Polar Opposites

Today was a day of polar opposites. Going to the football and being a hooligan, then coming home to find out that my washing machine is broken, attempting to fix it, and now having to try and stop thinking about how this may mean I've lost my 720 EUR security deposit.

First the good. The football was awesome. It was HSV versus AC Roma, a pure friendly game, and you could tell from the atmosphere and the pace of the game. "It lacked power" to quote Jan. Nonetheless it was awesome to spend an evening in one of the biggest stadiums in Germany and see my first real football match. Currently planning on going to a Bundesliga match (German National Competition), where the stakes are higher, matches more intense, and there's more people.

The photos you see here were taken on my cell phone, as cameras were not allowed. Hopefully they convey the size of the stadium. Also note that even though the stadium was half full, there was only 25,000 people there. At full capacity it houses 56,000 people. Imagine the atmosphere and the noise.

Then we had on my return the washing machine. Now it had been acting up all morning: stopping, starting, and not draining. So I spent the last two hours trying to sort it out, including taking the drain hosepipe off with a knife. There's one disadvantage to living in a girly apartment - the severe lack of tools. My kiwi ingenuity pulled through and I found a sturdy enough knife to help unscrew the pipe. Sadly though, this hasn't fixed the issue. It still won't drain. So I'm putting it down the to drainage pump. This is not a good thing, and has three repercussions:

1. I need to call in a professional, and my language skills are severly lacking to convey exactly what's happened and what I think the problem is;
2. To do this I need to call Jana to see if I have to do this through the landlord or someone special. Something that's not too bad, but does carry a number of consequences including having to talk to the landlord and pretend that I'm Polli's cousin; and
3. The third, and probably most concerning one for me is that this may mean the loss of my 780 EUR deposit on the room. That's roughly NZD 1560, and I do not want to lose that.

That's how I spent my Saturday night. Oh and somewhere along the line I managed to squeeze in getting some dinner, but I didn't have time to go down to the shops and for some weird reason Germans think it fit to close on Sundays. I mean, come on people, day of rest requires food. Good thing I don't actually do too much on weekday afternoons, otherwise supplies could get interesting.

Anyways, I'm off to try and find something somewhere. It might include sleep, but frankly I really don't feel like it. I want clean clothes and a washing machine that works. I wouldn't be so worried except for the fact the last load I put on was towels and not clothes.

But if anyone knows how to fix a drainage pump on a Bauknecht Front Loading Washing Machine, please leave a comment, text or email me.