Rain

It's not always sunny in Turkey, especially in winter. It's been raining for 2 days now, along with some dramatic thunder to go with it. The rain has postponed the fitting of the chimney and it has also got into the electrics for the water heater. The tank has a solar panel, but for rainy days there is this lovely little switch I can flick up on the consumer unit. What the consumer unit lacks, is a mains switch, that is located at the meter in a metal cabinet on the other side of the site. This morning I flicked the water heater switch up and it tripped the electrics. The rain was hammering down, but like the hero he is, MHTTB donned a coat and walked over there and restored power, only I didn't connect the tripping of the electrics to the water heater did I? So I flicked it up again and clunk the electrics went off again. Off he went again, only this time he stayed by the meter so I could check. It definitely was the water heater. It'll be fine when the rain stops, but it will need looking at, it shouldn't be tripping when it's wet so something is open to the elements.

Anyway, the solution was to fill a big metal bucket we have (for hot ashes, when we get the chimney) with water and heat it on the gas cooker. The metal bucket was heating away and suddenly the carbon monoxide alarm went off. The bucket is edged around the bottom, I don't know the science, but it wasn't ventilating causing carbon monoxide to build up. I opened up the doors either end of the apartment to allow a cold hurrican breeze through so we didn't die. MHTTB looked at me like a mad woman when I brought that alarm from the UK, now he knows what it does.

Back in August I went to a paint shop. I have these horrible laminate bedside cabinets, so I looked up how to paint laminate, translated it into Turkish and presented her with my list. While she was chatting away to MHTTB, I went around the shop picking up paint trays, rollers, brushes, masking tape, filler and spatulas, I made a nice pile on the desk ready to pay when MHTTB said : She is asking what you are going to do, I replied : I'm painting some wood Him: what type of wood? Me : Laminated wood, those horrible bedside cabinets. He translated my answers to the shop assistant, she said something to him, then he turned to me and said : She says you can't do that. Sometimes this is an issue between me and MHTTB. I'm a woman, what do I know? How can I possibly know anything about painting? I was so pissed off miffed I said : Oh OK then (well not really, there was a bit of swearing thrown in because I was so PISSED OFF miffed about being told I couldn't when I knew damn well I could) and I walked out of the shop and left the pile of potential purchases on the desk. The other day I unpacked a wooden key cabinet, his brother was there, MHTTB held the cabinet on the wall, I put a level on the top of it, got it level, marked the wall and then MHTTB said: I'll get my brother to drill the holes, fine, I thought. Tell him, I said, I have marked where he has to drill, then we went out. Big mistake!
When we came back the key cabinet was up on the wall, but it was wonky. I looked, then thought, no I marked the wall, MHTTB was standing behind me, it must be my eyes. Later I went out and looked at it again, those things jump out at you don't they? So to satisfy myself I went and got the level. I placed it on top of the key cabinet and called MHTTB out. It was so wonky it had practically been screwed on sideways. It is very difficult at times getting over to him that I would prefer to do those things myself. Anyway, back to that horrible bedside cabinet. I got some Fusion Mineral paint and primer and shipped it over with my stuff. Today I went upstairs, used a screw driver to remove the knobs (I bet you are all amazed now. A screwdriver!!) and put the first coat of primer on it! Me? A Woman!! Tomorrow I am going to give it it's first coat of blue and do you know how I managed to do it myself? Ha I told him it was special paint (Which it is) from England and they don't have it in Turkey (Which they don't) so I would have to do it. When it's finished, I'm going to show him and tell him. YES I CAN SO THERE!!!!!