Drip, drip,drip !!

[Teresa]

This morning ( Thursday ) I was really looking forward to my planned day out , last week I'd booked online to view the formal gardens at Belvoir Castle ( pronounced Beaver , sorry no link but you can check it out on Google ) but it was pouring with rain so they kindly allowed me to reuse my ticket . My usual routine is just to wear knickers when I start to apply my makeup in the bathroom mirror , I'd just applied my concealer and was starting on my foundation when I heard drip ,drip , drip ! First I thought it was outside as it had just stopped raining but no it was somewhere in the bathroom , following the sound revealed it was the cold water feed to the toilet , the carpet was wet , so I thought it will have to be sorted , so I slipped on old jeans and a shirt . Luckily someone had fitted a second isolator on the supply so I soon had the connection apart to find the usual story of a metal connector tightened too tightly onto the plastic standpipe stripping the thread . I tried a new washer and wrapped PTFE tape round the joint but no joy , so I now had no choice but visit my builders merchant to buy a new inlet assembly . OK I don't do drab anymore so I stripped down to my knickers again and started to finish off my makeup next thing , the doorbell rang with a delivery , I grabbed a dressing gown and went to the door without opening it , these days the delivery people are dropping the parcels without a signature but this guy wanted one . I'm not doing voice training and in any event it would have been wasted , I shouted through the door to put the parcel on the doorstep , I just about managed to avoid using stronger language . So finally I finished my makeup slipped on my wig , jeans and Tshirt grabbed a lightweight jacket and flew off to buy new parts , half an hour later job done but by the time I finally cleared up and dried the carpet off my time slot had expired to view the gardens . Maybe next week , it's only ?10.00 perhaps the sun will have returned by then or could it just be fate as I bought a new sun dress to wear .

The one question that puzzles me , why is it something that is damaged like that water connection doesn't leak straight away , why does it take a week or a month or even years in this case ?

[Roberta Lynn]

The one question that puzzles me , why is it something that is damaged like that water connection doesn't leak straight away , why does it take a week or a month or even years in this case ?

Everything in the house is programed to break at the most inopportune time.
One of the joys of home ownership.

[docrobbysherry]

Teresa, thank u for the lovely post!:thumbsup:

It reaffirmed the main joy in dressing in men's drab daily. From jammies to out the door without rushing in under 5 minutes!:D

[Robertacd]

Why d you worry about your voice so much? Specially when it's a delivery driver that you will never see again?

If I let everything about me that is not perfectly feminine stop me. I would still be dressingin my bedroom and never leaving like when I was 12 years old.

[Stephanie47]

It probably failed due to the continuous changes in the temperature of the water passing through the joining. Expansion and contraction. In my neck of the woods the water in the winter is so cold sometimes you have to let it sit in a glass in order for it to warm up to "less cold." Our water is glacial/snow pack runoff. I've been to some areas, Florida comes to mind, where the ground water is so putrid warm it makes you gag.

Last year our bathroom toilet fixture cracked and flooded a bathroom after forty-nine years. It cracked at the point where the nut and bolt join to hold the toilet seat in place. Nothing more than one too many expansion and contractions from temperature and pressure changes. Glad we were home when it did that or else the water would have run and run and run some more.

[Marianne S]

why is it something that is damaged like that water connection doesn't leak straight away , why does it take a week or a month or even years in this case ?

Murphy's Law? ;) For a more serious guess, maybe expansion and contraction due to temperature cycles over time finally busted a joint that had always been weak from the start. Other suggestions welcome.

[Edited to add: Stephanie, you beat me by a few seconds on this suggestion, hee hee! Great minds think alike!]


I'd booked online to view the formal gardens at Belvoir Castle ( pronounced Beaver , sorry no link

Probably just as well there was no link. Otherwise people might be asking why the Duke of Rutland, who owns the castle, lives in Leicestershire!

Interesting area. Grantham, scene of the mysterious century-old disaster that Rolt in his elegant prose called "the Marie Celeste of British railways." As for Rutland, a quick flip down the road from there, I was unspeakably disgusted when a wretched government of the early 1970s had the flaming nerve to abolish the county of Rutland and merge it with neighboring Leicestershire--just because Rutland was "too small to be a county"!

I was living in Massachusetts at the time, and we used to get TV from (among other stations) WPRI in Providence, Rhode Island. Hence their call sign. As you may know, Rhode Island is the smallest state in the US, just as historic Rutland is the smallest county in England.

There's pride in being the smallest, as well as the largest. I can't imagine the outrage if anyone here in the US proposed abolishing Rhode Island because it was "too small to be a state"! One of the thirteen original states signing the Declaration of Independence back on the Fourth of July, 1776! Merge it with neighboring Connecticut? Perish the thought! "Providence, Connecticut" just doesn't hack it, any more that "Oakham, Leicestershire" did. That WPRI would have to change their call sign to WPCT would be the least of the problems. If anyone tried that here, there would probably be another Civil War! So I was happy to hear that a wiser government of the 1990s restored Rutland to its proper status as an independent county.

As for Belvoir Castle, pronounced "Beaver," English pronunciations are so much fun! Alnwick, pronounced "Annick." Bicester, pronounced "Bister." Cholmondeley, pronounced "Chumley." Dalziel, pronounced "Dee-ell," for very intriguing reasons (it's a "yogh," not a "z.") Yes, we've been lucky enough to see "Dalziel and Pascoe" on TV over here too. Wouldn't life be boring without such glorious quirkiness?

Despite the vagaries of English weather, I hope you soon get to enjoy the beautiful gardens of Belvoir Castle in that new sundress--with knickers underneath, naturally! ;) Take care!

[Teresa]

Marianne,
It's funny how we all speak English but to some it's still a foreign language .

I beleive the history behind the titles is more to do with what was available , the Duke of Devonshire lives in Chatsworth house which is Derbyshire .

The story behind Rurland was all to do with government re-organisation or as many of us called it at the time disorganisation ! It was intended to save money but we all know what happens to plans like that . Rutland fought back and recovered their status , I lived in Rutland for thirty years but the problem was being so small their domestic rates ( local government taxes ) were one of the highest in the country .

As for the plumbing problem , we don't get severe temperature changes and the bathroom is only used for guests so it's not used on a regular basis .

Robertacd ,
The point I was making about the voice was because I was more than a little annoyed , especially as the guy kept his finger on the doorbell and my dog was doing loop the loop . I wasn't in best humour being caught out with partial makeup on , no wig and only a pair of knickers , dropping an octave did shift the delivery driver off my doorstep !

Roberta,
If only I could find that list I could forsee these problems , on the plus side at least I'm capable of doing most of these repairs . I did pull the salesman's leg in the builders merchant , as I walked away I said , " All I need now is a nice plumber to come and fit it for me " , he replied , " You won't find many of those about " , I put my hands on my hips and gave them a wriggle saying , " Want to bet !" he creased up laughing !

[Liz Jones]

Lucky you --we have lost our last plumbers merchant---its B&Q or nothing.......

[Helen_Highwater]

Teresa,

Why do these things happen just as we're getting ready to go out? For the same reason having got ready, dolled up to perfection, double checked everything in the mirror (twice) it's only when you're 20 minutes down the road you suddenly realise you've forgotten to put on the new necklace that matches perfectly the new dress you bought specially for the occasion.

As for plumbing; I was fixing a noisy toilet inlet valve. usually due to a bit of dirt on the diaphragm. Toilet fitted with an isolation valve so easy to to do. Just dismantle the float valve, clean the diaphragm, reassemble and turn the water back on. Ten minutes done except the isolator valve now has a leak, a drip drip drip. The toilet is a fully enclosed cistern so to get at the isolator to replace it it's remove the toilet bowl, dismantle to built in surround, ................... No such thing as a quick job!

[Teresa]

Liz,
In my area we have Buildbase and Jewson sadly we just lost Travis Perkins . I have to admit on my first trip to Buildbase a year or so ago I was expecting a rough ride but didn't get one , I get on well with all the sales people now in fact I had a long conversation with Helen in the tile depatment about makeup , something I didn't expect in a builder's merchant . B&G is too expensive but you can the identical items in Screwfix much cheaper ( depite being owned by B&Q ) I saved about ?60.00 on my gas hob .

Helen,
Please don't get me going about certified COWBOYS , the times I've put jobs right from so called professionals . Isolator valves have been in building regs for years so why do they still cut corners by not fitting them . My other gripe is when someone has had a new electric consumer unit fitted and no one has bothered to label the circuits , my previous house was owned by a professional electrician before me , I have never seen such bad wiring !

As for going out , I'd like to say it's perfection but usually it's far from it , at least I've never forgotten to wear underwear .