Shower

So, for the last day or so my sister and her husband have been visiting us. This may not seem all that significant but they feature in the following series of events rather heavily so I thought it would just be worth mentioning their presence straight up to avoid confusion and annoying questions later on.

I'm working a late shift today, which means, amongst other things, that I got up later than K, which isn't all bad for me on these cold cold mornings. After K had left for work this morning she sent me a message to say that there was a plumber working on a leaking pipe in the driveway, so I'd better make sure the car can get through before work at midday.

After K had left, my sister, JM, got out of bed and had a shower, then it was my turn.

So, I got in. All was going well until, just as I'd reached the point when I had the most shampoo bubbles in my hair possible, the water started to slack off a bit. "No big" I naively thought to myself, not bothering to try to use the reducing water supply to remedy the bubbles, "JM or D must be using the hot water". But then it happened, rather than picking back up, the water flow dribbled, dripped and then stopped altogether. I fiddled with the taps, turning the hot up to full, but to no avail. And then it hit me.

"The plumber!" He'd stopped the water without telling us. And there I was, covered in shampoo and gradually freezing to death. There was only one thing to be done, I put on a towel and went and explained the situation to JM and D, hoping they knew what the one thing that needed to be done was. They did, or at least, they thought they did, and they weren't far off the mark. D's brain-wave idea was that I should use all of the bitterly cold water in the fridge to rinse out my hair. I wasn't so keen on the idea. Then I realised, the kettle! That most excellent of kitchen appliances (no offence toaster). Combining some of the hot water in the kettle with some of the cold water in the fridge I'd soon rinsed my hair in a satisfactory, if not ideal, way. (Although I'd ended up with quite a few calcium flakes in my hair; an undesirable by product of the local water supply).

So problem solved, story over, right?

Well, in a sense, yes. But in a far more accurate sense, no.

Directly after the shower we went out to breakdfast with D's parents, (who were also staying in town). We didn't get back until about 1100, about an hour and a half after leaving. I estimate that it was probably also an hour and twenty-five minutes after the plumber switched the water back on. Bother.

With the bathroom door fully open and all of the windows closed, the shower has been pumping out hot water just as fast as it can for the length of shower a wealthy hippopotamus might need to take on a really lazy morning about two hours after a good wallow in his/her own filth (no offence hippo).

The windows were dripping with condensation.
I ran my hand along the lounge room wall and it came back to me wet.
The wall covered in maps in the spare room was quickly becoming a wall not covered in damp maps (they're falling off).
The light switch in the bathroom was a serious safety risk for it's users.

It took a good 45 minutes of fans at full bore and all windows open to reduce the humidity sufficiently to see out the kitchen window without impediment. I think the maps will survive.

And that, is the shower incident.

J

The Sky is Falling

On the two minute drive home K reminds me, twice, to be careful. Normally I would take this as an afront to my driving, but not tonight. A thick layer of smoke hangs in the still night air and the sound of nearby detonations breaks the illusion of separation from the outside world that Ford has gone to such lengths to create. This night is different. This is cracker night.

Earlier in the evening, at a friends place, we stand out the front watching and participating in what's happening in the ten metres or so of dirt between us and a busy road (busy by our local standar anyway). Bang, fzzzz, BOOM!. Or just a long FZZZZZZZZZ. Or even Bang, fzzzzzzzzzzzz (land on the ground, "everyone run for your lives!") BOOM!!. Generally up in the air but occassionally falling over after the first couple of shots and firing wildly on to the road, into the crowd or off into the park on the other side of the road, meaning that J2 has to run over and huriedly stamp it out before we set half the town on fire. Approximately every five-to-ten minutes a fire vehicle of some sort flies past, sirens screaming, and it's not hard to see why. Look left up the road, fireworks exploding. Look right up the road, arial explosions a plenty. look back into the rest of the town and they spatter the sky in a seemingly endless bombardment of the heavens.

The first explosions started around 5:30pm (the first we saw anyway). Still daylight, but they didn't care. What's more, I could still hear them as I left the house at quarter past eight this morning. The smoke is still there too, that bleary haze of a town hung over on bright lights, loud noises and show rides (the show was yesterday, had I mentioned?).

In the words of the age old tune, "oh what a night".

J

P.S.

Almost a week later, as the severe respiratory effects of prolonged smoke inhalation fade and the explosions gradually reduce to about one-per-day (that I hear), my mind turns away from the bright sparkles of yesterday and onto the coming explosion of the future. How will we top this next year?

Hope to see you all there.