Inside [this house] Beats the Heart of my Madness.

I have reached the point where I've become frustrated with the building. The hostel is older and often Things patched along as it goes. Sometimes further back then I know. Then those things, having spent a long time doing what their supposed to be doing (i.e., being walls or toilets), decide it would be way cooler not to be those things.

Usually I can put my Predator face on and be happy.

Screen Cap. Predator movie, 

But yesterday it was madness.

In a matter of 5 hours, the radiator collapsed off the wall, pumping black radiator fluid, which I'm not certain is the same fluid that makes Guinness. After finally stopping it, we had to disconnect it from the pipe and the room was out of commission. The wall behind in ruins, and filled with horse hair (yes horse hair, I guess they used to plaster walls with it as a binding agent), I realized I'm fully booked for tomorrow. Calling a good friend/joiner/construction dude over, the patch of wall was torn away, leaving the lath exposed. It needs to be plaster boarded, smoothed and painted all in 24 hours. The carpet is trashed, which is most annoying to me.

An hour after this happened the leaky toilet turned non functional as the parts that were not mean for each other came apart, thus rendering one of the main toilets useless.

Quickly after, more minor, but the vacuum bag inside the vacuum exploded blasting dust all over one of the cleaners and the kitchen. Luckily no Henry was harmed in the process and we re bagged it.

Then last, but not least. A guest left the taps running upstairs and flooded the upstairs bathroom, pouring down into the other bathroom through the light fixture. This last act really brought home the phrase, "when it rains it pours."

The wall was repaired this morning, needing one more coat of paint after the putty has dried. The water has been moped, the sink unplugged, the sparky/electrician called and the toilet parts on the way. Henry is alive and well.

I'm usually good at compartmentalizing my work and not getting frustrated with hostel build/structure problems. But I was nearly at the end of my rope this morning. Its such a lovely, cosy hostel and it does my head in when I find half done and half shot work crumbling around me, its upsetting, not for the fact that its broken, but someone didn't take the time or the money to do a proper job of it in a place that takes so much wear and tear, and someone like me, who's really left with an unsure budget and unreliable company builders. I do the best with what I am given.

So I'm left with a mess and an option. Crumple and give up or roar in the face of it. I choose roaring every time.

Roar