La Cave du Patron

I know, sounds like a cheap brand of wine – but is a place that I am becoming increasingly familiar with. Three weeks or so ago the entire electrics on my flat tripped out. It took me an hour or so to notice (it was light, warm and my laptop runs on batteries too). Only when I went to put a kettle on did I notice there was no power. So I checked the lights and then the circuit breaker box. No lights, no tripped circuits. Then I went to knock on my neighbours’ doors to see if their electricity was functioning. It was. Phone call to landlord, visit to basement (with torch) to check mains switch, repeated several times. Eventually we identified the problem. My (landlord’s) washing machine had just gone into spin mode and tripped out – not the specific circuit breaker- but the entire flat. So I disconnected the washing machine and tried again. We have power. For days I didn’t dare use the washing machine. Then the washing built up and I thought let’s try again. Making sure it was daytime and the load was light. It worked for two or three washes. Then last week it tripped out the mains circuit again. Washing machine is probably permanently OOO (Out of Order) – but fortunately a neighbour is moving and looking to find a home for hers, so this may not be a long term problem.

Then last week an engineer from Belgium’s largest telecom company- (who shall remain nameless) came to visit to connect my telephone, internet (yeah I‘m living on my neighbour’s internet connection – with his blessing) and TV. He found the signal in the basement at the B-Box and a signal in my electrics box – but he couldn’t find the link between the two. He spent 45 minutes trying and getting to look more and more frustrated. He left saying the two don’t link up. A day or two after he left I noticed my intercom entry phone didn’t work anymore. Two days later my upstairs neighbour told me the same thing about his intercom. So I waited a week for my landlord’s electrician to be in the neighbourhood. It took him about two minutes to recognize that the engineer had been trying to connect the intercom to the phone network – and left the wires disconnected. He showed me the right wires to connect (all labelled) and reconnected the intercom for me (and my upstairs' neighbours). So I now have to wait a week to be connected. Even if they send me a NVQ (not very qualified) technician we should be able to get it working this time. Then I ’m going to sit in front of the TV and watch a movie every night for a week and the news in French. I’ve been without a TV for about five of the last seven months – I’m very much got out of the habit. Meanwhile I’ve got to learn about the intestines of this building – which is a blessing.

It brings to mind a quote from Francis Roles that I read this morning: “Ordinary life is the field of battle where your firmness is put to the test. Therefore one should welcome all disturbances, every sort of trouble, as a test of one’s firmness, because in this way you’ll realize your self- your true potential”.