Miserably busy at work at the moment, so lots of very late nights (regular 11pm finishes, getting home at 2am was the record) and general blues as I try to decide whether or not I can stay with the company and what I'd do if I left.
Fortunately, I got some Very Good News about the flat. I've been wondering where I'll find someone to do the plumbing and electricity work. The lovely Mr Kitten appears to have left his company. Every time I called to ask when I was likely to get his quote I'd receive an evasive response. Finally they just sent someone else. Still no news from him either. The other two companies did send their quotes, but one is very expensive and the other is expensive and goes way beyond what I want done and doesn't include some kind of important elements.
At that point, in steps a friend with the phone number of a Pole. Said Pole comes round later in the week (7.30am after the aforementioned 2am finish) and proceeds to wrap me round his little finger. He's a young bloke, late twenties I think, with the cool gelled hedgehog hair of the moment and a blue jacket with 'Daredevil' written across the back.
He won instant brownie points for being the first guy to ask me to turn on the tap so he can see where the leak is. Next thing, he was halfway under the bath, wrestling with the pipes. He emerged two minutes later with some plastic joints in his hands and said that, as he thought, the plastic pipes linking the plughole to the evacuation have sprung apart because the pipes were cut too short so there wasn't enough of an overlap to take the strain when the bath dropped. He was appalled when I said that everyone else had said I'd have to rip out all the plumbing and start again. Seeing as the quotes I'd received for doing that were around five thousand euros, and he was telling me I could fix the problem with a tenners' worth of plastic, it felt like winning the lottery. He then disappeared under the bath again and spent the next fifteen minutes trying to sort it out. He was clearly frustrated that the pipes had been cut so short that he couldn't completely fix it, but since his work, I've been emptying an eggcup of water after each shower instead of a fruit bowl, so I'm a happy customer. I haven't received his quote yet either but I'll definitely be going with him and his band of Polish plumbers and electricians and heating engineers if I can.
In honour of my newfound less-poorness, I went to the brocante at Chatou with some friends and bought a comfy chair. Little bit tricky getting it home on the RER and the train but I had boys to help. Nice chair, I think.
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