Lucky Or What?

[BERNADETTE]

Forgot the tap was on in the bathroom last night and subsequently the sink overflowed. Managed to contain it (so I thought) but when I came downstairs this morning it had actually leaked through into the kitchen. There was no real damage just the worktop wet through. What I found really weird was when I went to put some sugar in my tea it was swimming in water even though the lid was on the caddy. Anybody else been lucky with overflowing sinks/baths?

[Bonnyboy]

A similar thing happened at ours. The bathroom tap had not been completely turned off, problem was that the facecloth had slipped into the sink, hence it overflowed. Put an insurance claim in for the kitchen ceiling. Never leave a facecloth on the sink now just in case

[Ianto.W.]

If you do it again i'll stop your tap love Ian. Ps was it hot or cold?

[Eric]

Left the tap on eh. These things happen when you've been drinking.

[BERNADETTE]

Originally Posted by Eric

Left the tap on eh. These things happen when you've been drinking.

You been spying on me?

[jambutty]

I have had my living space flooded on three occasions in my life. 4 if you count the mock-up ship where we practiced ‘Damage Control’ before they let us loose on the real thing. But that doesn’t really count even if we ended up chest deep in water. Because the boys were playing at sailors in a sinking ship.

The first time was in 1958 on HMS Alamein a Battle Class Destroyer in the Mediterranean. It was during a RAS (for landlubbers that’s Refuelling At Sea) where Wave Victor not too far away on our port side was giving us a long drink of black, thick, smelly fuel oil.

My mess, down aft, was above one of the fuel tanks and a munitions magazine and some stupid stoker opened the wrong valve. Within minutes our mess was some six inches deep with this black gunge before it was realised that the electrician’s mess had become an auxiliary fuel tank.

The kit in the dozen or so seat lockers was ruined, as were some hammocks.

We pumped out what we could, then after that it wasn’t all hands not to the pump but all hands to buckets and cotton waste. To protect our clothes the simple solution was to take them off. With most of the fuel oil removed then the whole mess was flooded again with diesel to thin down the remnants of fuel oil under the other lockers and those awkward places that hadn’t seen the light of day since the ship was built.

Lots of hot water and soft soap finished the job and we gratefully staggered into the showers for a thorough scrub down. Followed by a complete coating of Calamine Lotion. Fuel oil and skin do not go well together.

The second time was also many years ago when my youngest daughter, then 14, had to stay in to await the Bendix washing machine engineer whilst I went to work. He came did his stuff and went. Being on Economy 7 tariff where the electricity was cheaper during the night the machine was set up and a timer got it going during the night.

Next morning we got up and paddled around the ground floor. It transpired that the engineer did not check his work before he left and had left something in a pipe that would prevent the washing machine from over flowing. The washing machine service people paid out without too much of an argument. I think that words like small claims court might have hurried up their decision.

Then about a year ago I was sat at the keyboard and a drop of water fell on my nose. Then another and in quick succession another. To cut a long story short, the young guy in the flat above who is a couple of cans short of a six pack, and his mates had previously ripped out the copper pipes for the radiators (drug/booze money I guess) and were finishing the job by attacking other copper pipes. One was the main water supply into his flat which they broke off and flooded his flat.

For the next two weeks drips of water appeared all over my flat and I learned to do the tango dancing around the buckets. But good fortune was on my side because none dripped on my bed. My telly yes, my computer monitor yes and a built in cupboard next to the fireplace and of course the kitchen and the lobby.

[BERNADETTE]

Jambutty after reading that I realise just how lucky I was.

[grannyclaret]

Originally Posted by BERNADETTE

Jambutty after reading that I realise just how lucky I was.

something or someone is watching overyou

[BERNADETTE]

Originally Posted by grannyclaret

something or someone is watching overyou

Is it you?

[Neil]

Originally Posted by jambutty

Within minutes our mess was some six inches deep with this black gunge before it was realised that the electrician’s mess had become an auxiliary fuel tank.

Is that the stuff you have to heat up before you can pump it? They had an oil fired boiler when I worked at Michelin (it closed in Burnley 2001) that needed the fuel oil to be heated before it could be pumped. The other 3 boilers were coal fired.

[jambutty]

Not being an ex-stoker I don’t know. Fuel oil is about as close as you can get to the stuff that comes out of the ground. Sort of one up from tar.

Maybe the heating of your fuel oil wasn’t so much to pump it, although like all oils they become more fluid with temperature increase so it would be easier to pump, as to heat it so that it fired easier.

All I know is that it is filthy stuff that stinks awful and if you swallowed any it would rot your guts and if you got any in your lungs your days were virtually numbered as many a shipwrecked sailor found out during the war. It didn’t do a lot for your skin either. But on the positive side it made a first rate smoke screen.

Better than coal though but very difficult to keep on the shovel whilst stoking the boilers.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by jambutty

Better than coal though but very difficult to keep on the shovel whilst stoking the boilers.

Would that be a No.10 shovel?

I bet you can explain why a No.10 shovel is called that. I have been told before but can't remember.

[Ianto.W.]

Originally Posted by Eric

Left the tap on eh. These things happen when you've been drinking.

I see youv'e noticed how the her posts get more agressive as the night draws onwell spotted Eric.

[Ianto.W.]

Originally Posted by Neil

Would that be a No.10 shovel?

I bet you can explain why a No.10 shovel is called that. I have been told before but can't remember.

I was used for shovelling the bull**** out of 10 Downing St.

[jambutty]

Originally Posted by Neil

Would that be a No.10 shovel?

I bet you can explain why a No.10 shovel is called that. I have been told before but can't remember.

I guess that Ianto.W. has got it about right. But I didn’t know that until today.