Thursday, November 10, 2011

Call off the hounds!

…or at least the “cleaning brigade”.

 

“Sehr geehrter Herr M….,

leider hat uns der gerichtliche Sachverständige darüber informiert, dass der morgige Termin nicht stattfinden wird.

Falls ein neuer Termin festgelegt werden sollte, werden wir Sie darüber in Kenntnis setzen.

An dieser Stelle möchten wir uns bei Ihnen für Ihre Hilfsbereitschaft bedanken und verbleiben

mit freundlichen Grüßen,

(some guy at the Landlord’s office)

Hausverwalter.

 

 

Did you get that?  

 

C’mon,  you haven’t picked up any German by now?   Geez.    I changed the colour to blue and everything.

Got this note yesterday afternoon from the folks at the Landlord’s office.   No visit this morning.

 

OK,  here’s the story:

Back in August,  when we were home in Canada,  I got a note from someone at their office,  saying these inspection type Dudes needed to come in later in the week as part of the new construction follow up.  Something like that,  should I dig out the old email?  

Right,  I didn’t think so.

I summarily informed them that,  first of all,  we were on vacation in Canada,  (Could have said at our weekend home I suppose,  but it never occurred to me)  and that less than a week’s notice for this kind of thing was quite unacceptable.  

I was nice.  But tactful.

Twits.

So the reply was along the lines of “Oh,  right.  We’ll need to reschedule.”   D’ya think?  Turns out our neighbours were away too.  It’s August!  Nobody’s home!

 

So then nothing really happened until a couple weeks ago,  when another note came along,  this time asking if it would be OK for a visit on November 10th.   Well,  as long as you’re asking,  then fine.  

We set it up.   I cleared my schedule.  That kind of thing.

I did get some clarification in a second email,  that this company would need to bore a couple holes in the walls,  one of which would be out on the terrace.  Huh?

Welcome to Absurdistan.

 

It just so happened that a couple days ago,  my neighbour came out just as I had stepped on the elevator, (lift for you UK types)  I held the little ‘door open’ button for her so she could get on (such a gentleman, yes?)  and I asked her if she had received an email from the Landlord,  and she had.   Well,  her husband had.  Wasn’t quite sure how it was going to play out at their place,  since she let on that they have carpets on their walls.   Hey,  don’t shoot the messenger here.  That’s what she said.  Our walls are pretty bare here,  since this is a temporary situation,  so we’ve not painted or put up any carpets.    I guess she meant like tapestries?  I don’t know.  I’m sure I’ll never know.

These places are modern, with actually heating systems and everything,  so it’s not like we’re having to line the walls of our medieval castles with tapestries to keep the heat in or anything.  Whatever floats your boat I suppose.

Now that I think of it,  there were times over the last couple years when she'd mention that her husband was in Abu Dhabi,  so maybe they have a collection or something?

 

So that means,  no strangers coming into the place tomorrow.   No need to worry about getting the Lurgi,  or worse yet,  Cooties.

(I’m just using that as a segue really,  since I wanted to included some silliness)

And yes,  it was on the The Goon Show where I first heard the term “Lurgi”,  so it wasn’t me who made it up,  but quite possibly Spike Milligan.

 

The following is a very important public service announcement….

 

 

And by the way,  the appointment was for eight o'clock.

Clicking that last link will let you listen to a very oft heard snippet from the Goon Show…it’s an acquired taste.

 

Further to the whole thing regarding the people from Mexico who were somehow in contravention to their rental agreement, (If I understood everything,  and the jury is out on that)   it’s the guys with the papers who are looking to find these people to give them whatever notice they’re supposed to give.  The police are only there since it’s probably some sort of protocol to have a couple cops along in case things get out of hand.   There were certainly no safety issues in terms of our building or anything.     Just thought I’d point that out. 

Besides,  they were rather diminutive cops as far as I was concerned.

 

I realise that “enquiring minds want to know”,  but I had very little ambition to go back down yesterday to do a follow up.   Actually,  the thought crossed my mind at around three,  but our daughter called from Canada and we yakked on the phone for a bit.  I think it was pretty close to an hour,  but who’s counting?   And yes,  I know we could do Skype or Site Speed or some such thing,  and we’ve done that,  but for the most part we don’t necessarily want to see each other?   And until either party can wander about the room as is the case with a cordless phone,  you really need to be willing to sit in one spot and stare at a screen for the duration.    I get too fidgety.   And I know I could tell she was doing something the whole time she was talking to me.   I’m sure we’ll get to the Dick Tracey wrist phone stage soon enough,   but then I’d still have to hold my wrist up in front of my face.  See my dilemma? 

 

I’m starting to once again get a little wordy here,  and I wouldn’t want to do damage to your attention span.   Therefore I’m going to leave you with this one photo,  and explain it tomorrow.

 

 

IMG_0249

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

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7 comments:

  1. good luck..sounds to me like you are going to need it!!

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  2. Carpets on the walls???? Sorry - that just really reached out to me. And do they vacuum them and take a carpet cleaner to them? How strange. And there's nothing like clearing your calender for a non-event.

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  3. How ya know I had such a short attention span?

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  4. You lost me on this one. Must be the meds I'm on for my back??

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  5. @Sue: Meh, I think they have to check the insulation or something. Maybe to see if there's mould? (OK, US spellling, "mold", but I think of clay when it's spelled that way)
    Probably just make a mess is all.
    @Sandie: I don't think I'll ever be able to verify the wall situation next door. We're sort of 'say hello in the hallway' neighbours?
    @Phyllis: It's probably longer than mine.
    @Duckie: Did you listen to Eccles and Bluebottle too? It HAS to be your type of humour. HAS to be...
    @Judy: Sorry dear. I got nothin'.
    It's OK, I'm sure it's the meds. I did recommend a chiropractor, right?
    Hint; the last bit is just sillyness.

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  6. We could have made the video when I was in school. That was our favorite word....cootie. I remember playing the game at least 5 times a week. Cute video.

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Well, I've been getting too many spam comments showing up. Just a drag, so we'll go another route and hope that helps. So, we won't be hearing anything more from Mr. Nony Moose.
I guess I'll just have to do without that Gucci purse.