It's taking time

We went shopping in Cheltenham yesterday, needing to get together some things before our trip on Thursday. The Promenade was looking particularly lovely with all the bedding plants flourishing after the warm, wet spell.

Thing is, do you see all those empty car parking spaces? This is Saturday morning, shortly after nine o'clock, when normally, all of those spaces would be filled with shoppers, setting out for a pleasant morning in the town. As it was, the shops were practically empty, many of the coffee shops and cafes were closed and it's clear that the water situation is not over yet.

Even our large Waitrose was showing the effects of the events of the last few weeks. This photograph was taken around 11am, when the store would surely expect to be at its busiest. Both coffee shop and Espresso bar were closed and there was a noticeable lack of "browsers" in the home departments.

Just a small bit of evidence of how this is all going to affect our local businesses. Cafes and restaurants have been closed for a couple of weeks now, during which time people have lost the habit of lingering after work, getting a spot of breakfast in town before shopping or meeting friends over coffee. The local shops must be having a really dreadful time of it, and there must be a knock-on effect beyond the shopping and dining.

Time for a bit of support for our local businesses I think.

Right outcome?

You Belong in London

You belong in London, but you belong in many cities... Hong Kong, San Francisco, Sydney. You fit in almost anywhere. And London is diverse and international enough to satisfy many of your tastes. From curry to Shakespeare, London (almost) has it all!

What European City Do You Belong In?

Friday again

I went to work in Cardiff today, a beautifully sunny and warm Friday, to judge some entries for the Eisteddfod in September. I had great fun working my way through cards, beadwork, embroidered samplers and pincushions and there were some lovely things.

We went to the pub for lunch and I took the opportunity to call into the gift shop at Cardiff Castle for a couple of things for an online chum who can't get there herself.

I decided this container would be useful for I have plenty of manion bethau. It fits well on my shelf, next to my box of "treasure" postcards.

(I was with my welsh speaking friend, or else I wouldn't have had a clue, either!)

Whilst walking along the walls, I spotted several creatures, all different and looking either menacing or cute...I can't decide!

PS:

We really appreciate all your notes following the water "incident" the other night and can honestly say that we got off very lightly indeed. Helping with the water distribution outside Quedgeley library yesterday afternoon made me realise how lucky we were. There was a good spirit there and the team of WI volunteers worked well together, having a laugh at the same time. We hear on the news an hour ago that our tap water is now safe to drink if boiled first, but we should still take care and the bottled water is still available freely. It is likely to be several more days before we get the whole "all clear".

But then....

Shortly after writing that last blog entry, I went off to bed with the hum of the water pipes like music to my ears. Just after eleven thirty, the electricity went off. We looked outside and thought it might be the whole village, but no, it was just us. And there was a suspicious hissing coming from the garage.

Mark's yell of horror didn't really convey the magnitude of what he found - a joint in the water main had burst in the corner of the garage and it was shooting a huge fountain of water up, over all the fuse boxes and electricity supply, flooding one side of the floor and streaming out under the door. The thing was, it was in between the house stop-tap and the mains stop-tap, and we couldn't reach down the 4" square, 2 ft deep pipe to turn it off. The quantity of water was unbelievable, the range and force of the spray made getting anywhere near it impossible.

Help was at hand - or rather in Calne - in the shape of the amazing young man who has been working on our bathroom, who had been trying to turn off the water earlier in the week and had similar difficulties. A phone call to him shortly before midnight resulted in a generous offer to come out and sort it for us - Severn Trent Water were telling me that emergency calls were taking over two hours to answer at that point. He told me it was just chance that he had a kayak strapped to the roof of his van when he arrived!

Half an hour later, having been sitting in a puddle several inches deep in this corner of the garage, whilst fighting a torrent of icy cold water to access the joint, we all reached the conclusion we had to turn that water off somehow. With a bit of Heath-Robinson ingenuity and a long piece of wood, that's what he did. The joint was soon repaired, water restored and a text message to the electrician requested an early call this morning to check the fuse boxes etc.

By 8.30am all was back to normal here. The garage was dry, we had running water and electricity too. I can't say I had the best night's sleep but hey, there's always tonight.

Unless something else awaits. Let's hope for no further excitement, please. Oh, and we intend to invest in a gizmo to reach that stop-tap. Don't want to repeat that experience in a hurry!

Cause to celebrate

...with a load of washing!

We went out for supper tonight with Mark's sister, down from Scotland for a few days. Though we took the precaution of using their facilities before coming home, we needn't have bothered, because when we arrived back we heard that magical sound of water in the pipes.

I sit here accompanied by the blissful sound of the whirr of the washing machine and look forward to showering at home in the morning.

No more buckets!! Hooray!!