Friday 18 January 2008

Our day off last Friday

Last Friday was one of those days!!!

6.30am We wake up with Daniel crying to find the bathroom and half of Daniel’s room flooded as a pipe has burst because the hot water tank had over heated.

6.45am After phoning the previous tenant to get the number for the trustworthy plumber, he arrives promptly and spends the morning on the wooden roof re-fitting a pipe.

10am Next we were having Humberto and Esther over for dinner so Mark starts to make Naan breads to go with the curry, Jono comes and goes, the curtain fitters come and go and then Mark phones up a friend whose doing a crusade tonight in Lima to find out about it. The friend is potentially lacking an interpreter so we recommended the services of a friend, Zandra.

11.15am Mark calls up Zandra who happens to be just 200m away in a nearby house so he askes her if we could talk face to face at our house, forgetting to mention that we have now moved. I go out to meet her and see her heading off in the opposite direction towards our old flat. I run half a mile to try and catch her, but I lose sight of her and assume she has got on the bus, so I start walking back to the house (it is now 10 minutes before Humberto and Esther are due), exhausted and hot and praying that God would intercede in this day! Suddenly Zandra appears next to me and we walk back to the house, where Humberto and Esther have now arrived and Mark’s naan breads have turned into scones.

4.50pm Mark has left to go to the crusade 2 hours away north and so have Humberto and Esther, leaving a huge pile of washing up and clearing up from yesterday and today (especially as Mark was cooking!), which I make a start on whilst Daniel is watching Cbeebies and eating his tea.

5.35pm Daniel is fed up with kids TV and moaning at my heels so I decide to stop the washing up and give him a bath just the doorbell rings. It’s the plumber with the receipt for his work and a quote for some other work. He leaves and I go upstairs to start the bath and find the bathroom and Daniel’s bedroom are once again flooded. I quickly call the plumber who comes back immediately and then goes to get his tools.

5.55pm I am at a loss what to do as Daniel is fed up and so won’t let me put him down, but the water is still leaking and spreading and Mark is gone so there is no one to clear it up. I call Mark and he calls Jono who fortunately is able to come round.

6.35pm Jono arrives and starts to mop up the water. Daniel is still moaning and tired. I call the landlady and with exhaustion I am unable to explain the situation without cracking up, so just mention a flood and ask her if she can come over, which she happily agrees to.

7pm Landlady arrives.
7.05pm Plumber arrives.
7.15pm Daniel goes to bed, finally!

8pm We move the sofas away from the drips that are coming through the ceiling in our lounge and have a cup of tea (I don’t drink tea, but it’s the English thing to do in a crisis, so must adhere! 2 sugars because I feel that they’re justified.)

8.15pm Crisis number 2 seems to be temporarily averted until morning, when the plumber will come back. I go upstairs to find my fairly-new frameless glasses on the bed in two pieces, the glass on one side split down the middle. I laugh.

8.30pm I phone my family in Sydney, Australia to tell them about my day and find that only my brother is there because my Grandad has fallen off a cliff onto his head and is in hospital in Melbourne and they have gone to see him. (Apparently he has broken a few ribs, but is OK.)

The washing-up, cleaning and Daniel’s bath can all wait until tomorrow. Hopefully I will get a shower then too! We rescheduled our day-off for Monday!


The plumber with the hole that was made in the ceiling of our living room to drain all the water that had collected. There was so much water, it filled the baby bath and we thought he had hit another pipe!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

It is amazing how when God starts to move, Satan has a go! Proverbs 3: 5 - 7 is my encouragement to you. Love Rog