Nesting

It’s taken a long time, but my apartment is starting to feel a little more like home. When I moved in, half of the lights didn’t work, my oven had only one working element and the water pressure in the bathroom was a pathetic trickle. There has been a series of workmen passing through my house, turning up anywhere between half an hour and four hours late. First it was the plumber. His job was to fix the water pressure in my main bathroom. He excelled at this task – to the point that I had to dam up the bathroom door with towels to prevent the enormous leak he had caused. Then came the electrician, or should I say the man with the tools for repairing electrical faults? You will see what I mean in a minute. He managed to break one of my extortionately priced energy saver light bulbs that I had very responsibly bought. He also smashed the lampshade on the outdoor light. Then, to top it all off, he switched the wiring around in all of the lights in the living room, so now I have to try out each one of about ten switches just to flick on the right light. All of these tasks were performed with greatest attention being paid to the stringent health and safety regulations in operation in this country. And if you believe that then you truly have just come up the Nile in a banana boat. I witnessed him standing on a 3000 Shilling wooden stool, on top of a flimsy wicker table tinkering with the bare wires and fusing any gaps together with a paperclip whilst I half-watched an episode of House on my DVD because of course, he didn’t deem it necessary to turn off the mains.
Anyway, progress is being made. I have a new oven, or should I say furnace , that I would imagine powerful enough to melt lead. It incarcerated my ginger biscuits in just 7 minutes flat. I need a little more practise with that I think. The leak has stopped and I can now shower in hot running water. I still haven’t got a key for the back door but I have got curtains and my sofa has been restored with a snazzy new covering. Did I mention that I returned home from work one day to find that they had taken my sofa and not bothered to tell me about it? This week I finally had time to put my pictures up and I have grand plans to make my spare room into a relaxing reading room rather than a dumping ground for cardboard boxes. Watch this space for updates!