In Which there is a Plumber

Tuesday didn’t start well. I slept badly, woke up feeling sick and headachy, as a result of which I decided to stay home from work – I always feel guilty taking time of work unless I am truly sick-unto-death, but I am slowly learning that sometimes it makes sense to stop at the point where I am feeling unwell – but – not – yet –at –death’s – door, which often results in only having to be off for one day, whereas soldiering on until I am feeling at death’s door often then means 3 or 4 days off recovering.

Having made that decision I then went back to bed and slept for about 4 hours, which was undoubtedly a Good Thing, also pretty good proof that I was genuinely unwell, as under normal circumstances I cannot sleep during the day, even when I want to.

By mid afternoon, I was feeling a little more human, and I was sufficiently with-it to get hold of a plumber – I have been having trouble with my kitchen sink for a little while. I tried to sort it out myself at the weekend, but without any real success – the initial part – getting the s-bend unscrewed, worked just fine, as did emptying a lot of gunk out of it. However, getting everything re-attached to everything else was not quite so successful, as I ended up with an unintended dribble in the cupboard under the sink.

Also, the major problem, which was that the water was not draining away properly, was unsolved.

So I called a plumber.

He was very good. He sorted out the dribble (without laughing at me for my incompetence, which is a bonus) and also managed to solve the other problem,

It turns out, that the pipe outside the house (going from the plughole to the main drain) and which has (had) an uncapped bit of pipe at the top, has been being used by the local trainee delinquents little cherubs as a kind of wishing well.

The items fished out of it included:

1. 57 pence in small change
2. a 4” long piece of electrical cable
3. an assortment of twigs, of between 1” and 6” in length
4. several cable ties (in 2 different sizes)
5. an unidentified object, possibly a body part of a small doll
6. a teaspoon

This may explain why the water was not draining away very well.

My pipe now has a lid on it which should discourage further donations.

and perhaps one day I shall find out why it is that the water apparently drains away uphill from my house.