Lilac Colored Glasses

But if you think I’m talking about this Bath?

Ha! Wrongo!

No, no, we don’t roll like that here in single income land. Our story goes more like this: Tuesday the boiler stopped working, which means no hot water (duh), so no heating (not a big deal, it’s still warm enough without heating) and no showers (eeew). Cabanadad is the one who installed said boiler back in November so he came over to take a look, but was apparently at a loss on what the problem was. It was Tuesday evening, so CB had to wait until Wednesday to call a repair guy and the repair guy can’t come until Friday*. The last time either of us had showered was Monday and a week without a shower? Nope, not an option.

So we took advantage of yet another fabulous aspect of socialized society: the public bath house located at the Van Eyck swimming pool. The Van Eyck pool is in a restored bath house and it includes a cafeteria, a nice indoor pool with a wading pool for kids, dressing areas and 10 or 12 little rooms on the basement level, each with a bathtub/shower, mirror and sink. A citizen of Gent can have a private, 45 minute shower or bath for the sum total of 1.50€. CB says that a lot of cities in Europe have a facility with public baths, often maintained by the city and affordable for anyone who wants to bathe.

So yeah, that was the latest European adventure…going to the swimming pool to use the public bathtub until our boiler is fixed.

*The boiler is still under warranty but because it wasn’t installed by a professional boiler installation person (whatever you call that) we’re a bit concerned that the warranty may be null and void. Guess we’ll see on Friday, huh?