We have water!!

Well it's Saturday night, Tom's having a boy's night out with the men from church & I've just had a lovely, relaxing, peaceful bath... alone, what bliss!!! I think I've forgotten how to have a bath without a toddler in with me or begging to get in. I didn't quite know what to do so now I'm sat in the living room with the fire on, in my comfiest pyjamas, blogging while I wait for the X-Factor results show to start (wild, I know).

So, you'll have gathered by now that we have water again!!! We finally got switched back on at lunchtime yesterday after more than 36 hours!!!!!  It was ridiculous. It would have been amusing if it wasn't so stressful. After speaking to the water company 9 times they finally got an inspector out. Unfortunately, they sent an absolute idiot who was rude & patronising.  Firstly he told me it was sorted, apparently the supply had been switched off outside, but when he came inside... still no water. He reached under the sink turned the stop-tap & lo & behold the water was back. In his most patronising voice he informed me that it was no surprise we had no water if we'd switched off the stop-tap! I assured him we had done no such thing. Who would do that? There was some terrible noises coming from the pipe & he rushed upstairs telling me whatever I had left on sounded like it was going to flood the place (again he wouldn't listen when I told him nothing was on upstairs). 

The longer he was in my house the more irritated I was getting. I didn't believe a word he was saying because I knew neither Tom or I had switched off this tap plus my pipes sounded like they were gonna burst.  I had also had a call from the water company telling me my neighbour had reported the same problem so I knew it couldn't be caused by the tap under my sink.  He was so arrogant & unhelpful & at one point even said to me (with a smirk on his face) "it's ok to admit you turned off the stop-tap... You won't get in trouble... It was just a mistake!!" Honestly? I wanted to hit him. For about the 7th time I told him I DID NOT TURN OFF THAT TAP!!!!!

To cut a very long story short (thank goodness I hear you say) we have 2 stop-taps & 2 pipes (there should only be one of each) so all this guy did was turn on the disused tap (which he'd have seen if he'd actually looked properly). The gas man (who was doing a safety check) sorted the 2 taps (turned off the disused one again), the noises went away & I was a happier bunny.

The saga continued that evening when another inspector turned up to investigate why half our terrace are without water.  Apparently there's been a leak further up the street in one of the empty houses & all of us below are now without water (we all share a pipe that goes under the houses). When I told him we now had water he looked very confused. I showed him the outside mains supply that had been turned off & explained the whole tap drama. He asked to come in & check if we really had water (apparently my say-so & Rebekah being in the bath wasn't enough evidence). 

It turns out that the reason we have 2 pipes & taps is because sometime in the past, whoever lived here got a private water supply, from the mains, installed for situations like this. So while half the terrace is without water we thankfully have this supply none of us knew about. Crazy eh? I am so thankful for this because the water company are unable to do anything about the leak because it is in a private property & not a problem with the mains supply so we could've been without water for a lot longer!!! What a blessing this extra tap & pipe turned out to be!!!

Well, it's getting late so I'm off to bed now. Goodnight!

Still no water...

Well it's been 36hours now & we still have no running water!! I think it's a disgrace, not to mention seriously stressful!!!

I had a terrible morning yesterday! After I blogged I was putting the ironing board away when the iron decided to take a nose-dive off the top shelf of the cupboard under the stairs onto my foot... point down!!!!! It hurt soooo bad. It's ok now, just very bruised & swollen. Poor Rebekah... I couldn't stop crying & I think she was terrified. Once we'd got over that little hurdle I spent most of the rest of the morning on the phone to the water company. The people on the phone are very nice but I'm getting past the point of caring now.  I've told them I'm pregnant & I have a 21month old but still no water. One of my friends emailed me yesterday & told me to speak to my MP (or at least threaten it). Thankfully, one of my dear friends Leanne (who was visiting from Scotland) brought us a couple of bottles of water round.

The crazy thing was, I couldn't leave the house as they promised someone was coming to fix it so we had nothing to drink except full fat milk!!  By the time I got to the hospital for my antenatal appt I was severely dehydrated!! I had 4+ ketones & had to answer all manner of questions about diabetes, headaches, was I feeling well etc. Of course I didn't feel well & I had a headache which I knew was caused by being dehydrated. The midwife mentioned (half joking) about needing to have a drip but I promised I would drink lots, assured her not to worry & promised to check my ketones before I went home (I was about to start work). The problem when you're 'high risk' & have high blood pressure, having a headache twitches my midwives & triggers a whole load of new questions.

Thankfully I have a wonderful & reasonable consultant, who, after asking what was going on, why I was so ketotic, let me I explained the water saga, she left it & moved onto the real reason I was there... My blood pressure, which, by the way, was great!! I was kind of expecting it to be high given the morning I'd had but I prayed & He delivered. She even agreed that as long as I have my bp checked each week, & let them know if it misbehaves (which I trust it won't) I don't have to go back for 3 whole weeks!!!!! I'm so excited. When you've been at the hospital or the midwife 10 times in 6 weeks a 3 week break makes all the difference.  Poor Rebekah... She gets dragged to 'Mummy's work' for all my appointments (which she actually likes because she gets so much attention) and yesterday when I told her I had to go to work she pointed at my tummy & said "baby?".  What a clever girl!!

Anyway, breakfast calls & I'm waiting for the complaints dept. at the water company to call me back so I'll go. I'll update later.