So this is "more on that later" part from my first posting regarding the many people working on our house when we first arrived. Our newly renovated home was looking chic but the utilities were strictly Lower East side. To make a short story out of 3 painful weeks, the following events occurred:
1. We lost the heat 4 times-- even though this is Shanghai and it is approximately on a parallel with say
South Carolina, it was the middle of winter and the temps do get to slightly below freezing occasionally. We had to call the landlord , who was very gracious and timely about our requests and wait for the repair guy to arrive. Another thing. We in the US are use to the big truck full of tools and spare parts with the repair guys pulling up in front of the house. We quickly found out that there was one guy, Mr. Tang, who arrived on a beat up scooter with a handful of tools. Now , Mr. Tang , a great guy, was able to get the heat going but it kept failing and he kept coming over. Maybe he wanted to work on his english.
2. We lost power the 2nd night we were there. After spending our second day at Ikea getting household supplies, we loaded the dishwasher with our new dishes and pressed start. Within 4 minutes soapsuds and bubbles started coming out of the bottom of the machine and at the 6 minute mark, power in the entire house went out. BTW, this was New Years Eve. Another call to the landlord. Guess who shows up--- Mr. Tang! Hell of a nice guy. Turns out the circuit "box" was cut out of a concrete wall that was over the fireplace behind a 125 lb. mirror that was bolted to the wall. It was not bolted there anymore after Mr. Tang and I took care of it. Also turns out the entire kitchen was on one circuit and when it blew it took out everything. The power came back on in time for us and Mr. Tang to welcome in the new year.
3. As part of the lease signing, the landlord signed us up to a local gym so Jane could work out prior to work and I could go there during the day. During the initial week of power outages and 40 degree internal temperatures, we decided to find our new gym-- ( jian shen fang) Lesson 1-- chinese for gym-- which we were told was just down the street. After many attempts we finally found what we thought was our gym. With no mandarin on our part and basically no english on the receptionist's part , we were toured through our new gym by our lovely hostess. I was wondering" why is our guide wearing a slinky gold dress that stops maybe 10" above her knees?". I was suddenly thinking I was going to be going to the gym every single day but I also noticed the bemusement on Jane's face. Her expression was quickly turning to concern as we were shown a series of cigar smoking rooms, billard rooms and bars. Now, China has not done very well at the last two Olympics and I can understand why if this is the way they train. After finally seeing a small workout area we were ushered out the door with a warm goodbye. We went back to our cold house and sat on the couch watching reruns of chinese soap operas not saying much to each other as we contemplated our new lives in China.
4. Last straw-- We took a brisk walk and did some exercises upon rising one morning and when we came back to the house the heat was off again. Jane went to take a shower and the pipes were frozen! She sprinkled some Listerine under her armpits and went off to work saying " Something has got to change". I assumed that she was referring to our living situation and not our marriage so I called our realtor to look for a new place. In the meantime, I called the landlord and he sent--- Mr. Tang. Mr. Tang, one of the best people on earth, was able to fix the pipes but by then it too late. We were off to a new apartment and I am off to a new posting.
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