Take Two

Today we’ve been without water, more or less. I was roused from my bed at about midnight last night, just after falling asleep. I can’t remember much of it though, I was so groggy I probably had to be told five times why I was being woken up.

Nadia’s sister had taken a shower and was at a loss at turning off the water afterwards. The shower’s mixer battery had broken down and didn’t allow the waterflow to stop. Obviously we could not have the shower running all night, so we sorely needed to find a way to turn the water off.

We opted for trying to find the flat’s main water valve, turn all the water off, and deal with the problem in the morning. Problems tend to look less daunting after a good night’s sleep.

We tried to find the main water valve in all the “usual” places. Under the sink in both the bathrooms, under the sink in the kitchen, and so forth. I’ve already mentioned we live in a stupid flat, so I feared that the main valve might just not be in the flat, but in one of the suspicious-looking cupboards out in the hallway. These are, of course, locked. And we don’t have a key.

By now I was preparing to go down to the underground parking lot. I’ve been down there just once before, just after we moved in, and I dimly recalled quite a few pipes. Our water supply might just be one of them. Luckily, before I got that far, it turned out that the valve was in our flat after all. High up on the wall in the airing cupboard. Who’d have thought?

So, today we’ve been mostly without running water. Occasionally I’ve turned the water back on for a little while to enable us to flush the toilets again and for a shower. Luckily we can still adjust the temperature…

So, naturally, I was late both going to work and going back home again.

This might take some explaining. The London busses are, apparently, allergic to water. Every time it rains the London bus service folds like a card house. It’s like clockwork; if there’s a faint hint of drizzle in the air, expect the busses to be pulled out of service.