No water, no internet, no cable

This was a week to remember. Mostly because of the plumbers. Or more accurately, the lack of plumbers. This is a long story, but in essence 1) we had no hot water for three days, 2) I stayed home for three days waiting for a plumber that was supposed to be there any minute, 3) plumber finally comes, brings hot water back for a day, and then the system breaks again. This makes it all sound very simple, but rest assured that it has involved dozens of phone calls, Andy getting extremely angry (a very uncommon experience for those who know me well), and a few new grey hairs that had to wait a few days for their first taste of a shower.

On top of this, our internet stopped working, and we get 5 TV stations, 2 of which are clear enough to maybe watch for a while. I watched "King Ralph" out of sheer boredom while waiting for the plumber. King Ralph is bad enough when it isn't all fuzzy and filled with static. However, I do recommend the utterly silly reality TV shows here, many of which center around old ladies and their gardens.

Here is a diagram of my current understanding of how our water heater system works in our flat:


Needless to say, this is a bit more complicated than the system I am used to (you know the one with a single tank and a single heat source). Admittedly, the US system is wasteful as we tend to keep our water heaters hot all day long even when they aren't needed, but perhaps there is a balance to be struck somewhere.

Now that we have internet back (at least for now), we will soon post some pictures of our last weekend when my friend Reed visited and we tried much good beer, cheese, and modern art.