Trick to solve your blocked-wc problem

Once my wc was blocked. I tried everything I could think of before finally resolving to call the plumber (loodgieter). Asking for a 'service-man' in the Netherlands is not always as easy as it sounds. In Indonesia, you pick up your phone and the man will say if and when he can come. If he can't, we just call the next plumber we can find. It does not work that way here. If you're living in a rented place that most likely you can only call one designated plumber or else you bear all the risk - you have to pay for the plumbing job and if the plumber messed up, you are responsible for this.

Anyway, the plumber called me back and the first thing he asked was if I had a basin in the toilet. I said yes and he asked if the basin was also blocked. I said no then he said that there seemed to be something blocking the water flow in my wc. Then he asked if I had a trashbag. Now... what a strange question coming from your plumber. But I played along and said yes. He asked me to get one and fill it up with water to the size of a soccer ball. I even asked him again if that was what he said. He confirmed and gave me another strange instruction. I had to put the toilet brush inside the trashbag and push the bag-brush combo into the wc. And albeit having a funny feeling about it, I did just that.

First try... nothing. Second try... nothing. I told him that it did not work. And he replied, "Did not work? Hmmm..." So I said that I would try again. This time I pushed a little harder then I flushed the wc... and, voila.... it worked.
So I told him that it worked and that my wc seemed to be working properly again. I said thank you and he wished me a good day and the conversation was done.

If you ask me how I solved my blocked-wc problem, I'd answer with the phone. :)
Anyway, joking aside, I learned a good trick to solve this problem myself for the next time.
Something we could try in Indonesia if it happens???

Created at 10.32 local time.

Something about hygiene that we should learn from

This is one of the things I like most about Germany. Along the highway in Germany you can find this:


The use of this public toilet requires you to put in a 50-cents coin and in return you will get a coupon worth of 50 cents that you can redeem in the restaurant where the toilet is located. So it's clean (automatic cleaning which lasts about 27-28 seconds) and free. Something we could really learn when providing public toilets.

Created at 14.57 local time.