Watch Your P's and Poohs

A few days ago, one of the women from the building stopped us as we were leaving. She knew we do not speak Hungarian, so she did what we all do. She shouted at us very slowly. We all know the true wisdom of this. If someone does not speak your language, screaming at them in a dilatory manner, the meaning will reverberate against the walls, hit them in the head and the gist of the thoughts will become less than a London fog.

Between the few words we did know, our well practiced to the level of excellence in charades, and a tad of common sense, we were able to figure out we would not have water for a day. They were to replace some pipes. Smiles were shared by everyone involved and we all left each others company with facial expressions of mild perplexity. The word bubble over everyone's head was "Did the message get through to them?"

The next day, the same lady appeared at our door. She had a sheet of paper with beautiful English on it, telling us for certain what we had surmised. Today, please do not use any water between 8:30 am and 5:30 pm. We are having the pipes replaced in the building. 

Emergency stop (Photo credit: tabula_electronica)

Thomas Crapper (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

All well and good, but we have 3 lovely young women from The Netherlands. They were very understanding and promised compliance. Just to make sure and honestly for us as much as for them, I put a sign on everything that is related to H2O, including all of the water bottles in the fridge. I was thoughtful of all of the potential P's and Poohs, not to be confused with a yellow bear. This required that I devise a plan that would stave off dehydration while planning ahead for an emergency stop off place. For the first time ever, I am thankful for the small shopping center at Blaha Lujza. There is a clean well-maintained bathroom in the basement. 

Yes, Virginia, there really is a Crapper. Let it be known that praises go to Thomas Crapper, who is erroneously credited with inventing the first toilet, but hey Sir John Harrington is not nearly as funny a name. I give thank to Joseph Gayetty too. If you cannot guess what he invented, you can find it here.

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