First, the continuation of the water saga: for the past few days, once again, my hot water has been working off and on. It finally cut out yesterday, after I had showered but before Laura had. She ended up taking a two-inch bath using water boiled on the stove. Just like a real third-world country!
Today, I decided that official holidays were over, and if my contact teacher didn’t want to be bothered, she should never have given me her cell number. I messaged her, pestered, and she called the school. The vízszerelõ (water mechanic guy, who has been to my house three times, and each time claimed that he had fixed the problem) was unreachable, so the school sent over Páli, the older of the two handymen, who is well used to dealing with me and my lack of knowledge concerning gas, water, and Hungarian appliances. He showed up, tinkered, told me repeatedly how incompetent the vízszerelõ is, explained to me that everything in my flat is old and that's why it keeps breaking, fixed my broken faucet, called up the vízszerelõ to tell him what an idiot he is, fixed my water (for now, at least), and told me to call him if anything else went wrong. Páli is my new hero.
So, about the movies... although Laura and I remained dedicated devotees of MTV (and the newly discovered Animal Planet), we’ve also become great fans of the Turner Classic Movies Christmas Collection, which plays two or three English movies every night. So far we’ve watched the following:
Saturday night: part of The Searchers, followed by Hearts of the West (with link and quotes in the previous entry).
Sunday night: Kelly’s Heroes and Marlowe. The latter included quotes such as:
Marlowe saying to Bruce Lee: “You’re pretty light on your feet. Are you just a little bit gay?” and then Bruce Lee cartwheels off a building in rage.
Thug: Car.
Marlowe: Beep beep.
Thug: Car.
Marlowe: For a guy with a limited vocabulary, you sure do manage to get your point across.
Monday night: Cool Hand Luke and The Big Sleep. I don’t have quotes to back it up, but Humphrey Bogart was hilarious. Mostly due to the fact that racy dialogue of 1946 is still damn funny today.
Tonights is... neither Laura nor I remember. So you’ll have to tune in tomorrow (or whenever) to find out.
Fear and loathing in Harghita County
4 years ago
3 comments:
Whenever my hot water is broken, I get super cranky, especially during the early mornings before I go to work. Taking a bath is one of my favorite things to do, and it sucks if I have to bathe in cold water. I finally decided to replace it with a new one and, thankfully, it does not show signs of breaking down any time soon.
Dwane Zelinsky
Whoa, oh no! In cold, cold Hungary, and NO hot water?! Yikes! Good thing someone was able to come over as soon as was possible and fix it for you guys! That would’ve been a nightmare to deal with, if they hadn’t come over! Any idea yet why the hot water kept giving way? Might have something to do with the winter cold freezing up the pipes.
Tyrone Alloway
Why does it always have to happen during the winter? Our heating system broke down during the first week of January, and it was awful! Good thing the repairmen in our place were so excellent at fixing it, just like Pali was.
Darryl Iorio
Post a Comment