Tuesday 31 August 2010

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...

...creep in their petty pace from day to day until the last syllable of recorded time."

Shakespeare had a wonderful way with words but that is about the only bit of his writing that I can quote. It comes from the Scottish play, Macbeth, which I studied for A level English Lit.

I have mentioned before that my life is so full of wonderful and interesting things to do that I have no time to get bored. That doesn't, however, mean that life is never boring. Take today, for instance. I have a whole range of pettyfogging chores to get through: haircut, visit the bank to get some cash, buy postage stamps, pay the paper bill and cancel delivery for next week when we will be in France, buy milk. I was contemplating these tedious tasks when I read Suldog's comment on my post yesterday about the water coming through the kitchen ceiling. To save you having to go back to it, dear reader, here is what he said:

'Well, everything happens for some purpose. That's my belief, anyway, and even if the purpose isn't readily seen, it is there. Maybe there's a hidden treasure in the floorboards? Best case scenario, I know, but...'

Thanks, Suldog, that gave me a smile. The purpose (if there really is one) is still hidden from me but will, no doubt, become apparent all in good time. As for the treasure, I can assure you that pretty well all the floorboards in the house have been up at some stage or other during the 40 years we have lived here. If there is treasure there, it's still very well hidden!

But on the matter of the leak, my tame builder chappy popped in yesterday morning and very quickly identified the source. I suppose if I had thought sufficiently - and logically - I could have done it myself. He realised that it was the airing cupboard where the water was originating and spotted that a pile of old towels we keep on the floor in one corner (they are used for rubbing down the dog when she is wet and muddy) were wet. Water had to be dropping down onto them and, sure enough, when I looked more closely I saw it was part of the boiler installation that was leaking. This is a thing, fitted into the pipework, which contains a magnet to attract and trap stray bits of metal circulating in the heating system. I managed to tighten the screw-top a minute fraction and, touch wood (preferably dry wood) since then there has been not a drop escape.

Oh well - on with the chores.

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