Warning: No Perl Content!
It was our fifth wedding anniversary on Saturday. We were going to have a really nice weekend. Gill's daughter, Jordan, came to visit as well as another couple of friends. It didn't really work out like that.
As I met Jordan at Euston she complained of a sore eye. Apparently it was filling up with gunge every two minutes. Gill said that they'd go to the chemist for some eyedrops once we'd had lunch.
So our other friends arrive and we eat. Then it starts raining. Then it starts really raining. Then it starts raining indoors. We all rush round with bowls and towels and try to do what we can, but it's too late, it's now raining downstairs as well. Water is pouring down the kitchen walls and out of the kitchen light fittings. Oh, and all over the new kitchen floor - which hasn't been sealed yet.
Eventually the rain stops and we mop up all the water. Gill takes Jordan off to buy some eyedrops whilst me and a friend go up into the roof to investigate the problem. We find a drainage bowl that is full of leaves and other assorted rubbish. Emptying that, we're pretty sure that this will solve the problem.
Gill returns, eyedrops are applied, chinese takeaway is ordered and we all sit down to eat it whilst watching Magnolia. Jordan complains about her eye again and we notice it's become so swollen that she can barely open it. One of our friends suggests the 24-hour NHS advice phoneline, which we call. The nurse there is worried and thinks that we should probably take her to A&E (that's the ER for our American readers).
By the time that a taxi is called and arrives, it's quarter to midnight when we arrive at the hospital. A sign says that minor injuries are generally seen in six hours. An A&E on a Saturday night, just after the pubs close is not the most pleasant place to be. All human life is here - well actually it isn't, but the scummier half is.
To cut a long story short, we get lucky and it's "only" four hours before we're seen. A doctor gives us some antiseptic eyedrops and tells her not to rub it. We call another taxi and get home at 4:30am. Jordan is tired and understandably upset so she sleeps with Gill and I sleep on the sofa.
When we all wake up later on Sunday, our friends (who had stayed the night) point out that they had had to move some stuff around in the bathroom as our leak was now much smaller, but had reappeared running down the bathroom walls. That day it pretty much rained all day and there was nothing we could do but try to limit the damage.
Today we're in touch with builders and insurance companies, so hopefully things are looking up.
Sometimes I think we should just sell this house and buy a newer one.
