London renting This house never ceases to amaze me. Not a single day passes without some kind of breakdown of some appliance or similar domestic incident. At least I have become good friends with the mice in the kitchen, we have somehow arranged our lives with them now. After they went through that tiny hole at the bottom of our old fridge and ate whatever they could find in there. We have a new fridge now, after I made a scene to our landlord, and keep everything edible in tupperware... no more bags, cartons, paper.
Then, last year in early summer, there were the ants, who discovered the honey jar. Our fault, really. Why did I leave that honey jar on the kitchen top?
We did have some trouble with the boiler, but that is just normal, and it is actually possible to look through a crack between one of the window panes and the frame. Well, fresh London air aplenty.
While I was in Colombia, and Ben and Dama in Germany over the summer, the hot water tap broke at 1am (when my sister was washing dishes), and the main water tap could not be turned, because someone had stuck tiles to the wall so that there was not enough space for a full rotation of the tap. My sister and the other girls staying here at the time had to call an emergency plumber to fix it, and it all turned into a big drama, with video footage to prove it.
Then the washing machine started leaking, which I noticed when my feet got wet after just having started it. Two weeks later "Comet" delivered a new (well second hand) one, which fell apart in the street when the delivery guys picked it up to carry it upstairs. Another two weeks later we received a different second hand one, which has been fine so far, until it went into "test mode" two days ago and refused to wash.
We also had our kitchen taken apart and an electrical stove put in... I preferred the gas one, but I guess it was just a question of time for that thing to explode, so I won't complain. I also think it disturbed the mice, because I haven't seen any in the last two weeks.
Oh, and the roof... last year in October and November I had water running down my walls. Rain. So yes, they did work on the roof, but just a week ago, it rained into Dama's room. Through the place where the light comes through the ceiling... the water was running down the cable of the lamp, and drip-dropped off the light bulb. Now, if you turn the lightswitch on, it makes a rather strange noise. So I won't. There is still the desk lamp.
Same with the kitchen light, the switch broke (no, not the lightbulb!!), but semi-dark kitchens are romantic.
At the end of the day it does not matter. We are lucky, because in the end things tend to get fixed more or less. And it is just kind of normal. And this place does have its charme. And a roof on which we can sit in the sun if and when it shines. And the bikes fit into the entrance downstairs.

Perfect really.  ¶ 11:10 PM