After the floods, I'm now in hot water!

No, I don't mean I'm in trouble, I now have running hot water in the kitchen following installation of a water heater I bought this morning in Sighisoara. Although there was a water heater already in the kitchen, it was not designed for use on a pressurised system. The pump supplying water from my well operates at up to 2 bar (30psi) and consequently the old heater leaked like a sieve when I opened the supply valve to fill it with water! New heater very easy to install and no wiring to do as it was fitted with a plug. At last I can simply turn on a tap to wash my hands or do the washing up. It's a good job I bought it today as I discovered that tomorrow VAT increases from 19% to 24% and the heater would have cost an extra 14 lei.

Last evening I had a visit from across the road neighbours Ioan and his wife Adriana who I said could use my internet connection to send some emails relating to her work as a teacher of Romanian literature. We had a very pleasant evening after which she thanked me profusely and said I was a real English gentleman! This morning I was rewarded with a plate of eggplant prepared with onion and served with sliced tomato (had that for lunch) and this afternoon Ioan brought over another treat, this time with mushrooms, freshly picked in the forest, and cooked with onion, green pepper, milk, bacon and garlic (will have some tonight with a pork snitzel). Adriana can use my internet connection any time she likes!

The high groundwater level is still flooding our cellars and my daily pump-out has just ended but others along the street are still pumping. Hopefully the water level will start dropping soon as there has been no rain today and the sun is shining in a clear blue sky with more of same forecast for next week or so.

Drinking water now available from Penny Market in TEN litre bottles at 3.99 lei (equivalent to 7.5 pence per litre) so I bought three while they were in stock! They were going fast as most trolleys I saw contained at least two bottles. I now have about 50 litres in my storeroom which will last me a couple of weeks.