Overheard on the always full Tukums 2 train earlier this week. A guy sits in the seat reserved for the ticket agent and when she comes around he apologizes and smiling pleasantly she responds with something to the affect of, "no worries, my place is in the cemetery."
Now, that's a strange comment regardless but she's also not very old! Upon consultation the only explanation that has been offered is that she has a plot at the cemetery reserved already, a not uncommon practice. But it just doesn't ring quite true for some reason, it's such an indifferent response, a verbal shrug. Another way of saying "I just don't care.
Which brings me to a couple of events.
While having lunch @3:00 on 2014.01.08 my wife saw a rat at the LIDO ALUS SETA, Tirgonu iela 6 Rigas Old Town in the hallway by the WC's. Not a cute little mouse like creature but a huge hairy beast of a wharf rat up from the harbour. The kind of Willard like monster that leads other rats through the sewer systems plotting mayhem upon the denizens above. She was so shocked she couldn't see how such a large bloated hairy rodent could disappear as quickly as it did, let alone run around a busy hallway without attracting attention! I was tired and just didn't want to think about it, just eat my dried out roast beef and fries (thank you God of cold beer) but she wanted to make a big noise about it. I told her it was a cat. An exceedingly ugly one but she would have none of it. I still haven't complained to Lido and wonder if I should, not that it will do any good. It's depressing how resigned I have become to the pointlessness of complaining about life's inevitable unpleasant experiences. It's a lot different living here and trying to deal than it is for tourists doing the old in and out. You change, you get worn down.
And of course the inbred despotic leaders of the village of Tukums have raised their misshapen heads and taken notice of us once again. Late last year we had raised claim with the construction authority, I forget the Latvian title, that one of the occupants of our land had constructed a garage without our permission. More to the point without the permission or indeed knowledge of the construction authority itself! This breaks all kinds of laws as regards building permits, respecting private property not to mention whatever the Fire Marshal thinks about having a vehicle and volatile liquids stored in a hastily thrown together illegal wooden shack in the center of town, but that didn't stop the building authority from dragging their heels in responding to our complaint. Yes, letters were sent to the offender which were ignored. Requests to attend meetings to explain the problem were ignored and the whole thing was put over to April 1st, 2014, any significance in that date you figure? When our lawyer finally threatened everyone and pointed out that we were doing the work of the construction authority after we were told in a closed door meeting that "we should all just try to get along" (which is code for you permanent residence permit holders should defer to the Latvian citizens and authorities as the law is not meant for you) we received via registered mail a complaint from the construction authority itself that they felt that we had some problems regarding our own buildings and would we please make arrangements to come into their offices for a meeting to discuss the transgressions! A clear threat and example of retaliation which has caused us to put our lawyer on overdrive and to prepare a complaint for a higher authority in Riga bypassing the local office. I will probably write about this in more detail on my other blog but it's a pretty good way of illustrating my reluctance to complain about anything here in Latvia. It is still so Soviet it is hard to think that it is actually a EU member state. How did that happen?
But my wife never gives up. We buy water and one of the 18.9l bottles leaked damaging our wall. A call to Wenden yesterday had a rep out today with a full bottle and a camera. It seems that these bottles are only good for 25 refills but they actually get used well over a hundrede times before being disgarded so if we get an estimate to repair the damage they will consider it.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease I guess. Here's hoping!!
Now, that's a strange comment regardless but she's also not very old! Upon consultation the only explanation that has been offered is that she has a plot at the cemetery reserved already, a not uncommon practice. But it just doesn't ring quite true for some reason, it's such an indifferent response, a verbal shrug. Another way of saying "I just don't care.
Which brings me to a couple of events.
While having lunch @3:00 on 2014.01.08 my wife saw a rat at the LIDO ALUS SETA, Tirgonu iela 6 Rigas Old Town in the hallway by the WC's. Not a cute little mouse like creature but a huge hairy beast of a wharf rat up from the harbour. The kind of Willard like monster that leads other rats through the sewer systems plotting mayhem upon the denizens above. She was so shocked she couldn't see how such a large bloated hairy rodent could disappear as quickly as it did, let alone run around a busy hallway without attracting attention! I was tired and just didn't want to think about it, just eat my dried out roast beef and fries (thank you God of cold beer) but she wanted to make a big noise about it. I told her it was a cat. An exceedingly ugly one but she would have none of it. I still haven't complained to Lido and wonder if I should, not that it will do any good. It's depressing how resigned I have become to the pointlessness of complaining about life's inevitable unpleasant experiences. It's a lot different living here and trying to deal than it is for tourists doing the old in and out. You change, you get worn down.
And of course the inbred despotic leaders of the village of Tukums have raised their misshapen heads and taken notice of us once again. Late last year we had raised claim with the construction authority, I forget the Latvian title, that one of the occupants of our land had constructed a garage without our permission. More to the point without the permission or indeed knowledge of the construction authority itself! This breaks all kinds of laws as regards building permits, respecting private property not to mention whatever the Fire Marshal thinks about having a vehicle and volatile liquids stored in a hastily thrown together illegal wooden shack in the center of town, but that didn't stop the building authority from dragging their heels in responding to our complaint. Yes, letters were sent to the offender which were ignored. Requests to attend meetings to explain the problem were ignored and the whole thing was put over to April 1st, 2014, any significance in that date you figure? When our lawyer finally threatened everyone and pointed out that we were doing the work of the construction authority after we were told in a closed door meeting that "we should all just try to get along" (which is code for you permanent residence permit holders should defer to the Latvian citizens and authorities as the law is not meant for you) we received via registered mail a complaint from the construction authority itself that they felt that we had some problems regarding our own buildings and would we please make arrangements to come into their offices for a meeting to discuss the transgressions! A clear threat and example of retaliation which has caused us to put our lawyer on overdrive and to prepare a complaint for a higher authority in Riga bypassing the local office. I will probably write about this in more detail on my other blog but it's a pretty good way of illustrating my reluctance to complain about anything here in Latvia. It is still so Soviet it is hard to think that it is actually a EU member state. How did that happen?
But my wife never gives up. We buy water and one of the 18.9l bottles leaked damaging our wall. A call to Wenden yesterday had a rep out today with a full bottle and a camera. It seems that these bottles are only good for 25 refills but they actually get used well over a hundrede times before being disgarded so if we get an estimate to repair the damage they will consider it.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease I guess. Here's hoping!!
