Tuesday 18th November - One thing after another

It needed to be done, but straight after a demanding afternoon's teaching, and just before the first of four piano pupils was not the optimal time to start washing the kitchen floor.

However, plastic plumbing connectors have a limited life, and so things will just happen.

I filled the kettle from the kitchen tap, and simultaneously there was a tremendous whooshing, starting up, sort of noise. "Weird," I thought. "The boiler isn't usually that noisy." and I wandered into the sitting room to cope with another everyday crisis while the kettle boiled (the hairy cat had been sick on the sitting room floor which obviously had to be dealt with before the first pupil, due in ten minutes).

Back to the kitchen to make a cup of tea; odd, I appear to be sploshing through water...

http://www.floodproofkitchens.co.uk/

Ok, so this image is a serious over-exaggeration!

It wasn't the boiler making all that racket, but the mains water pressure surging through the broken connector for the outside tap. I reached into the cupboard under the sing and turned everything I could find to off.

We store a good number of the cleaning supplies in a large plastic crate, which happened to be right under the fountain of water. That considerably limited the flood of water out onto the floor.

Just at that moment, the cavalry - or my husband - arrived. I was able to leave the situation entirely to him, while I changed out of my wet clothes and started teaching piano lessons.

By the time I had finished, 2 hours later, the kitchen was all sorted, the floor immaculate, and the cupboard under the sink had received an unscheduled but necessary cleaning.