Activities of Monday, October 6, 2014

TV, Internet, phone, house keeping, undersink grease trap, wi-fi

Today I had people in and out of the apartment all day. We’d had the satellite or cable TV hooked up. We’re still not sure what type we have. We’d had the one apartment phone turned on. We’d had the internet hooked up. We have contracted with the apartment building to have someone clean the apartment a couple of times a week to keep ahead of the dirt until we find someone. The cost is 150,000 IDR(about $12US) to the apartment cleaning service. That’s 2 people who work 3-4 hours. And that’s nonstop working and they are pretty good. We also tipped each one 50,000 IDR (about $4.00US) as recommended by the tenant relations manager, Hendra. I think Hendra spent most of the afternoon interpreting and helping. Oh, yes, another technician repaired the weather stripping on one of the balcony doors he’d installed on Thursday because the adhesive hadn’t stuck very well. 

We also had the undersink grease trap cleaned. This is sort of a mini septic tank where the solids you wash off of your dishes gets trapped in a basket in the first section of the tank under the sink and the cleaner water overflows and goes down the drain. Apparently, about once a week we need to call the technician to clean it out. It’s a bad design because you can’t remove the metal trap basket to clean it because of pipes located directly above the tank. You can get the lid off but you can’t remove the basket and clean it. My very sensitive nose detects a very strong odor under the sink but B doesn’t seem to mind it near as much. I did some research on these undersink traps and now I wonder if the gasket on the top edge is compromised and that’s how the smell is getting out of the tank. I may look into this at some point. For now we got a room deodorizer to help with the issue.

More on the internet and the wi-fi -- these are a problem. We do have internet and wi-fi but the wifi range is barely two rooms. At first the guy said we could get another router but no we can’t have another router. The he said we have to buy a wi-fi range extender. We have tried to locate one in the retail establishments and so far have been unsuccessful. We aren't sure if the range of the router they supply is extremely weak or the signal is really weak, but something just isn't right. Also, it’s a DSL line, not cable internet. We are paying for the max speed- 3 MBPS. Yikes!  It works, but barely and only in 2 rooms.

Have begun to cook a little bit in the new place. Made marinara chicken in the slow cooker today. Could have used some parmesan to sprinkle on top. Note: Hunt for parmesan cheese!