Inconveniences

For almost 15 years I live now in this apartment and almost every year without a doubt a flood comes from the ceiling, starting in light drip, drip, drips and ending up in huge leakages. The ceiling will be opened up, engineers will come and peek inside, this or that will be declared the reason for the damage, and every year, once it is all dried up again, a painter arrives and paints the whole living room again. Nice and new.

This year, or better last year in March it happened again, horrendous floods arrived from the top. Except this year new Management had decided to fix it once and for all and permanently. No objection from my side of course. Two huge plates cover the ceiling holes "for the time being",  two buckets are installed inside the ceiling to catch the drips;  every week, sometimes twice a weeks, these buckets are emptied. A parade of so called "engineers" walk in, climbing up the ladder, taking a good look of the crawl space and the pipes above, photographing it all, but unfortunately until now they could not agree on the cause of the damage.  I think each engineer comes up with  his own but different solution. And I have my own opinion; it is the poor infrastructure of the building which sits on wetlands. But of course I don't know and I am not an "engineer". I am told,  it's the fault of the penthouse owner above me, then it is leaking pipes, then it is leakage from the outside of the building and men are ordered to fix the cracks on the outside, hanging there in their seats above the 21st floor and they are smiling. This or that and nothing helps. I went to the Management today again to show my impatience (what a waste) and I learned that tomorrow another "engineer" is supposed to come up with a new solution — another permanent solution I am told! Am I supposed to believe it? A quite amazing and hair raising story. This is now my one year anniversary living with a damaged ceiling and flickering electricity. I am exhausted and mad, but fortunately I am also more than occupied with other things and problems, and I stay patient. But honestly I feel a great helplessness has crept up in me. Let's see what tomorrow brings.