Murphy's Law

Well, it's been a week since the "technician" came to our house to see about all of our plumbing problems. Don't ask me why they just don't call him a plumber; that's apparently not the way they roll in HK. I was starting to become what some people (i.e. my husband) might call a bit cranky with not hearing anything from Fannie so I left a polite reminder yesterday. It seemed to work because two technicians came to our house today to fix our several plumbing problems:

1. The master bath sink no longer leaks so we can actually use it. In actuality, it wasn't the worst thing in the world because we have a second bathroom. It just tended to be a problem when you wanted to wash your hands and you remembered you couldn't.


2. The sink in our guest bath now drains at a reasonable speed.


3. Supposedly, both of our tubs drain at a reasonable speed now as well. I tested the tubs before the technicians left and they seemed to be draining better. Tomorrow morning will be the big test when we actually shower again. In a disgusting sort of way, we were almost getting used to having water up to the middle of our calves when we were showering. I am, however, very excited to not have to clean out the tub after every shower.


4. The exhaust fan in our master bath now has a string attached to it to pull the vent closed. It is clearly broken so the technician sort of jimmy-rigged it with a string so that we can pull it close and all of the hot humid air doesn't come in. It doesn't, however, open really all that well. You can only imagine the conversation that I was having with this guy; I almost started laughing. I would say that we might as well have been talking two different languages, but that is exactly what was happening. He spoke maybe 10 words of english and I clearly speak zero words of cantonese so it was quite the spectacle of him showing me some clip thingy that broke off which is why the vent doesn't really close. Then I was trying to ask him if it was o.k. that the vent door doesn't open if the fan is running and I really couldn't get my point across. He just kept showing me this little piece of metal with his thumb and saying something that I'm sure made complete sense. Fannie says the landlord won't replace the fan because it's not completely broken so we're going to make do with whatever this guy just fixed today. There are some human traits that transcend geographical borders and cheap landlords is one of them.


5. The dishwasher miraculously works. I just about died. I am clearly not a plumber (or a technician for that matter) but I am pretty sure that I can work a dishwasher. I mean, that is one of my favorite appliances. The guy brought me in to the room to show me that it was working and draining just fine. I of course didn't believe him. So I made the dishwasher stop and then showed him exactly what I have done the last 10 times I've tried to get it to run. And, hmm, of course it worked exactly like it was supposed to! I'm starting to feel like I am a living example of Murphy's Law. We'll see if it still works tomorrow when I want to wash some actual dishes. I'm pretty sure that it won't but maybe I'll get lucky.

So they fixed quite a few things, which is really great. We do, however, still have some of the "great outdoors" in our apartment. This is because the landlord is still investigating on the cheapest way to fix the kitchen water heater or at least that is what Fannie told me. When I asked her how long he was going to "investigate" this for, she just told me that she would continue to follow up with them. It's the sort of double-edged sword of renting as opposed to owning your own home. It's nice not to have to do any of the work yourself but you are at the mercy of the landlord with what seems to be very few legal rights. Not entirely surprising I guess.

Some other fun things from the last few days:

• I went to get my HK ID card yesterday. This is sort of like your driver's license, but, since most people don't drive, you need an ID card. It has a smart chip in it so I feel a little bit like I'm part of a sci-fi movie or something and people are watching my every move. They even take your thumb prints (both thumbs). Like everywhere else, there were a million people there but they have a rather orderly, appointment-type system so you end up really only waiting about 90 minutes. Not too bad, all things considering. And the people who help you are quite pleasant. Not anything like the people who work at the DMV in the U.S. Here they actually let you re-take your picture if it is bad!



• Once I got my ID card, I was able to go and get my mobile phone (I'm working on fitting in with the lingo here). It was the most bazaar thing. I just felt so much more like a normal person again when I finally walked out of the store with my phone. Considering I really only have one person to call (that would be Chris) it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense that I was feeling like that, but, actually, being able to call him or text message (or SMS as they call it here) him was so liberating. I know, totally ridiculous, but I think we've all just become so used to having the option to call someone at a moment's notice that it is a bit suffocating when that option isn't there anymore. Anyway, I'm very excited. It has a camera and an MP3 player. Now if I could just remember my phone number and figure out how to actually use the phone...



• I was with another American girl today who seems to be somewhat obsessed with Kraft Mac & Cheese at the moment. We were close to a Park 'N Shop (one of the two big supermarket chains) today so we had to go in and look for the mac & cheese. She's apparently been to a few other stores and they are all out. We didn't have any luck either so it seems as though their entire Park 'N Shop warehouse is out of stock. I'm guessing the Kraft container is stuck on a boat somewhere between HK and the US. I've never noticed this kind of thing happening in the US - where an entire distribution network is out of a relatively simple food staple - but I wonder if it's just that I never looked for something that had to be shipped overseas. I'm guessing it's the latter. The moral of the story, always buy an extra box of mac & cheese.



• Chris is actually playing in a Texas Hold 'Em tournament tonight at some bar. He was feeling guilty about leaving me home tonight but I told him that was just crazy. It's been awhile since he's had a Wednesday night of poker with the boys. And while it happens to be at Philia instead of Rosie's and with a bunch of people he doesn't know instead of his closest friends, hopefully he'll have fun and win big. We'll keep you posted.