EVEN WETTER THAN MARY OF AGREDA

Or 'Marie of Agradda' as Robert calls her. 

"I'm off to America. I don't need to use public transport. Don't do any hinkering while I'm away"

Tennis was off yesterday morning due to rain so Richard will be disappointed that I didn't have any grudge/ challenge matches with other grumpy players.

"Richard said that I've got a shot against TC."

After the rain stopped it was too late for tennis so I put on my tradesman's overalls, kneepads, gloves and hat and crawled under the house to check out a water leak - another one.

This time it's the hot water cylinder overflow pipe that's dripping. It's not dripping very fast but it's dripping hot water into the ground under the house. Bummer! I checked the relief valve trigger by opening and closing it a few times but it made no difference. We might, at best, need  to replace the valve and at worst replace the cylinder. It's a 250 litre DUX that has a date stamp of May 2005 so it could be time for an upgrade.

The plumber I've used for the last couple of problems has worked out well and is a really nice guy. My sister uses him as well for jobs around her holiday house. The problem is though, that a few months ago he suffered a very serious heart attack and had to have by-pass surgery. He was crewing on a yacht up in New Caledonia (Richard knows this area as it was his first major OE when he and Tony went abroad looking for, well, broads. I wonder how that went?) when his medical event happened and was hospitalised there for a while before getting home to be hospitalised in New Zealand. I think that there was a problem with his insurance so the exercise has cost him a lot of money. When my sister told me this (she's a doctor and has been advising him on the best things to do re his health and his legal claims) I contacted him to see if he needs assistance in any way. He was appreciative and told me that he basically has to take this year off work and has arranged for another plumber to take over his workload.

Anyway, yesterday I sent him an email telling him that I have a problem but, if he gets some kind of commission from referral work I'd rather get the job done via him before I look elsewhere. I assume that he needs the income.  I haven't heard back yet but I'll give it a couple of days before I contact anyone else.

As I said, I crawled under the house  and, finding the drip I rigged up a network of old plumbing pipes to run the water away from the house in the interim. It's sort of in the William Heath Robinson style.

We have a lot of problems with water in this house but it was originally built in 1913 so I guess that goes with the territory. I checked again this morning and my bodgie fix-it job is holding together. Its pretty damp in parts though, exacerbated by the torrential rain we've had and the fact that I left the hose running for a night and half a day after watering my garden. Bummer again! 

I thought that  I should check the 'bodgie fix-it job' that I did on the washing machine downpipe a couple of years ago - remember? HERE.

I put some dirty clothes (mostly the overalls, knee pads, gloves and cap that I'd been wearing) in the washing machine and waited for the spin cycle before going under the house again. I waited with my torch shining on the downpipe and the tape that I'd applied. It is still holding and the only drip down there was me.

I still haven't heard back from the plumber but I'll give him to the end of today to respond before contacting another plumber.

Heigh ho.