In all of the apartments where I live, there's a little white phone on the wall. It doesn't have any buttons. When you pick it up, there's a faint music playing via beeps. After a few seconds it gets louder. Then one of the maintenance guys picks up.
Last time I had issues with my boiler, I traipsed down to the little building where the maintenance guys hang out, and they explained that next time I should just pick up the phone and they'll send someone up for me.
The phone is a direct line to their switchboard, and it tells them exactly which apartment needs assistance. You explain your problem and they send someone accordingly.
Tonight having the maintenance man stop by solved more than just my boiler problem: last weekend I'd bought way too many bananas (what can I say? They were cheap and didn't really come in a lesser quantity), but they were quickly going bad because one person can only consume so many bananas at once, and I tend not to be in my apartment very much.
So after he'd gotten my boiler up to speed again, I asked the maintenance man if he liked bananas. He said he did, so I gave him all of them. They weren't bad yet, but they were very, very ripe. He seemed pretty pleased, and I'll sleep better knowing they didn't go to waste in my apartment.
Tomorrow is Independence Movement Day, so I wished him a good holiday.
