Don't You Know It's My Birthday?

Happy Birthday to me! Today I turn 27 and mark the general beginning of a new adventure. We have been in Auckland for 2 weeks now and have already experienced the excitement and frustration of moving to new a city, especially overseas. This morning has unfortunately been one of the amusingly frustrating ones. This blog is a bit wingy, so I apologize in advance!

When we moved into our apartment on Tuesday I was disappointed to see that it had not been properly cleaned between tenants. Here it seems people move more frequently and thus one apartment could be turned over 4 times in a year. So I understand that there is a little more wear and tear. But they don’t do all the things that we are used to in the big US of A. For example, they don’t do a white wash of paint between tenants. There were several gashes in the wall, which were filled in with yellow putty, but not painted over. Carpets are simply vacuumed, not shampooed.

So being the nasty, whiny, Americans that we are, Will and I wrote a very stern letter to the property managers (with pictures) stating our complaints. The manager called, very apologetic and stated that they would have the cleaners come back and clean again. This was set up for 7:30 this morning (my birthday). I was bummed to have to get up early on my birthday, but thought I would go to a coffee shop, have some birthday breakfast and play on the Internet for an hour or so while it was happening. 8:30 came around with no word. I called the manager, explained that it was birthday and I was sitting on the couch waiting and she said she would track them down. At 8:50 she called me back saying that he is at the building and should be here any minute.

In the mean time, the contractor who was supposed to fix some broken furniture came right on time at 9:00 sharp. He was very nice and professional. Unfortunately the tracks for the door on the wardrobe were completely cracked down to the wood, so it couldn't be fixed. We ended up losing the door to the dumpster...

At 9:10 the cleaner finally came.  He said he was sorry because the manager told him I had somewhere to be. I said, "we'll I don't have anywhere to be, but it's my birthday and I wanted to have a nice breakfast somewhere". He said happy birthday, then stepped out on the balcony to "call his boss" and was on the phone for 10 minutes…hmmm….It’s my birthday so I don’t want to get mean, so I just say “it’s ok” and start pointing out the things we wanted cleaned. I got this response a lot: “oh, that’s not my area”. So he couldn’t clean the windows, the walls or the ceiling. He seemed hesitant to scrub the bathroom floor, but with some convincing said he would try.

I now appreciate the crazy standards that apartments in the US have for cleaning upon check out. It really does make a difference to the next person coming in!

So I left, trusting that he would do a good job, and now am at the coffee shop, having birthday tea and a muffin at 9:45.  What a morning! Deep breathing and some chamomile will help me calm and start fresh. That's what you get for moving to a new apartment/country so close to your birthday! I guess I still have another whole birthday in the US tomorrow J

I will be telling everyone else today that it is my birthday, because the world should know...