about the floor like they were "beamed" down by Scotty! They also climb walls, furniture, anything.

More grossly, I also find them on kitchen work surfaces, in the bathroom, drowned in the animals' water bowls and, the worst is when I sit at the computer, in the evenings especially, I'll suddenly feel something irritating me and find them crawling all over my feet.

You can't place anything on the floor here at all: furniture has to all be of the type that is off the floor on legs, you can't have any type of soft furnishings, like curtains or chair covers, bedcovers, etc., that drape, nor any form of rugs.

Wikipedia says of millipedes, that "they can also be a minor garden pest".

No, here they're a MAJOR indoor house nuisance that's becoming worse with every flood and resultant increase in dampness. Wikipedia also say that, "Many species also emit poisonous liquid secretions or hydrogen cyanide gas through microscopic pores ..." Whilst I am not about to get too paranoid about that (yet), it's interesting to note that these are the only bugs I've known both cats and dogs to avoid eating (which COULD indicate a good reasons not to); they do smell nasty and we do have a LOT of them.

"Millipedes, any of about 1000 species of cylindrical, many-legged arthropods. Millipedes have segmented bodies with two pairs of legs on each of the 9 to 100 or more abdominal segments, depending on the species, and one pair on three of the four thoracic segments. Because of their numerous legs the animal walks slowly with a wavelike motion of the legs down the body. In length they range from about 0.2cm to 23cm (about 0.1 to 9 inches). Millipedes have a hard protective layer of calcium-containing chitin (except in some small species), two simple eyes, one pair of mandibles, two short antennae, and (in most species) stink glands with secretions that repel or kill insect predators. Another protective strategy is to curl into a spiral or a ball when threatened. They live in dark, damp places and feed on decaying plant life, but they may damage seedlings. So as opposed to the centipede, these should be considered more of a pest and disposed of if seen."

Agreed, but how exactly does one dispose of sometimes thousands a day?

Now I can well believe that these nasty little buggers could be among the first animals to have colonized land millions of years ago, 'coz they've obviously had time to learn excellent survival tactics. Even if you spray those "guaranteed no bugs for a year" sprays at them, nothing happens. Well, they probably just grin and make a thousand little gestures with their multiple middle fingers. 
It certainly doesn't kill them, nor deter more from coming in.

The powder insecticide (Cuchol) that is used on the vines against rot, used to be grey in colour and smelled like Fuller's Earth. In great enough quantity (all round inside the house, where it shouldn't have been!) it would cause these bugs to dry up and die. Then, in their infinite wisdom, the makers of this product decided to change the powder to blue, probably to some unnatural chemical. And it now has absolutely no effect at all on the millipedes, which are, of course, multiplying faster than our also omnipresent bunny rabbits.

I've asked someone from the Rural Park (run by the Cabildo, Island Council), who are the body responsible for the rules on insecticides (as well as campaigns for weed killing, rat poisoning, etc.), in this area and they hadn't got a clue!

I'm at my wits end.

Certainly, I can't afford to call an exterminator, not that I'd find one here (they appear to deal with hotels and cockroaches only), but I can't continue to live in these disgusting conditions. And, even if I could find an exterminator, as the house is set in a vineyard, I couldn't have chemicals sprayed that might conflict with that activity. But, on the off chance that someone, somewhere recognizes them and has successfully dealt with a plague of millipedes, or has any other suggestions, I'm throwing this call for help out to the internet at large.

A scholarly text, called "Dolichoiulus - a Mostly Macronesian Multitude of Millipedes" by Enghoff, H. (1992), with the description of a related new genus from Tenerife, Canary Islands (Diplopoda, Julida), could be describing these, but I haven't seen the document itself.