Orange Walls

We have settled quickly into our new apartment. So much better for us than the last place. Huge big windows with loads of light makes it all seem much brighter and fresher. It's slightly bigger than the last place too which is nice and generally just a bit better maintained. The staff around the apartment complex are no less friendly but much more professional.

None of this means that we have not had a few teething problems! The first doesn't really bother us much but seemed to bother the sales girls who organised the apartment for us. The previous owners, they informed us, were Indian and were resident for a long long time. They had allowed them to paint one wall in the living room and one wall in the bedroom and they painted it "Indian yellow" (not my words) They wanted to get the room painted before we moved in but we had already arranged to leave the last place and there wasn't time.

The walls are orange, bright orange but really not that bad. We've told the girls that when we do our visa run to Singapore they can paint then. We moved in on Wednesday and they called yesterday to ask if we had a date for our trip to Singapore yet! The orange must REALLY bother them!

The only other issue has been the electric stove top in the kitchen. I'm used to using gas and so I wasn't overly enthusiastic to start with but after 30 minutes of a pot of water sitting there and not so much as a single bubble I started to lose it. Actually...I'd probably lost it after 10 minutes because after 30 minutes I was demonstrating how 'not hot' it was by touching it with various body parts! I called housekeeping and two 'engineers' were quickly despatched who agreed with my diagnosis, unscrewed it and took it away. It was re-installed by the time I returned that evening. We ordered food from the restaurant downstairs so I hadn't tried it again until lunchtime today. I was trying to heat soup for Cushla (to keep her toasty in this frosty clime) and nothing. I called for help again and three engineers appeared this time. I'd left the soup on there so i could show them how it was barely warm. The chief engineer assessed the situation and then explained to me that, "level 6 not highest. level 5 highest!" Of course it is. That makes perfect sense. Cushla had hot soup. Level 5.