Day 66

A contortionists haven

That was the quickest we moved. It does help not having to sort an entire house, but still 8 boxes, 5 suitcases, 8 rucksacks (okay 3 were quite small), and an assortment of extras almost safely moved without problems. When on the bus about to leave Riverside I noticed a stack of 3 boxes, unsupported in the “cargo” bus next to us. I tried to get Ali to tell someone that these would crash to the floor as soon as that bus moved. She was told it would be fine. Lo and behold, they crashed. And they were ours. And they wouldn’t provide insurance. Thankfully I had ensured anything breakable was moved into my work office the day before and anything left we took with us. Good thing too. A friend was called to an office whilst still at Riverside, but he couldn’t speak Russian. So he took a translator, went to the office and they handed him one of his suitcases. Stunned, he said his thanks and enquired how they managed to get it. Turns out they retrieved it from the road where it had fallen off a truck! He was thankful there was nothing valuable or breakable in there.
 
The other end of the process was smooth enough. I didn’t want to sign the paperwork, but I had 3 children tired and 5 of us very hungry. So I signed and wrote “in protest” on each page. Turns out there were two that did not sign at all and were prepared to go the distance. Only lasted 2 hours and then the staff relented. We’re not sure where it will get them, but we have to fight the manner in which this is being conducted.


1 plug, 2 electrical items and no room to carve a baked bean

We went through the apartment (or dormitory if you look at their literature) very carefully. They really did try to finish this block in a hurry. The grouting is the worse I’ve ever seen and if I had been privately renting, I would have walked out the door. But there are many issues both great and small. The worse are the health and safety problems, which can mostly be dealt with. The grave concern is the kitchen. We are lucky to have a larger space than most others, with our 3 bedrooms, but the kitchen we have is tiny. There is about 15 inches of useable worktop split into 3 sections, which either means we are preparing raw food next to clean plates or preparing any food right on top of the hob. For a single person, they might manage to cope. For a family of five, this is never going to work. So we have tried emailing the right people, but no-one will tell us who the right people are. So also going through my Dean, who at least will be willing to listen and try and find the right people in the chain of command.



Quality finishes

I think I could cope if they left the contract alone and tried to deliver at least 90% of the expectations (derived from the documents they provided and past experience of longer serving staff). But they are constantly chipping away.

On the plus side, we are warm (a little too warm as two of the radiators we cannot turn off) and well fed. Whether we get any sleep though will be a matter of whether the building site right outside our windows will be active or not.

Just to counterpoint our experience, we have tried to ensure that the children are not affected. Ali took them to Segafredo for breakfast whilst I packed the last of the bits and organised the porters to move our kit downstairs. Rebekah now has her own room; Matthias and Kyria are sharing. All are very excited. Plus we have a 3D TV. Despite the fact we do not have any 3D DVDs, the children were very excited to watch Matilda with the 3D glasses on. Now we are trying to get them all into bed and sleep. Sleep. Someone stole the ‘r’ from that long lost friend; now just a fiend.

Ray