Handy worker

I have been relying on experts to fix a lot of gadgets at home lately because daily house tech growing more and more complicated the better it becomes. Sure it breaks down less, but one can't fix it on one's own when it does... Or so I though till a very enthusiastic plumber showed me otherwise. 

I had fancy high tech concealed flush tanks installed in toilets at home last year and felt happy about how neat everything looked. I also assumed that these fancy flush tanks with their European engineering do not need much maintenance but we live in India. It can neutralise any bit of great engineering/tech. When one tank started leaking, even the contractor wouldn't trust his own plumber to fix it! When the fancy plumber trained by the company arrived he told me that even a tiniest bit of something falling in the overhead water tank can get stuck in the flush tank valve and result in water leaking into the WC. When he realised I was an architect, he demonstrated how this can be fixed. It seemed simple enough. I was confident I could fix it in the future. And the time to prove my mettle came almost half a year later when another tank started leaking.

The tricky part about fixing a leak in the tank is that it has to be done partly in the blind. The opening behind the flush plate is quite small and trying to fix it feels like a dentist fixing someone's teeth *Shudders*. I was trying to remember what I needed to do. removing the flush plate was only the beginning. Had to remove the actual flush lever parts to be able to access the fill valve which is to the left. So one can't really see it while shutting off the water supply, unlocking the clip and snapping it out of the inlet. When the thing came out, and I removed the top clip to open and clean it, the whole thing just came apart. Disintegrated right in front of my eyes. High drama, but it's meant to do that after all. Spotted the problem and cleaned it.

Snapped the valve back in place, locked the clip, switched the valve on and wasted another 10-15 L of water to check if it had stopped leaking. It had. Fixed the rest of it back in place and realised I may never need to call a plumber again. After having spent twenty minutes studying the internal workings of this flush tank, I believe I can fix other parts of the flush tank or install replacements on my own too.

There is a method to the complicated European engineering madness. Once you understand one tiny bit, it's not difficult to figure out the rest. Having said that, I'm never attempting to fix the washing machine on my own.

The cost of being single

Let me start with saying that it's not an emotional or psychological cost. That is a breeze to handle. It's economic.

Now I'm no economist. And I haven't done an extensive cost comparison, But I earn and spend money, pay taxes and I generally you know... live and interact with my not single friends. So of late I've come to the conclusion that I spend more money than my friends who were married or in a relationship. While chatting with a male friend about this it was brought to my notice that it's not applicable to: 1. Single men, 2. Women in their 20s

So let's just say that it's probably applicable to women similar to me. I had a fairly cheaper lifestyle during my 20s which wasn't that long ago. But there was quite a drastic shift in my life and priorities once I was 30. Obviously since I started earning more, I could spend more, but most of the times - only for one. Which my married friends weren't. And many things become cheaper for couples or people in a group. Couples memberships, group discounts and holidays! Traveling alone is definitely more expensive that traveling in pairs or larger groups. I can't halve the quantity of anything that a couple buys for themselves. It's always more that half. For example: A single bed spread costs more than half of a double and sometimes it's even more expensive than the double bedspread! purely because it needs more than half the cloth required for it't bigger counterpart.

I spend more money on safety and peace of mind too. Since I'm alone most of the time, I need to either drive or take a taxi rather than public transport especially if it's later in life. Being with a companion rather reduces that concern and the cost drastically. Men on the other hand don't have the same kind of concerns the way women have.

So why don't I plan more activities with my friends you ask? When you are at the age I am or beyond, most of your friends are in stable relationships or are already married and have at least one kid they're planning most activities as couples or as larger families (OR with other married couples) and co-ordinating with various friends to plan activities is exhausting for me as a single person. I used to play so many group sports like badminton which made recreation cheaper. Now, I have to rely on more expensive activities like swimming. Not that married people don't spend on these, but since memberships for couples and families are cheaper, and commuting to and from these places is cheaper if you are more than one person. You simply need to own more things for a 

As a single person, gifting becomes that much more complicated. Especially when you don't have common friends to pool resources to gift as well. As a couple or a family, one gets away with buying a single present between them but as a single person, I cannot possibly gift half of it, can I?

This hypothesis may fall flat when comparing to my friends who have children as it definitely is more expensive when one member of the family is not earning and needs the most expensive things, but lets not get that in the mix.

I am not even bringing up the following fact(ors):

1. Women in urban India (whether single or not) have to spend more than their male counterparts because of the so called Pink tax etc.

2. My friends' spouses gift them expensive essential stuff which I have to buy for myself! (ok I admit that i'm just being jealous now.)

3. I spend a lot on my interests, even useless ones. A lot more than what most people do.

And I suppose as far as resource management goes, being in a relationship or being married is better for the environment than being single. Damn.