Rant begins...

Well, that was a waste of time, Friday I mean. I waited in all morning (their appointment time was 0800v - 1400) and the men turned up at 1130. They spent half an hour fixing cables (trying to convince me to drill a hole through a wall to save on some cabling), connected up a modem, fiddled with my laptop, called their base, fiddled some more with the cables then packed everything away.

After packing everything, one of the men wrote 5/06/2007 in big numbers on a piece of paper (obviously, as I don't speak Spanish I must be stupid and/or illiterate) and let me know that the internet connection doesn't work and it would be fixed on the date given. I told him that that wasn't good as I'd be at work all day (I can do this in Spanish) at which point he shrugged his shoulders and left. To say I was unhappy was an understatement. The man kept saying OK and giving me the thumbs up and I kept saying No OK (and swearing in English). In their eagerness to leave, one of the men left his jacket behind, returning to collect it just as I was getting in the shower. Another slammed door later and I was in tears.

Unfortunately, this is typical of BsAs businesses. There is complete unconcern as regards customer service and you will be told bare-faced lies rather than them admit they've done something wrong (remember I waited over a month for the last company to send out a modem which was supposed to arrive within 72 hours).

I won't be following up on this and I've now given up on getting the internet connected at home. It's a pain in the proverbial but symptomatic of all that is wrong here.

Part of the problem is the shitty flat I'm living in. On the surface, everything looks wonderful (if not to my taste) however there is only one, slow, lift which takes a maximum of three people, the water pressure on the nineth floor is iffy so taking a shower is an exercise in tap control, the furniture is crappy and the light switches spark on a regular basis. On top of all this, the flat gets very little natural light (it's in its own shadow), making the balcony useless and there are lots of silly rules such as no external cabling (because it doesn't look pretty, I guess) and no drying your washing on the balcony (god only knows why, I'm on the nineth floor so nobody from below can see it and the people opposite who can see it, do dry their washing on the balcony).

As if petty rules weren't enough, my monthly expenses have just gone up (to approximately half the rent) and the cleaner has claimed she can't get the flat clean in two hours a fortnight. She wants three hours plus travel costs. I've fired her. I am a tidy person. I don't leave washing up, washing, ironing or bed making for her to do. I rarely have the windows open as being on the nineth floor over a busy road makes it both windy and noisy, so there isn't much dust and, finally, both the kitchen and bathroom are too small to swing a cat. I'd rather do it myself once a month especially as I believe that there is an element of 'rich foreigner can afford it' and my subsidising the, almost certainly low, wages paid by her regular employers (the family who own the flat). I feel like a cash machine and I'm sick of it.

I haven't particularly liked here for a long time and now I'm counting the days. The only reasons I'm here are because a) I signed a 22 month contract and I believe in honouring my contracts b) if I leave in July I won't be able to travel back the long way round because of getting my stuff home and c) I've just had braces put on my teeth and I can't afford to get this treatment done anywhere else.

One good thing about this place is that time passes quickly and we've got the winter holiday coming up soon. I intend to make the most of it. I don't know how regular I will be in updating this blog but I will be making an effort so stick around - there could be some good stuff!

Rant over