Power hungry

The Goat Pen
Sharjah
February

Dear Tenant,
Please register your tenancy agreement with Sharjah Municipality by the end of the month.
Yours truly,
Sharjah Municipality

Naturally, when I found this rather abrupt letter stuffed under my door I was a little concerned. But as the Firm dealt with all the tenancy contract details, I simply took the letter into the office adminisphere, where I was told by the Administratium that there was nothing to worry about. "It's all been dealt with. Everyone gets one of these letters." I was told.

The Goat Pen
Sharjah
March

Dear Tenant,
The tenancy has still not been registered with Sharjah Municipality. If you do not do so, steps will be taken.
Yours threateningly,
Sharjah Municipality

OMG. They're going to take steps. And I live on the 14th floor. How will I get to my entrance door now?

I took the second letter to the Administratium. "I thought you said you'd sorted this out?" I queried.

"Indeed we have, Mr Goat. Don't worry. Your tenancy agreement is registered and everything. Your well-being is absolutely assured."

And of course, I arrived home a couple of days later to find no electricity in my apartment. At first I thought there had been yet another brownout, but as everyone else had light and power there was definitely a different problem. The watchman explained that because I had refused to register my tenancy agreement, Someone Official had stolen the main fuses to my power supply.

Just as well it wasn't August, then. No power = no light, no aircon, no cooking. I found my way to bed by Braille and had an early night.

The next morning I was late for work. My alarm clock wasn't working because there was no mains power. D'oh! Followed by two hours in the lemming-like queue into Dubai instead of my usual 45 minutes, I was fuming by the time I reached the office. My conversation with the Administratium cannot be reproduced here for reasons related to profane language. Suffice to say that I obtained an apology and an undertaking to get the power restored.

Two days later I presented the Administratium with a receipt to the value of food in my freezer that had thawed out and had to be binned. Unsurprisingly I've not received any payment.