A short, empty flight took us down though the mist to a cold, rainy London. Luckily, as I'm not a politician, (Aussies will undertand this!) being a dual national, I pulled out the British passport and was quickly through immigration and customs.
Although the temperature in Franfkfurt had been around 4C it felt a lot colder at Heathrow. I quickly found the bus stop for the car rental companies and was soon filling out the paperwork for my hire car. My sis and b-i-l had arrived on different flight, same time, but reached car hire before me - they flew British Airways!
By the time we set off it was raining quite heavily and it was like that until we reached my nephew's house. There were still patches of snow, left from the previous week, piled up on roadsides. It was good to catch up with mynephew and his family, his girls have certainly changed in the two years since I last saw them! After a quick cuppa John, b-i-l, headed home to get the fires lit and the house warmed up before Jake and I arrived.
It took a couple of hours driving up busy motorways to reach our destination and we were looking forward to a blazing fire and John ready with a G & T for us. Unfortunately a very different scene greeted us! The front door was wide open - why let the heat out? Then we looked at John standing in the garage dripping wet and noticed a jet of water spraying around the garage. Poor John had noticed that the pipe had burst and was trying to turn of the water but, apart from him getting soaked nothing was working. We all tried to pull together to work out what to do. Only course of action was to turn water off at the mains. While Jake and John were doing that I was filling every available with water. After numerous phone calls to the water board and emergency (no answer from them) plumbers we realised we were in for a long cold night!!!!
The fire was on in the lounge but the heat was minimal and I was still shivering sitting in my down jacket covered with a duvet. A good old cuppa went a little way to helping. We knew there was nothing to be done until the morning so it was off to bed clasping a hot water bottle and an extra duvet. No way could you read for long before your hand froze!
As you can guess it was a slightly uncomfotable night not made any better knowing that you couldn't shower. John filled buckets of water from a watertank in the garden for us to flush the loos - was this a mean trick my sister was playing taking me back to the 1800s!. Thought about getting water fron the swimming pool but that was frozen!
After an assurance that a plumber would arrive before 12 Jake and I headed off to the shops - first stop a toilet with running water!! Had my biannual fill of Marks and Spencers - knicker draw needed filling😊! Good news during the course of the shopping expedition was that the water was fixed - it appears that the shut off valve 'blew' off. Must have been to do with the fact that it had been minus 13C before I arrived!
Returning home to a much warmer house, we decided that we could manage without heating but no water was a different matter!
Frosty again this morning. Forgotten what a pain it is to have to de-ice the car!
Today I had a visit to Gladys and family. Unfortunately Gladys had a fall a few days ago and wasn't feeling the best. It was lovely to catch up but I left with the feeling that my visit was the last one I would have with Gladys.
Although the temperature in Franfkfurt had been around 4C it felt a lot colder at Heathrow. I quickly found the bus stop for the car rental companies and was soon filling out the paperwork for my hire car. My sis and b-i-l had arrived on different flight, same time, but reached car hire before me - they flew British Airways!
By the time we set off it was raining quite heavily and it was like that until we reached my nephew's house. There were still patches of snow, left from the previous week, piled up on roadsides. It was good to catch up with mynephew and his family, his girls have certainly changed in the two years since I last saw them! After a quick cuppa John, b-i-l, headed home to get the fires lit and the house warmed up before Jake and I arrived.
It took a couple of hours driving up busy motorways to reach our destination and we were looking forward to a blazing fire and John ready with a G & T for us. Unfortunately a very different scene greeted us! The front door was wide open - why let the heat out? Then we looked at John standing in the garage dripping wet and noticed a jet of water spraying around the garage. Poor John had noticed that the pipe had burst and was trying to turn of the water but, apart from him getting soaked nothing was working. We all tried to pull together to work out what to do. Only course of action was to turn water off at the mains. While Jake and John were doing that I was filling every available with water. After numerous phone calls to the water board and emergency (no answer from them) plumbers we realised we were in for a long cold night!!!!
The fire was on in the lounge but the heat was minimal and I was still shivering sitting in my down jacket covered with a duvet. A good old cuppa went a little way to helping. We knew there was nothing to be done until the morning so it was off to bed clasping a hot water bottle and an extra duvet. No way could you read for long before your hand froze!
As you can guess it was a slightly uncomfotable night not made any better knowing that you couldn't shower. John filled buckets of water from a watertank in the garden for us to flush the loos - was this a mean trick my sister was playing taking me back to the 1800s!. Thought about getting water fron the swimming pool but that was frozen!
After an assurance that a plumber would arrive before 12 Jake and I headed off to the shops - first stop a toilet with running water!! Had my biannual fill of Marks and Spencers - knicker draw needed filling😊! Good news during the course of the shopping expedition was that the water was fixed - it appears that the shut off valve 'blew' off. Must have been to do with the fact that it had been minus 13C before I arrived!
Returning home to a much warmer house, we decided that we could manage without heating but no water was a different matter!
Frosty again this morning. Forgotten what a pain it is to have to de-ice the car!
Today I had a visit to Gladys and family. Unfortunately Gladys had a fall a few days ago and wasn't feeling the best. It was lovely to catch up but I left with the feeling that my visit was the last one I would have with Gladys.
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