Where's a Dutch Boy When You Need One?

Tuesday 20th March 2012

The tap in the sink in the shower room has refused to turn off.  Unfortunately this is the hot tap and although the water only runs twice a day for 3 hours we can’t really leave it like that, running the boiler, so we have had to turn the boiler off.  This means that when we do want to actually use hot water we have to turn the boiler on again but now there is a reduced water pressure and as the tap is running which means that the SHOWER is a drip!  Actually the switch on the shower that takes it from a shower to a tap is also broken so the shower really is now a little spray whist your knees and feet are run under the tap.

We texted the owner on Sunday evening and he sent a man round that night which was very efficient.  However he prodded and poked and then told Martin that he would have to buy new taps on Monday and sort it out himself.  Really? I don’t think so.  I get on the phone to our co-ordinator who speaks to the owner.  He confirms that we have to sort it out as he bought new taps before we moved in and he ain’t gonna buy any more.  Hmmm I am sure there is a logic to this somewhere but it bypassed me.   So the co-ordinator now gets on the phone to our school Director who sends my 2 co-teachers round after school with the school handy man.  Zaza is a good bloke and takes the taps off, makes lots of noises and says we need new taps.  I would just like to give him the money and say get on with it but no, Zaza, me and my 2 co-teachers go down to the shops and hunt around the 3 builders merchants (you know I mean little shops with an assortment of boxes ? Like a crushed Jarvo’s) for a single tap as the decision is that we block the hot tap and just have a cold tap.

Against the odds we are successful and back we go.  I am sure Zaza was saying “This is a pile of shit” when he was trying to attach the newly acquired tap but my Georgian isn’t good enough yet to know for sure.  The upshot is that the water pipes themselves are no good.  The building is not in very good condition as you may recall and it is this that is the problem.  What is the answer? Just block off the pipes and take the tap back to the shop for a refund.

They were trimming back trees round the corner and so Zaza forages for the perfect pipe sized branch and hammers it into the foresaid water pipes.  At 7.30 when the water returns they hold out, a wooden version of the little Dutch boy who put his finger in the dyke.