Because of a “falta de goma” (lack of a rubber ring) I haven’t been able to use my kitchen for two days! Should have really done something about it last week after talking about my under-the-sink leak here with Nog’s sister, but the temporary measure was holding up (pail under the pipes) and it’s HOT out there and I’ve been busy and whatever, blah blah … then Monday evening it all gave way with a huge sploosh of water and Nog’s attempt to refasten it ended up with a whole length of tube coming loose (see pic above) so I couldn’t put it off any longer.
I am actually the “handyman” around here, except when it comes to doing anything UNDER THE SINK. But once the troublesome tubing had been inadvertently removed by Nog then I could deal with it. I reckoned I could just put it in my trusty green shopping trolley, bring it to El Corte Inglés, and I’d be sorted out with whatever I needed to get the tubing back where it should be. Well, of course it’s never that simple, is it…
I did have some luck when I first left the house as a neighbour asked what I was doing with tuberia sticking out of my trolley, and when I told him he said he could help. And he did! Turns out the long bit of tubing needed a special (and quite expensive) glue to reattach it properly, and Franco lent me his, along with a piece of sandpaper for prepping the surfaces. He also said that all I needed to fix the other bit that had come off were a couple of gomas. And well, that sounded quite straightforward. Until I got to El Corte Inglés and found out they had no gomas my size. And this being August, I can’t think of one other plumbing supply shop in the centre that would be open. I might be able to find gomas at a hardware store, but if not … seriously starting to panic here. In case my falta de gomas ends up with me having to take a bus ride out to the (eep!) suburbs to a (gaaah!) MALL. Or, as Terry Pratchett so appropriately calls it, The MAUL.
I am quite astounded at how much my life can be put out of whack by the lack of two tiny circles of rubber. In fact I only need one, but was advised by Franco to replace them both while I was at it. Meanwhile, I cannot use the kitchen at all, except to get cold drinks out of the fridge and heat up food in the microwave. And by now Monday’s washing up is starting to look like it would be easier just to throw everything out and start over.
What’s your “falta de gomas” story?
Having your life turned upside down by something so stupid…
casa azahar 
I once pried up the moldy caulking around my tub to clean and replace it without realizing that there was a tiny, tiny drip that ran backwards along the tap and down the tile. With caulk in, it proceeded innocently to the drain. Without caulk, it flowed merrily on into the space behind the wall.
I wanted the whole area to dry thoroughly before replacing the caulk, so I left things for several hours… and the bathroom ceiling downstairs crashed in. On my head, while I was wearing only underwear. I walked straight out to the trash bins with several square feet of soggy drywall on my head, underwear and all; no wonder my neighbors won’t talk to me.
The only good that came of that was I ended by painting the bathroom red like I’d always wanted to.
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Love that image of you striding out to the trash bins in your underwear … other than the soggy drywall on your head I’m sure you looked quite fetching.
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*laughing*
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I have no story to tell, but I just wanted to say that when I first saw today’s title, I though “ooh, this looks exotic”. Just goes to show how deceptive foreign languages can be.
I’ll be watching this blog with interest as I guess there’ll be lots of funny stories on the way (funny in hindsight, probably).
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Heh, I can’t think of anything less exotic than leaking kitchen pipes and elusive rubber rings. And I seriously could not believe how the lack of just one “goma” could totally screw things up. Yes, also looking forward to more stories…
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I’m so far from being a handy man that I have, on several occasions, been reduced to cooking dinner at night whilst wearing a head torch because the flouro tube light in my kitchen has blown and I’m unable to fix it. I can’t even get the casing off it without help.
I do hope you find those two rings of rubber soon.
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I’ve always been good at fixing things, though most of the time I’d be happy to let someone else do nasty stuff like crawl under the sink… yes, finally got the gomas.
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Weeeellll… there was the time when I found a box of creamed wheat i the cupboard with beetles in it and instead of throwing it in the garbage (I think I was afraid of having the beetles crawling all over the kitchen if I threw it in the garbage container) so I threw it down the sink while running the hot water. Unfortunately, the water didn’t carry it down the drain fast enough, it backed up, absorbed hot water and swelled up, clocking the u-pipe.
My parents were out of town and I didn’t want my dad to get mad at me, and being as it SHOULD be fairly easy to take off the u-pipe, I decided to do it myself.
Unfortunately, whoever put the pipe on the last time appeared to have bee Superman and I couldn’t get it off. In banging about trying to loosen the nut, I put a hole in the bottom of the bend (which I think had been eaten away by the use of Drain-o, a powerful caustic that you put down drains to clean them). At that point, I decided to cut my loses and just fess up when my parents got home.
Dad wasn’t mad and he showed me how to properly change the pipe and we did it together.
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Blocking… not clocking…
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Lovely happy ending. 🙂
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Loki reminds me of Benjamin… I discovered that when I use the water dispenser in the door of the fridge, it makes noises under the fridge and Benjamin starts stalking “the thing” under the fridge. It is hilarious.
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Well, two hardware shops and two plumbing stores later I finally got my gomas yesterday morning. I even ended up walking all over town in my gym clothes!!! after the first place near my gym didn’t have any. I somehow always feel “invisible” within a certain radius of my gym, so I don’t mind schlepping around in a big sweaty t-shirt and baggy cropped yoga pants if I have to pick something up at the supermarket or whatever … but this time I ended up going downtown! But what the hell, there was no point going home to shower and change, and then going back out and getting all sweaty again just for the stupid gomas. Have to admit I was getting a bit nervous after the third place didn’t have any because there wouldn’t have been anywhere else central to try. But the last place did indeed have them and for a mere 1.50€ (I got three so I’d have a spare) the proper order of things in my life – and my kitchen – was restored.
In celebration – of not having to go to The Maul – I made marinated potatoes with fresh asparagus and grilled tuna for lunch. Yum.
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Oh, I have a story — it happened when I was pretty young. My parents moved to Colorado and bought an extremely old house up in the mountains. When they were looking at it it was the dead of winter, so they noticed that the bathroom had no water to it but assumed that since the house was unoccupied it was turned off so the pipes wouldn’t freeze. We moved in, and my parents started searching for the place to turn on the water to the bathroom, which was fully furnished with a tub, sink, and commode. After a fruitless hour, they realized that the house had no water to it, there was no well, no cut off valve, no nothing. When they got down on their knees and started looking closely at the fixtures in the bathroom, they realized that the pipes from the faucets, etc, just went TO the wall, not INTO it. The old man who lived there had a bed ridden wife who did not want to die in a house with no bathroom, so he put in all those fixtures and showed her that there was a bathroom.
In order to remedy this plumbing fault, which took over two years, first my folks had to have the well driller out, and completely plumb the entire house. In the process they remodelled the back part of the house, moved the kitchen and the bathroom, took out the wall between the kitchen and the “mud room” and made that larger, made the old kitchen into the dining room. It took two years because the very first thing they did was put a new roof on the place.
My mother used to say, “Oh yes, I have running water! I have Barbara and Ellie. They run down to the spring for water for me.”
And we did too.
Personally, I like sled’s story better.
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I am just playing catch-up with your recent blogs as we’ve been away for a few days, so I’m not sure you’ll ever read this. Anyway, good to hear you finally fixed your leak under the kitchen sink, even though it turned out to be a bit of a saga – however, I was right about one thing … it only required replacing a small, seemingly insignificant part which didn’t cost much ( except time & effort ) !!
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Yes, you were right about it being the goma, and in spite of all the time and effort I’m very glad it wasn’t anything more, well, expensive.
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