After a good flight, quick queue through the border agency, no wait for luggage, a friendly afternoon drive into London, and a lovely tea and chat with Isobel, my dear friend and temporary host, all I had left on my to do list were: 1) take a hot shower, and 2) go to bed, which just happen to be two of my favourite activities in life.
Now, you know I love a good hot shower, and I especially love one after sitting on a plane for 9 hours. Isobel had to step out for a bit, so I could hog the bathroom and take as long as I wanted to get ready for bed. After I’d showered and brushed my teeth by candlelight (the bathroom bulb had burned out and candlelight was more quaint anyways, wasn’t it?), I tried to turn off the cold water tap faucet. Emphasis on tried.
Within the 10 second time span of turning the faucet on and attempting to turn it off, the handle had loosened from its threads and just wouldn’t tighten. It spun with ease in both directions and water just kept on streaming out. Curious. So I ran upstairs to the boiler in the kitchen, turned one of the dials on it, ran downstairs, still running water, ran back upstairs, tried the second dial, downstairs, still lots of water, upstairs, third dial, downstairs, no change. Down on hands and knees with a flashlight torch taped to my head (did I mention that the lightbulb in the bathroom had burned out?), looking for a shut-off valve. No luck. Googled. Nothing helpful. Discussed the situation with Thomas over Facetime. Aimed my webcam at the area under the sink so that Thomas could assess the situation. He confirmed there was definitely no shut-off valve under there. Yay! With no cell phone, I eventually just emailed my friend in Manchester to text Isobel, left an “I’m sorry, but I broke your tap but please don’t kick me out” note in the hallway, and eventually fell asleep to the soothing sounds of running water.
In the morning, I found a note from Isobel saying this had happened before and it would get fixed next week. Yay! Hurrah!
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