As some of you might know, for the past 2 weeks I have been on Jury Service at Reading Crown Court. First week I was called for a trial but had to declare an interest as I knew some of the prosecution witnesses, and then in week 2 I was selected for a benefit fraud case, but tghe jury was dismissed after a day and a half because of the incompetence of the defence counsel. So by and large, a waste of 2 weeks, and having had to take 2 weeks leave, I could have thought of better ways to spend my time Anyway, yesterday, watching the Moto2 race, she who must be obeyed thought she could hear something hissing. Cut a long story short, pipe under the sink in the kitchen had started to leak and as I tried to turn off the mains tap, the pipe went big time and water was going everywhere. Tap was seized, so went outside to turn off at the mains, and that was bloody seized as well So immediately called emergency plumber who also advised that I contact Thames Water to get them out to turn off at the mains, but as soon as I said that we had a leak indoors, their immediate response was that the problem was not theirs even though I told them that the mains tap had also seized. Anyway, wife, daughter and son in law along with a couple of neighbours help with bailing us out as the kitchen was now quickly flooding. Emergency plumber turned up about 2 hours later having told him of the problem, but as soon as he realised that he could not turn off at the mains either, he said there was nothing more he could do until Thames Water turned off the mains. So back on the phone to be told that there was a two hour wait on the phone, however, I tried again 20 minutes later and this time I got through to someone who seemed to appreciate the urgency of the matter. Did not help matters when he said though that it could take up to 4 hours for an engineer to arrive Hour an a half later, engineer turned up, he couldn't turn off the mains either, so he had to call a gang. The said gang had been directed to fix a leak in the road as they were told that the leaking road was a priority until the engineer at our end said since when has a leak in the road been more important than a flooding house? 2 hours later gang turn up, drill the road, turn off the water only to find ouut that they have cut the supply to the wrong house. They then had to get a new job number to do the correct mains. Cut a long story short, at 7.45pm last night, water supply was eventually cut off and the leak stopped pissing everywhere. Over 7 hours of trying to contain all the water, no breaks, no stopping, no sit downs wife's hands are raw with wringing out all the towels, and although we were lent a wet hoover every 3 minutes we had to stop to empty it such was the volume of water. Anyway, no water all night, so could not wash, flush the toilet or any of the basics, (thank goodness for bottled water), and then at 9.30 last night we get a call back from the emergency plumber saying that they can come back at 3 - 4am this morning or between 8 and 10 this morning. being so knackered, guess what option we took? 9.45 this morning, plumber arrives, and 45 minutes later, we have water back on with no leaks Did I enjoy my bath this morning or did I enjoy my bath? Now all we have to do is assess the damage. Thank goodness we have insurance cover. Everything is slowly drying out, but I can certainly appreciate what those people who have been flooded have had to endure, and at least our water was clean. Thames Water got sent a very snotty email this morning on the advice of the engineer who came out to us, it will be interesting to see what they have to say about things. So, as I said, thank goodness its October!
good lord TC ... how on earth did you keep yur temper under control . Never mind an email ..... I think a visit to Thames Water's local office with a very large bucket of water to see how they like it would have been a more appropriate response .
