Yesterday I was only interested in cleaning the house; we have a big day ahead, why not get it done now? It's late but it doesn't matter. I vacuum, I dust, I clean the bathroom. I'm filling up the bucket with nice hot water. I'm turning off the water and yet again I turn it on. I turn it off but nothing is happening, the tap is stuck and the hot water is running. Not just a friendly drip or even a trickle but a full-on marathon white water rafting style running.
I stop to reflect. I turn off the water at the mains. I rummage around for a torch and old shoes. The water meter is smack bang in the middle of my sandy flower garden. It has more sand than flowers. I turn off the tap, but I still hear the water raging down the laundry drain. I'm sure the neighbour can hear it also. I turn off the gas lever as the gas hot water tank starts to grunt, groan and becomes an alien in the darkness of night. It's now asleep but the water in the laundry is still running.
Out comes the iPad and I Google my predicament. It tells me to find the tap on the water heater and turn it off. Oh, brilliant I say and run outside with my torch to find the tap. It’s sitting in the darkness of the sleeping tank but it won’t budge. My hands hurt but I'm not beaten.
I figure if I can’t turn the outside tap off I will try once more to turn off the laundry tap with an arrangement of Merv's old tools, but with no success.
I stop and reflect once again. A tool of some description is what I need. I pick up a thing which looks like a spanner with a circle at one end. (Merv tells me the next morning it's called a ring spanner). I grab the torch once again and do battle with the outside tap. I get the circle thing and twist with all my might. The tap screams and slowly moves. I am ecstatic. The sound of the running water from my nearby laundry stops suddenly and I sigh with relief.
I'm never going to make a handywoman but I will never give up!
I turned on the water at the mains this morning when it was light. I can fill the kettle and use the loo. I can't have a hot shower; there is no hot water.
I call the plumber who promises to visit between 12pm -3pm. He arrives at 3pm and all is done within 30 minutes. The washers are replaced. I ask him to replace washers on both laundry taps as he has only replaced the hot water tap washer. He is happy to do so and as he does he remarks it had only one more turn left in it. Thank goodness, it's all done. The gas is back on and the hot water tank groans, moans, bangs and belches as it fills up and delivers hot water not long afterwards.
I'm looking forward to a long hot shower!
The three sisters completed the Coast to Coast walk in England from Sunday 5th July - Friday 17th July 2015. We had an amazing time. See our Facebook page for the full story. It is amazing.
www.facebook.com/walkforhuntingtons
Thank you for your support and reading my crazy blogs.
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| Three Sisters at completion of our walk |
