All Appliances are not created equal

With all the shreiks and pounding on the floor, one would have thought they were being raided. After figuring out we were not under attack, I discovered a naked, shivering child, covered in soap, standing, no more like cowering, in the shower. What the heck is going on? Did you fall... hurt yourself somehow? What do you mean there's no hot water? It's 10am, of course there is! Oh.........no there's not.

Well, I have to admit, I sure was glad Nathan was the first to take a shower that morning. I will let you know that I didn't get my shower till sometime in the afternoon. I had to go online and google the make and model of our water heater to figure out how to fix the problem. Now, normally, I would call Jeremy and have him figure it all out. But, I don't have a cell phone just yet and if he's not at his computer, I'm all on my own. These europeans are so determined to conserve energy, that not only are they instituting a ban on 100 watt light bulbs, but everything is made to be conservation friendly.

Let's begin with the recently discussed hot water heater. I figured out it has a timer. It is only set to come on from 7am-9am. Any other time......forget it. We're talking no hot water for showers, washing your hands, dishes, nothing! Thank the Lord it has an override and I was able to crank that sucker up to a 24/7/365, give-it-to-me-now, give-it-to-me-fast, good ole 100% American setting.

Moving along to the outlets. Yes, we are all aware they are 240volts, but did you know you have to turn them on to use them? That's right. They're not just ready to use. You actually have to flip a switch first. I did have to wait for Jeremy to come home and help me with this one. I couldn't figure out why the dryer wasn't coming on.......you guessed it.........the outlet was "off"! The worst part about the outlets though, is they are not in the bathrooms. I'm not sure how the Irish get ready in the morning or if we just happened upon the only house in all of Ireland to not have outlets in the bathrooms. Also, you only get one outlet to a room.

And don't even get me started on these stinkin' appliances! I've never seen such user unfriendly gadgets in all my life! Take the oven for instance. No words, no numbers. Just pictures. Pictures? Pictures are easy you say......how difficult could it be to follow pictures? Well, maybe you can help me figure out how to cook dinner for my family. Let's see...........I want to bake a casserole. Should I set the dial to "lightbulb", "raining snowflake", "fan", or the multitudes of other pictures I have no idea what are??

Oh, and if I do manage to get dinner on the table, how do I run the dishwasher? Do I select "pot", "shower", "wine glass", maybe "snowflake"?

It's all too confusing! But, this is nothing!! Tomorrow I start driving!!!