tcm
...
Here's a story for new years eve. A story which started a while ago with a dream of sailing in faraway places, finding new friends to meet and fine sights to see. A story which started with me looking for saily boats on the web, again, and sending emails to brokers who then don't respond, or sometimes wait until i've booked airline tickets and then say it's sold. Ah well.
The search was still on after Christmas, with some nice catamarans, a few MAB's and AWB's in the frame as well. We saw a 1930's classic in Cannes a few months ago but it was a bit odd internally and loads of work, and a Beneteau 57 in Palma majorca earlier in the year altho the sellers seemed to want to sell for the same price they paid new. The same applies to a catamaran in the uk, which didn't sell for what they asked for in Jan 2006 and is still for sale as "new" although it was built 2005, and still asking the same money too.
But then there's a boat in St Martin, and another possible in Cannes - and i'me down there in the new year anyway. This looks quite interesting....but justthen there's something urgent from swmbo. The house needs fixing, and, she says in a small voice, it's the loo. You know, the problem bog which we thought was fixed a few months ago.
Tally ho! I am completley up for bogfixing, which (along with using a chainsaw) is one of the very few remaining ultra-blokey tasks for modern men, and I can remain being called "head of the household" povided i do the bogfixing and she can be somewhere else, anywhere actually. But look at this - I even have my own drain rods! Good eh? Son #2 agrees to help, we lift the manhole covers in double quick time, screw the rods together and pokem along the drains, run the taps to watch water coming thru.
Cept there's no water coming through from the problem bog. Hm. Oh well, maybe it drains to the other manhole? Half an hour later, no result from the second manhole. Flush the problem loo again and still it seems not to be coming out anywhere. I tie a hosepipe to one of the drainrods and go upstream and after much prodding there's avalanche of unmentionables. Groooog. Once it's clear I have a look in the other end of the pipe with a torch, and ...oh !ugger, it's got a crack in the pipe about a metre down. Damnit! Swmbo asks hm well who caused that eh? Well, the most likely cause is me, with the drainrods. But it doens't matter if was me or the previous owner, it's time for an urgent trip to B+Q get some more tools and gear to dig down and replace the smashed bend. An hour later i am back, and 30mins after that i have discovered that the top 4 inches is easy mortar, below that the concrete is very solid.
And hence instead of looking for boats i am going to start 2007 looking for somewhere to hire a jackhammer. But at least, as I said to swmbo, the mystery of the suspect bog is solved, eh? Cos previously, it was always a bit strange that it sometimes got blocked and somtimes didn't. Whereas now the mystery has finally been unravelled - it's definitely definitely busted, and no more mystery. Hurrah. And yes, i suppose it's highly likely that i did it with the drain rods. But there's no need to all whingey about it - I spect if she was married to someone else, well, huh, they'd have shrugged their shoulders and not be able to attack the problem, whereas I, me, have actually done something about it, cos that's the sort of go-getting person i am, albeit i now have to go and get a jackhammer and dig up the garage floor and hope the house doesn't fall down. And note also - it's ultimately *not* my fault nor the previous owner either - it's hers! Cos she liked the house much more than i did and was very very keen to buy it, so that makes it ultimately her fault. In fact, my most recent idea was to sell the house before the house crash as in the newspapers, and now it needs this sorting, so who's fault is that eh? You don't need drain rods on boats either, cos they have nice maceratorsl. And anyway, as a side issue, even more interestingly, perhaps this explains the infestation of flies, dya think?
And so, as soon as swmbo had recovered from feeling a bit ill after all this excitment, she taped down the bogseat in the problem loo, and later made me a cup of tea as special thankyou for solving all the mysterious house problems.
The end.
The search was still on after Christmas, with some nice catamarans, a few MAB's and AWB's in the frame as well. We saw a 1930's classic in Cannes a few months ago but it was a bit odd internally and loads of work, and a Beneteau 57 in Palma majorca earlier in the year altho the sellers seemed to want to sell for the same price they paid new. The same applies to a catamaran in the uk, which didn't sell for what they asked for in Jan 2006 and is still for sale as "new" although it was built 2005, and still asking the same money too.
But then there's a boat in St Martin, and another possible in Cannes - and i'me down there in the new year anyway. This looks quite interesting....but justthen there's something urgent from swmbo. The house needs fixing, and, she says in a small voice, it's the loo. You know, the problem bog which we thought was fixed a few months ago.
Tally ho! I am completley up for bogfixing, which (along with using a chainsaw) is one of the very few remaining ultra-blokey tasks for modern men, and I can remain being called "head of the household" povided i do the bogfixing and she can be somewhere else, anywhere actually. But look at this - I even have my own drain rods! Good eh? Son #2 agrees to help, we lift the manhole covers in double quick time, screw the rods together and pokem along the drains, run the taps to watch water coming thru.
Cept there's no water coming through from the problem bog. Hm. Oh well, maybe it drains to the other manhole? Half an hour later, no result from the second manhole. Flush the problem loo again and still it seems not to be coming out anywhere. I tie a hosepipe to one of the drainrods and go upstream and after much prodding there's avalanche of unmentionables. Groooog. Once it's clear I have a look in the other end of the pipe with a torch, and ...oh !ugger, it's got a crack in the pipe about a metre down. Damnit! Swmbo asks hm well who caused that eh? Well, the most likely cause is me, with the drainrods. But it doens't matter if was me or the previous owner, it's time for an urgent trip to B+Q get some more tools and gear to dig down and replace the smashed bend. An hour later i am back, and 30mins after that i have discovered that the top 4 inches is easy mortar, below that the concrete is very solid.
And hence instead of looking for boats i am going to start 2007 looking for somewhere to hire a jackhammer. But at least, as I said to swmbo, the mystery of the suspect bog is solved, eh? Cos previously, it was always a bit strange that it sometimes got blocked and somtimes didn't. Whereas now the mystery has finally been unravelled - it's definitely definitely busted, and no more mystery. Hurrah. And yes, i suppose it's highly likely that i did it with the drain rods. But there's no need to all whingey about it - I spect if she was married to someone else, well, huh, they'd have shrugged their shoulders and not be able to attack the problem, whereas I, me, have actually done something about it, cos that's the sort of go-getting person i am, albeit i now have to go and get a jackhammer and dig up the garage floor and hope the house doesn't fall down. And note also - it's ultimately *not* my fault nor the previous owner either - it's hers! Cos she liked the house much more than i did and was very very keen to buy it, so that makes it ultimately her fault. In fact, my most recent idea was to sell the house before the house crash as in the newspapers, and now it needs this sorting, so who's fault is that eh? You don't need drain rods on boats either, cos they have nice maceratorsl. And anyway, as a side issue, even more interestingly, perhaps this explains the infestation of flies, dya think?
And so, as soon as swmbo had recovered from feeling a bit ill after all this excitment, she taped down the bogseat in the problem loo, and later made me a cup of tea as special thankyou for solving all the mysterious house problems.
The end.
