Under (water) pressure........
This is a short tale and an excellent example of the sort of things which go wrong, only on this occasion it really was all my fault.
If you just read the hot water heater saga, you may have noted that I said it was very new, but that was another story, so here is the other story.
The hot water gas heater was a bit temperamental and when it lit, it went off with a WHOOMPH which you could hear downstairs which was only reassuring in so far as you knew that hot water would in due course, course through the pipes on its merry way down to the bathroom. On other occasions it refused to light and the wait would be long and fruitless. It had issues, and Mr Fixit Rafael pronounced it a right royal pain in the proverbial and not worth mending in his opinion, but yet he would do his best, although we should both inform Manolo my landlord that it was decrepid and all the rest. In fairness, Manolo agreed but said it would be mended this time and if and when it went wrong again, he would replace it. Not as Raf wanted with a nice round electric heater, because it is gas and fits inside a cupboard in the fitted kitchen. Fair enough.
It also helps if the batteries are working in the ignition unit. It has batteries? Ok........ and I
I think we'd had a storm, or a power but or a water cut or something but suddently there was a real problem with the water pressure and not a lot coming out of the tap, certainly not enough to coax the (mended) water heater into full "whoomph", hence no water, story of my life if I'd only realised it earlier.
Out comes the man, messes about a bit with the manhole outside (water inlet apparently), tells me to turn on the tap, I do and promptly get soaked with the resulting splash, turn it off quickly, give him the thumbs up down in the yard and off he goes. He's barely round the corner when I turn the tap on again and the splash is shorter lived and quickly reduced to the former half hearted stuff I'd had him out to fix. Gobsmacked.
So out they come again, two of them this time after a suitably confused delay, up comes the manhole again and I'm treated to a display of how far down the yard the water goes when a hose is put on the inlet/outlet/whatever is in the manhole. He's already shown me that they came and did that when I was out, and here is the video of the water, look, there is nothing wrong with the pressure out here! I agree, but then why is there next to naff all coming out of the tap (I don't know the Spanish for naff all so that is not quite an accurate translation). Look. not much. More scratching of heads and another man is summoned. At which point we are just debating if the pressure is reduced going into the house be a lever on the mains pipe which is in the garage. Which I had completely forgotten about since I had to ask why there was no water when I moved in, for that very reason of the lever being closed. A very nasty thought occurs to me, that as well as whatever natural/man made occurrence I had presumed to have something to do with all this, I had in fact rearranged the contents of the garage and stuffed a load of things up against that wall where the (forgotten) lever is..............a large amount of apologies and thanks later, I have to humbly request whether anyone would care to help me start the water heater which does not want to whoomph back into life after its recent period of inactivity. (You can see why I thought that might be it this more recent time, in It Aint Half Hot) but this time it is not the batteries which provide the igniton after all as I discover when they have shaken their heads and left and I have rushed to the Chinese supermarket feeling sure I can handle this on my own.
After more and elaborate apologies to Judith and thereby Manolo the landlord, I have to report that once more the hot water heater will not light but it is definitely not in need of batteries. Rafael duly turns up and declares it well and truly dead (I detect a hint of satisfaction in his response), Manolo is informed and the very next day Raf returns with a shiny new water heater, which is a wondrous thing as it purrs into life and does not go whoomph even in lower case, the hot water is hotter and achieved faster and I am over the moon and everything is fine right up until I go off to the UK for the summer.
You can see why I was a bit peeved when I came back and it didn't work perhaps. My landlord is a good man and does get things fixed which is not what I was used to last time round, things which don't work and I can't fix stress me out a lot more than they should, and I don't like feeling under pressure any more than I like a drop in water pressure......