I went home for the laundry at lunch; when I really have to do a fair bit of laundry I like starting a load in the morning and hanging it around noon. As I left again I ran into someone from the maintenance office. Since they'd said they would call last Friday about getting my toilet fixed, I was glad for the chance to ask when they were planning to call me back. He explained that he'd been to my apartment -- two days -- and must have just missed me. Well, sure, since I had no reason to think I should be home for it. Yes, but he'd been there two days. Well, he suggested he could come over later and see what the problem was.
So at 5 pm I was back home, and he arrived and determined the problem was the parts inside the toilet tank were broken. Fortunately, there was a plumber in the complex right then, so he could call and get service. Unfortunately, since this is routine maintenance they decided it's not the role of the maintenance office to pay for it. Replacing the parts came to S$45. I had a S$50 bill, so offered that, but the guy didn't have five dollars in change. I did see he had a ten dollar bill, though, so I offered to trade what I did have (three S$2 bills and a couple of dollar coins) for the ten, and then he could give me change. He agreed to this, then took the fifty and my bills, and started to leave. I stopped him and explained that he owed me change, and then he said that he'd have to get change from his boss, returned the fifty, and traded the ten dollar bill back for my small bills.
After that, I heard nothing, and after a half-hour went by I got to wondering if I should just leave and not worry about the bill, since I still feel the maintenance office ought to cover it. (After the air conditioning debacle this year I want to see a lot of good behavior on the maintenance office's part.) In particular I wanted to go to dinner. But finally, partway through Kim Possible (the one where Ron gives a bored Senor Senior Senior a new hobby), the plumber returned, with a five dollar bill, and I was able to finish off the transaction.
Later, taking a cooling-off shower in the guest bathroom's shower, the hose from the faucet to the water heater began leaking in two places.
The radio on the bus back home at 5:00 was playing Ghostbusters. I wasn't expecting that.
Trivia: Berwick-on-Tweed contributed £48 to relief for London after the Great Fire of 1666. Source: By Permission of Heaven, Adrian Tinniswood.
Currently Reading: The Perfect Machine: Building the Palomar Telescope, Ronald Florence.