Blogcoven

I haven’t stopped enjoying Dublin or wanting to share the experience with the Internets, but I have lost nearly all access to said Internets. The next ETA for a direct line to my digital drug is Thursday morning; if I have to sneak into restricted areas of my building and camp out for hours, I will do it.

“Sneak into your own building, Dixie?”

I live in a multi-stor(e)y apartment block in one of the oldest parts of Dublin. The building itself isn’t that old, but the medieval church across the street and the remnants of the old city walls against the building are. I live on the 2nd floor (3rd if you’re counting in American). The ground floor is a car park, and it contains the phone and cable switches as well as the electricity meters for the entire building.

The car park does not appear to be owned by the same people as the rest of the building. As a result (either of this or of matters I am still unaware), tenants are not allowed in. Not only are we not entitled to spaces, we may not hold keys or contact the building manager about getting in. The standard way of getting around this is to hover near the entrance to the car park until someone exits, then nip in and deal with your business.

As someone who has grown weary of living like a rat student, this is feasible but galling. I should not have to sneak into a section of my own building in order to do responsible tenant things like read my electricity meter (for the purpose of putting it in my own name) and set up phone/cable/broadband. Additionally, it should not take me a week and a half and scores of phone calls to determine that the building manager’s name and phone number will be withheld from me because I am not the owner of a flat. Especially when the likely result of gaining this information will be that I must harass my landlord to make the same calls, then pass that information straight on to me so I don’t have to pester him anymore.

I’ve rented a lot of places, but I’ve never had such a difficult time getting things sorted out.

In any case, while the past week has been full of adventures, I shall not speak of them now because I have a limited amount of time online and business comes before pleasure. Neither the Wanderer nor I have a job yet, but hope springs eternal.