Those were the days
Sometime in the middle of yesterday afternoon, my Hero found a large puddle of water by the kitchen sink. Further investigation found a leak beneath the tap which has, in the last few days, been causing us concern. I heard him remove everything from the cupboard underneath the sink and called to offer help, but got the message that there was only room for one in this drama, so stayed well out of the way.
Our kitchen was fitted by first class professionals who not only fitted individual stop taps to each water pipe so we could cut off the water supply to the tap easily, but who also labelled everything clearly so we’d know what we were doing. But another, louder shout from the kitchen led me to think all was not going well.
The stop taps were not secure enough to withstand the pressure and were spraying water too.
We had a Zoom chat planned with friends at 4pm, so I went downstairs leaving my Hero to do what he could, including calling British Gas, who insure our plumbing and offer a 24/7 service.
With the leak under control and the spray from the stop taps minimised, he joined the chat no more than five minutes into the conversation with the news that the emergency plumber would come sometime between now and 6. Remarkably good service on a Bank Holiday afternoon, we thought - except it was between now and 6 am. We might be in for a long haul - or fingers crossed, could be lucky.
We finished our conversation, made adjustments to our plans for dinner, choosing to keep it simple with a Charlie Bighams Thai curry rather than cook from scratch with all the washing up that might involve and settled in, awaiting the ring of the doorbell.
For quite some time, Monday night has been our favourite TV schedule, with a non-stop run of quiz shows. But Only Connect has come to an end and we’re nearing the end of Mastermind and University Challenge. Since this lockdown started, we’ve been working our way through the whole seven series of The West Wing, however, so as soon as the quiz shows finished, we were back in the White House, series 4.
How far might we get before the doorbell rang?
Around midnight we agreed that there couldn’t have been a better time to binge watch a favourite series. We’d watched three episodes and were happy to continue for now. It seemed pretty strange to be waiting for a plumber at this time of night, but better to stay up and wait than be woken up suddenly by the phone or the doorbell.
We agreed, there was no point in one of us going up to bed leaving the other downstairs. We’d stick it out together - who knows, it might turn out to be an all nighter!!
Two more episodes later, 1.30am and we were fine with hot drinks in our hands and the remains of our Easter chocolate. When did we last stay up all night?
Two further episodes and we were getting weary and cold. A quarter to three and it was getting tiresome. Did either of us really think this guy was going to come and fix our tap now? We didn’t know and there was no point in calling the automated phone number. We snuggled under a furry blanket on the sofa and started another episode. President Bartlet had not only won a second term of office but done his inaugural speech and was well into his stride. We watched as AirForce One developed potential problems mid air when the landing gear didn’t appear to be working properly and once safely on the ground, we both admitted to one another that we’d had enough.
We’re too old to pull an all nighter. Leaving lights on downstairs, we went up to bed sometime around a quarter to four and I know that I fell asleep almost as soon as my head touched the pillow. My Hero slept less soundly with the phone by his ear and his clothes ready to pull on at a moment’s notice.
It’s now 10.22am Tuesday morning and we are still waiting.
What a good job we didn’t wait up 😩
