on Miami Beach

don't you just wish you were there?

spring is back

after 2 weeks at -12, we went back to +6 within a couple of days. crazy. in the sun, it actually feels like spring!

water!

finally, the water's back. i got home today to the sound of water rushing out of the pipe in the bathtub. luckily, no leaks anywhere, as far as i can tell.

it's a relief. going upstairs to my neighbour's every day really rattled me.

frozen pipes 2

after a bit of internet research and a general call for help, i went to buy a portable heater which has since yesterday been blasting hot air towards the pipes whilst the cold water tap stays open. i've got the drain back up and running but the cold water one is still out although there's a tiny trickle coming out of there - warm water, though, so not sure that's useful. i guess i'll just keep on heating the place up and hope that when temps finally get back to normal - at the end of next week! - it won't burst. assuming it hasn't already.

in the meantime, my upstairs neighbour is on holiday and she's letting me to use her bathroom, which will seriously help as the gym option is going to be a bit tricky on a daily basis.

frozen pipes

i wanted to take a shower this morning but the water was hot. too hot. no matter how i turned the tap, it didn't seem to cool. after a while, realisation dawned: the cold water pipe must have frozen overnight. great. on the plus side, i still had warm water! and after a bit of research, the rest of the cold water pipes seemed fine, it was just the one near the northern-facing wall that was an issue. and that pipe that drained the bathtub - this morning's scalding water is still there!

the question now is what to do. apart from the whole washing issue (luckily, the gym's across the street), what will happen when the temps come back to normal? will the pipes burst? and is there anything i can do in the meantime?

the Siberian cold front

ok, so temps have plummeted to a very frozen -10°C and the local wind is having a field day. thus i dressed up warm this morning: ski clothes. although i looked a bit silly in the bus, i was so happy not to be cold. seriously, i wasn't all warm on the 200m walk from the bus stop to work, but at least i wasn't freezing. and once at work, i just changed trousers and was warm and toasty again.