Kung Hei Fat Choy
"Congratulations and be prosperous."
You can probably guess where I spent part of my weekend, but more on this later.
Friday evening, as usual, was quiet and spent at home. Many coworkers are sick at the office and I made sure to have some hot herbal tea and a long night's sleep to hopefully keep the bug away. So far so good.
On Saturday, I went to the gym to lift some weights and also included some time on the rowing and elliptical machines. It breaks the routine of running. When I returned home (completely drenched, as I had left my umbrella at home and it started pouring), I got a phone call from a neighbor. Apparently, there was water leaking from somewhere in the building down into the underground parkade. I asked if they called the emergency number from the property management company (they hadn't, apparently, I'm the first point of contact for many neighbors), so they said they would call and I thought nothing more of it. I did go have a look and saw that the water was coming down steadily, and since the rain had stopped, it was probably not rain water that found its way in.
I walked to Granville street to do a bit of shopping in the afternoon, and when I returned home, I met the neighbor who called me and asked how the leak was being taken care of. It wasn't. Apparently, the emergency response person, after asking a few questions, made a call that it wasn't urgent and could wait until Monday. I went back downstairs, and the water hadn't slowed down. So I called the emergency phone number and asked them to call me back. Three hours later, nobody had called and another neighbor knocks at my door and tells me she has water pooling on the carpet in her bedroom. She also called the emergency number and gives me the name of the person she talked to. I call this guy, explain the situation and insist that he sends a plumber over. Water in the suites is not something that can wait.
10:30 p.m. The plumber is on site, he was at a big job in Burnaby earlier and couldn't make it before this late. We walk around the property and he agrees that the leak is probably due to a broken pipe. Problem is, the two suites above the leak are dark, nobody is home, so we have to call a locksmith to pick the locks and give us access to the units.
1:00 a.m. After spending quite a bit of time waiting for the locksmith and another bit of time waiting for him to break the locks (they couldn't be picked, he had to drill his way in), we find out that one suite is dry, but the other one does have a leaky pipe. It's being renovated and when the contractors did some piping work for the kitchen late last week, they probably yanked hard on one of the pipes and the joint (quite old) gave up. I sign the paperwork, leave notes to my neighbors (I now have their housekeys, as their locks had to be replaced) and go to bed around 2.
Needless to say I wasn't going to run 18km at 8:30 Sunday morning. I'm too tired and can't get up until 9:30. I make myself breakfast, then head out downtown. I have some shopping to do at Sears, where my friend Justin is registered for his baby shower next week. Since it's the Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year), I decide to drop by Chinatown to see the parade. It was lovely. And luck has it that the rain didn't start until after the parade. I went to Sears, purchased a few items, then made my way back home, starving, as it was 3 and I hadn't had lunch yet.
I took a few pictures of the parade, you can see them here.
A lion pausing for the crowd at the Chinese New Year parade
You can probably guess where I spent part of my weekend, but more on this later.
Friday evening, as usual, was quiet and spent at home. Many coworkers are sick at the office and I made sure to have some hot herbal tea and a long night's sleep to hopefully keep the bug away. So far so good.
On Saturday, I went to the gym to lift some weights and also included some time on the rowing and elliptical machines. It breaks the routine of running. When I returned home (completely drenched, as I had left my umbrella at home and it started pouring), I got a phone call from a neighbor. Apparently, there was water leaking from somewhere in the building down into the underground parkade. I asked if they called the emergency number from the property management company (they hadn't, apparently, I'm the first point of contact for many neighbors), so they said they would call and I thought nothing more of it. I did go have a look and saw that the water was coming down steadily, and since the rain had stopped, it was probably not rain water that found its way in.
I walked to Granville street to do a bit of shopping in the afternoon, and when I returned home, I met the neighbor who called me and asked how the leak was being taken care of. It wasn't. Apparently, the emergency response person, after asking a few questions, made a call that it wasn't urgent and could wait until Monday. I went back downstairs, and the water hadn't slowed down. So I called the emergency phone number and asked them to call me back. Three hours later, nobody had called and another neighbor knocks at my door and tells me she has water pooling on the carpet in her bedroom. She also called the emergency number and gives me the name of the person she talked to. I call this guy, explain the situation and insist that he sends a plumber over. Water in the suites is not something that can wait.
10:30 p.m. The plumber is on site, he was at a big job in Burnaby earlier and couldn't make it before this late. We walk around the property and he agrees that the leak is probably due to a broken pipe. Problem is, the two suites above the leak are dark, nobody is home, so we have to call a locksmith to pick the locks and give us access to the units.
1:00 a.m. After spending quite a bit of time waiting for the locksmith and another bit of time waiting for him to break the locks (they couldn't be picked, he had to drill his way in), we find out that one suite is dry, but the other one does have a leaky pipe. It's being renovated and when the contractors did some piping work for the kitchen late last week, they probably yanked hard on one of the pipes and the joint (quite old) gave up. I sign the paperwork, leave notes to my neighbors (I now have their housekeys, as their locks had to be replaced) and go to bed around 2.
Needless to say I wasn't going to run 18km at 8:30 Sunday morning. I'm too tired and can't get up until 9:30. I make myself breakfast, then head out downtown. I have some shopping to do at Sears, where my friend Justin is registered for his baby shower next week. Since it's the Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year), I decide to drop by Chinatown to see the parade. It was lovely. And luck has it that the rain didn't start until after the parade. I went to Sears, purchased a few items, then made my way back home, starving, as it was 3 and I hadn't had lunch yet.
I took a few pictures of the parade, you can see them here.
A lion pausing for the crowd at the Chinese New Year parade
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