Argh!

It's about that time where I need to vent or this shit that's bothering me is going to make me e-x-p-l-o-d-e.  We looked at almost 30 places before we decided on this flat.  It fit most of our criteria.  We are across from a park, we have a large terrace, we have privacy, we are on the top floor.  Here it means the 3rd floor but really it's the 4th floor since there are 3 floors below us.  Complaint ♯1.  For the past 2 months the elevator (lift) has been broken.  It is stuck between the 1st and 2nd floor.  So I called the phone number and filed a complaint to get it fixed.  Turns out the maintenance contract had expired so they wouldn't come fix it.  So then I call our landlord, then I call him again, and again, and again, and again, and now I don't know how many times I've called at this point.  Each time I was told it was being worked on and that they will know something in a few days time.  Well 2 weeks ago we got a contract in the mail from the elevator company for an annual renewal of 35,000 INR.  That's 750 bucks my friends!  Ugh.  So I called the landlord so that he could pick up the contract.  Well, it's been a lot of promises and nothing's happened.  I don't mind the exercise.  Stairs are healthier to take than lifts.  But it's been so stinkin' hot and humid here and there's not much air flow in the stairwell.  It's hard to breathe in there let alone carry a bunch of groceries up.  Thank goodness I have a spritely 18 year old guard that volunteers to carry my stuff upstairs.  


I've also been waiting for 2 weeks for the 'water pressure motor' (whatever that is) to get fixed.  See we have our water supply in tanks.  One on the ground floor and 2 on the roof.  To get the water from the ground floor to the top floor it has to be pumped up there.  To get pressurized water to come into our house we have to turn on the motor.  Complaint ♯2.  It stopped working and so we're back to taking showers in trickles.  Hey, at least we have water, right?  

Our power generator on the left, water tanks up above.

You may or may not remember that our car was involved in an accident last December.  We weren't in the car but our driver and his family were (everyone was okay).  Well there was pretty bad front end damage and our driver freaked out and got it 'kind of' fixed by a Maruti Suzuki place.  Our car is a Toyota Innova.  This all happened without our knowledge since we were on holiday in the UK.  So he got the car up to speed and it had been running okay until 2 months ago when we sent the car in for routine maintenance.  Complaint ♯3.  Of course a million things were found wrong and now the car needs at least 1 lakh rupees worth of repairs.  That's over 2100 USD.  And guess who gets to pay for it?  Guess who gets to pay for it right after we paid for our entire wedding ourselves?  Ugh, couldn't the timing be better?  It's just a hard pill to swallow sometimes.  I hate cars.  I hate car problems.  I hate having to pay for car problems.  Money sucking, gas guzzling, ozone depleting pieces of s**t that I can't live without.  


I guess I can't complain too much about anything.  After all, our power only went off once today instead of the normal 3 or 4.  And the monsoon mellowed out a little bit so it stopped raining in my bedroom.  It's the little things, ya know?  I have to end this on a grateful note for fear of sounding and feeling too negative.  We have a roof over our head, we have water, we have full bellies (even if it's not all organic or food selections I would normally make).  My life is abundant.