Water water

I went to the office and reported a few things that are in need of repair in my apartment.

• the toilet - the ceramic toilet bowl seems to regularly "come adrift" but this time water (or something) is leaking when I flush or the people in the apartments above flush.
• my telephone is irritating - when I use the '3' button it sticks, and I have to cancel my dialing and start again. Nearly all phone numbers I have to dial have 1, 2 or 3 '3's, so it is annoying.
• the television has not worked properly since I have been here. In fact I have not watched any television program in 3 months.
• the washing machine is in its death throes. It is about 10 years old and barely works. I have to bang it to make the spin dryer work.

I usually get a call that a repair man is coming, but today I did not. In fact the cleaning lady came at 11.40 am and I went to a friends apartment to wait until the cleaning was done, but when I returned to the apartment, the toilet bowl was being repaired but there was water everywhere. Eventually the toilet bowl was glued into place, and the cleaning lady cleaned up and the repair man left.

Then I heard the sound of running water. The bathroom was awash - a tap behind the cistern was leaking. Badly. I phoned to get the repairman to return, but so far he has not. This is some 4 hours later. One of the other teachers came to turn it off - and said it didn't turn off - the tap was broken. I am still waiting for the repairman!

Though the tap has not leaked for a few hours now. Drained the system??? Who knows.