The weekend has come and gone and I'm back at work with an enormous headache and a bad mood. And things are not looking up as much as I'd hoped. Yes, I got the toilet/bathroom mess straightened out. And solving that proved one very important thing: if you have problems then keep complaining to everyone you know. Because sooner or later they get tired of hearing about it and come up with a solution. And that theory worked perfectly for my sanitary problems. Because a friend of mine (I don't think I've mentioned him before so I'll call him… Alex) has a sister and this sister has a boyfriend who actually does this sort of thing. Of course, I had completely forgotten about that until Alex mentioned him but I jumped at the chance that he'd get me somebody to do all this stuff.

And he will! He gave me an approximate cost of the work that was thousands cheaper than the previous one I got. Granted, the previous budget calculated all possible repairs I was planning on doing but still… All I have to do is find the stuff to put into my new and improved bathroom, tell him what I want and then he'll see if he can get the stuff cheaper. Isn't that great?

Other things aren't moving quite so fast. Nothing much has happened in the rest of the flat and nothing much will. Hopefully this weekend will change things and I will get normal rooms with normal floors and normal wallpaper. Not that the current "wallpaper's" not great. It is! I spent almost half an hour on Sunday reading the newspapers that are glued to the walls right now to serve as the base for the wallpaper. I'm sure it's going to be fun tearing it all down when I decide to paint the walls instead.

[After an irritating phonecall:]
And as it just turned out, things are going to move even slower. I just called the place that was supposed to supply me with a decent front door you can't open with a flick of your finger. And guess what? They had lost my order! That means I had to place another one which in turn means it takes even longer till I finally get to move in. At least they acknowledged that it was their fault and promised to rush the delivery.

*****

The weekend was great, though… We went to see 'Pirates of the Caribbean' with Megan and it was great. Not what you would call a "serious film with great hidden meanings" but it was great. So funny, so light, so entertaining. Packed with beautiful people and even more beautiful scenery. Who can not like it? I must admit, I liked it so much that I dragged Lynn to see it with me on Monday even though she'd expressed some doubt about its value. So I've seen it twice and I'd like to see it again. Does that make me an obsessed fan?

OK, away from pirates and back to Friday… Sally arrived just as the film had ended and Megan and I showed her around. She's been in Tallinn on more than one occasion but for some reason Sally never seems to be able to get a grip of the surroundings. She tends to get lost. But she does remember which pubs she has visited and that forced us to come up with something different from our usual hangouts.

After a lot of walking around we finally decided on Beer House even though Sally really doesn't drink beer. But the pub itself is great (even if they think my half empty bottle of Diet Coke is an illegal substance and needs to be taken away) and we sat and chatted and gossiped about everyone and everything. Then we went to stalk our favourite bartender who's usually pretty funny to chat with. (I really can't remember what the place is called; we know it by the name: "The place under the Town Hall where the cute bartender is") I must admit he wasn't up to the task that Friday. Chatwise, I mean, his coffees were still great.

Most of Saturday I did nothing of substance. We had planned to paint the doors of The Hellhole with Megan but I'd forgotten that required paint. Neither of us was very keen on carrying the buckets of paint, the brushes and everything else from the nearest shop to the flat. Especially since the nearest shop was not that near and I had no car because the Brother-figure was let loose on Estonia and wouldn't be back until Sunday night. So we had coffee instead at Wayne's (I can't find a link to any readable site) - they make the best lattes I've ever had, and then went shopping for trousers for Megan. Needless to say, we didn't get any trousers but got lots of other crap (I'm sorry, I meant 'very necessary stuff').

Sally who'd been out at some European Union promotion thing, showed up in the evening with Bryan (Bryan's a very good friend of mine who just spent a year in St. Petersburg studying Political Science) and they gave me my housewarming gift. It was bread and salt in interesting forms. Basically it was buns stuffed with salt and all the eight of them had different meanings. I will post a picture of it soon. It's on a regular camera so it'll be a little while before I can get my hands on the pictures.

After the very festive gift-giving ceremony we went to Seiklusjutte maalt ja merelt (translated: Adventure Stories from the Land and the Sea. It was a series of adventure books during the Soviet times) which is one of the greatest pubs in Tallinn. There we sat: 4 Estonians (Sally, Bryan, Bryan's friend and me), one guy from France and one from Lichtenstein (I spelled it right on the first try). It was the most fun I've had in a long time. Not only were there more guys than girls, which is always good for setting me in an excellent mood, but they were all fun and exactly the type of people that I like. Plus, 2 of the guys were really cute! And, the most important of all, we played cards and I won. I never win when playing cards. And it was a new game for me! So it was a natural high from that night!

On Sunday we went to the Hellhole with a bunch of people and I was reassured that the bathroom stuff can be done without me plunging even deeper into debt. We came back and I spent a leisurely Sunday afternoon doing absolutely nothing. My favourite type of Sunday!

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