The plumber came out yesterday morning, only 20 minutes later than he said he would, which is almost early for a plumber! He confirmed my diagnosis – the isolation valve leading to the dishwasher was leaking, and needed to be replaced. That was a pretty quick job, only around 15 minutes or so. He charged me 50 quid, and I was able to get into work before lunchtime – which was just as well as I hadn’t planned on being at home for Friday lunch and had very little food in.
Last night I thought I’d have an early night. But, as I was getting ready for bed, the lights flickered and then went out. Great. A power-cut. There was very little moon, so it was pretty much pitch-black. I groped my way to the hall, where I keep an emergency torch, and located it by feel. Then it was a case of trying to find where the candles and matches are. They turned out to be in Christopher’s bedside cabinet, underneath a whole load of surgical dressings! Don’t ask me why he kept them there…..
So then I had to get washed and do my teeth by candlelight. It did make me think about how the original inhabitants of this house must have coped. It was built in 1872, so spending evenings by candlelight would have been standard back then. I was less than impressed however. And to add insult to injury, I was so tired that I couldn’t remember which lights had been on when the power was cut, and which off. So when the power eventually came back on, my bedside light turned on and woke me up. Grrrr.
It didn’t stop there either. I was about to put all the cleaning materials back into the kitchen cupboard this morning (I’d left them out and the door open to give it all a chance to dry out) when I noticed another puddle on the kitchen floor, in the same place as before. Fortunately, I knew where the torch was, having used it last night, so I was able to see that there was water running down the same pipe and dripping onto the floor. I had to phone the plumber and tell him that he hadn’t managed to fix the leak, and that I needed him to come back and have another go. I just managed to catch him between jobs, so thankfully he was able to come up this morning and re-tighten everything.
I’ve just had the dishwasher on this afternoon, and spent much of the time lying on the floor playing the torch over the pipework, looking for tell-tale glistening patches which indicate a leak. I think it’s now fixed – though I shan’t put the stuff back in the cupboard until tomorrow, just in case.
