Reasons to be cheerful

Oh buggery f**k, what a day! A plumber came to identify the source of leak that was causing a steady stream of water through the ceiling and down the wall of the first floor bathroom. It could only be coming from the the loo upstairs and since there was no access panel the plumber had no choice but to smash through the tiled walls of the kids' bathroom to get to the concealed cistern. Unfortunately in so doing he cut through a cold water pipe and flooded the whole house. According to my son who'd stayed behind to watch him work while I went out to pick up the others, water was pouring through the light fittings on two floors as the plumber ran around trying to work out where to turn the water off. I returned to find the drenched stair carpet curling away from the skirting in disgust and the bathroom destroyed. It was probably better I'd not been there, the sight of water coming through the extractor fan and onto the stove before flooding the kitchen might have finished me off. It's been a long, strenous half term with my four darlings at home. However, from somewhere I found the strength to enquire about liability insurance. He wouldn't know, would he, since nothing like this has ever happened to him in 34 years of plumbing. He took a pot shot at the plumber who'd installed the pipes in the first place for laying them too close to the wall and told me the stair carpet would dry out soon enough. Oh, and he found the leak. So that's OK then.