We moved to our flat in Harpenden almost four months ago, whilst our own home was being smashed up and reconstructed. Although there is still about six weeks of work left to do on the house, we're hoping we might be able to move back in in a couple of weeks. The Harpenden flat has been fine and I think we've both got so used to living here that we've almost forgotten that we actually live somewhere else.
There have been a few frustrations about living in a more cramped space, but on the whole we've found it OK, though both been annoyed by the pokey kitchen and specifically the odd sink here, which never seemed to drain properly. It looked like it was a garbage disposal of some kind, but there was no way to turn it on as far as we could see and it came with a little plug/plunger thing which slowly cleared the sink water if you pumped it hard enough. I assumed we had a slightly annoying had operated garbage disposal and we have struggled with it manfully and womanfully for 16 weeks, often having to float our washing up bowl in a sea of stagnant and dirty water to get anything done. We were so used to it that we didn't even question it any more, just accepted that this was our life.
This morning my wife was washing up and the sink seemed more full than ever, so it was almost overflowing. We're so used to it that usually we wouldn't complain, but this was the worst yet and I said that this couldn't be right. And just as I vented my frustration I saw a switch near the fridge, which I suppose I had seen before, but had always assumed it operated the device that it was right next to. I had never even considered it might be something to do with the sink that it wasn't very near. Maybe I had finally subconsciously realised that the switch appeared to be in an off position or maybe I just worked out that it was unlikely that any flat would have such a stupid sink installed in it. But it struck me in this instant that the switch might operate the garbage disposal. I pressed it and the sink sprung into life, grinding and swirling and the water all disappeared. The rattling nature of the churning made me worried that perhaps some of the glass from our exploding casserole dish was still in there, but we had to take that chance.
I can't believe we have lived here so long and only now, when we might be days away from leaving have we discovered this. Now I know it's there it, of course, seems ridiculous that we would have thought that there'd be such a thing as a suction based garbage disposal and I dread to think what horrors might have been lurking down there after all these weeks of non-use. How could we be this stupid? How could we have struggled on with this situation without considering there must be something we could do? Because we are human beings and this is the way we behave. You get used to something and accept it and make presumptions and then it's hard to see the switch that can make all that go away. Especially if the switch isn't labelled and looks like it belongs to the fridge.
What I suppose is most remarkable is that until that exact second I don't think I had even consciously noticed that the switch was there. But it was only when frustration drove me to think, "Oh come on, now you're taking the piss" that then woke up my peripheral vision numbskulls and made them say, "Well you could check out that odd turned off switch." Yeah, thanks a lot numbskulls - where were you four months ago? You twats.
It was hard to enjoy the fact that we had solved a problem because the fact that we hadn't solved it months ago made us both massive idiots. I mean it would be OK if we could just keep this shame between ourselves, but unfortunately one of us (and I am not saying which one) delights in telling the world all the stupid things he has done.
Or she has done if that person is my wife.
