Water?

When I walked over to our brand new washing machine to take out the laundry, it displayed the profound message 'E10'. What the …?? You mischievous brat, barely bought and already throwing errors at me?

Like in many lovers' quarrel, this little darling also gave me a cryptic hint that I wasn't able to understand if my life depended on it. However, in this case I had the luxury of being able to actually look in a manual to see what the sent message was meant to convey.

E10 meant water error. I didn't forget to turn on the water, did I?? Nope, the tap was wide open. Reset the washing machine and turned it back on. Loud hum. They usually do that when they cannot get any water. Turned on the tap above the sink to check. No water! Not a single drop! Just a bit of a gurgling sound, that was all.

In NZ the main water tap is located in front of the house, underneath the side walk just outside the property. Everyone can reach it. I suspected that some joker wanted to haze the new Dutchies by turning off the water tap. But also that tap was wide open. So, what to do now? I just wanted to go take a shower, and, even more important, Emma just wanted to make herself some coffee. That thus became a washout.

Checked the mail for a card like "Sorry people, Saturday the water will be shut off". Well, nothing. To at least be notified when the water came back on, I turned on the tap at full blow, so the water would start running violently as soon as the water pressure came back. It still took two hours before that happened.

In Holland the water company would be sued stiff if they would pull such a prank, but here in NZ it is just a matter of "don't whine about it". In Ashburton my father gets a letter once a year that there is maintenance on the power exchange so on a given date they will shut off the power between 10 AM and 5 PM (!). Shutting off the water for two hours apparently isn't even worth mentioning. The residents will notice themselves if the water is shut off and when it comes back on, won't they?

Hoarding up some water bottles isn't exactly superfluous here :-)