NvB: Bored in Brno?: My Crumbling House 2

My Crumbling House 2

Actually, leaky would be more like it this time. When I returned to Brno after the Christmas holidays I found the following note from my neighbor:

Hi Jesse!

Sometimes our toilet is making trouble. After flushing, the water does not stop and continues flowing (sometimes it even gets outside - that is why it was wet on the floor this morning). To stop it is necessary to move (push) the flush handle upwards and move the lid of the tank.

Have a nice Christmas!

It was illustrated with helpful technical drawings. There is a picture of the entire toilet, in which the bowl is conveniently identified, and then there is a detail of the tank with helpful step-by-step indications. My neighbor is studying engineering. Can you tell? I didn't notice the wet floor, but one never knows when something else may go wrong around here. At least there are qualified residents. (Next time we have a musicological emergency perhaps I will come to the rescue.)

Posted 12 January 2006 at 18:53.

The Blog

What is "Bored in Brno"? a) the best Czech movie of 2003, b) a blog about Brno (the Czech Republic's second largest city) and my adventures in and observations of south and east Moravia. I usually post about music, arts, culture, and stuff in Brno; or, I talk about whatever; or, I may bore you.

There's a Czech saying about how you are a new person for every language you learn. Here's your chance to experience Czech vicariously and to become your new self, now conveniently available in English translation. (Or at least something reasonably close to English.)

If you have questions, suggestions, like what you see, or you're just plain bored, don't hesitate to leave a comment or e-mail me.

The Blogger

A graduate student in music and anthropology writing a dissertation about music in Moravia, the eastern third of the Czech Republic. At some point, the Czech Republic's "second city" (that would be Brno) captured my attention, and I've since been blogging about events, arts, music, and other stuff—basically whatever interests me in and around the cityscape. I'm not living in Brno now, but I keep up with the cultural pulse from afar as best I can.

More about Brno, Me, Euro-Czech

Comments:

Karla said . . .

OK, now I know I can no longer put off the saga of the ever-running. Unfortunately I don't have such picturesque (well, evocative) photos or any engineering diagrams to bring in.

9:39 PM, January 12, 2006

Anonymous said . . .

Are you sure it is a diagram of how to fix the toilet? It looks more like a map to a secret underground lair via your toilet. Take heart; you could have the toilet from Trainspotting...

4:22 AM, January 13, 2006

P'tit-Loup said . . .

Joe, that was great. I do like that along with the instruction to "fix" the problemed toilet, your neighbor wishes you "merry christmas." Seems likes it all goes together: a good working plumbing system and a good holiday!

7:42 AM, January 14, 2006

It's certainly important to have functional plumbing during the holidays. My family will never forget the experience of moving into a house over Christmas and having the septic tank back up on Christmas Eve.

4:02 PM, January 14, 2006

yes, but the holiday would have been so much better if there really were a working toilet and a secret underground lair. I wonder what sort of Czech superheroes would live there?

4:44 PM, January 15, 2006

Yes, but who wants to have to get to the secret lair via the toilet? I hope that's not how the Beavers got the Pevensey children away from the wolves. (You will recall that the movie cleverly avoids showing them leaving the homey part of the beaver dam.)

11:43 PM, January 16, 2006

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