Trials and tribulations

 It all started with me going to Waitrose for some shopping, and coming out of the shop to find my bike lying on its' side in the car park.  Looks like someone  hit it from behind and knocked it off its stand. Lucky the damage isn't too bad, but rest of day spent on the phone, sourcing new parts

The next day, it was dry (surprise!), so we went for a ride. Came back to find a strange man in Water Company overalls wandering up and down our drive, looking confused.

'You've got a bad leak' said he

Really? I've not seen any water anywhere, although the pressure at the top of the house in down a bit. We have a water meter, and apparently that notified the Water Company that a 'Waste of Water' notification had been issued to us.

Umm................. nope?

However, the man started prodding and poking and using a long ear trumpet to try and find out what was happening. It turned out that water was leaking from the pipe running from the road to the house, and the meter was spinning out of control.

He went away, and two days later, 'men with shovels' arrived and promptly started to dig up our front garden. The first day they couldn't even find the pipe, let alone the leak, but they did confirm that water was leaking from that pipe somewhere, and flowing straight into the nearby drain.

The next day (late), they found the pipe - and found that it had, at some point in the last 60 years, been completely encased in concrete. They couldn't fix it without completely smashing the pipe. They went away to have a think.

The next day, 'men with shovels (Daniel and Andrew)' came back with plumber and a looooong pipe. Danny and Andy laid a complete new pipe and George the Plumber connected it both ends.

Hooray, bathroom now has lots of pressure!

Now we have to wait for Water Board Man to come out and certify that the repair/replacement is correct and to take a meter reading to establish how much water has been lost.

When this all started, they stopped charging us, and after they have re-read the meter, they will then calculate the bills based on our usage before the leak happened.

Meanwhile, Ren has been in Baku, Azerbaijan, and Brooke went home to California for her cousin's wedding. So we have had a noisy, funny infestation of fluffy dogs.

Next thing was, Virgin Media are upgrading internet around here to Fibre, and apparently our router was too old to take it, so they supplied us with a newer one. Fine. I had it up and running in 5 minutes, and my computer and Dick's iPad hooked up.

But - there's always a 'but'.............. Neither my printer or any of my cameras will connect to it, and I can't work out why. I've currently got the printer connected just to my PC via Direct WiFi (not ideal, but at least workable), and all 4 cameras will connect via USB (slower than 'Send To...., but again, workable)

Today, we went out for lunch, and got home to a letter from the Council to say that an appointment is to be made for all the houses in this area over a certain age, are to be fitted with some gadget or other that will help us to save water......................................I now know the meaning of the word 'ironic' in spades (probably those  hefted by Danny and Andy)

In the words of the late, great Freddie Mercury....................

I'm one card short of a full deck
I'm not quite the shilling
One wave short of a shipwreck
I'm not my usual top-billing

I'm coming down with a fever
I'm really out to sea
This kettle is boiling over
I think I'm a banana tree

Oh, dear

I'm going slightly mad