Wednesday 12th August Day 141
5.45 I really must change the jingle on my alarm. It’s not a horrible noise or anything, in fact it is quite catchy, that’s the trouble, I carry on singing it in my head for the rest of the morning.
I have to get up now, quick shower and be ready for six thirty to accompany a friend on an errand at eight in Chichester. I switch on the shower to find the water coming out very slowly and hotter than usual. Deciding there must be air in the pipes I go and try other taps around the house only to discover that I have no cold water supply; more importantly at the moment, it also means no shower before I go out so it’s a quick wash in the sink in very hot water and that will have to do.
To be honest in this weather. By the time you’ve got refreshed and dressed after a shower, you feel you need another one!
How typical that this one week I forgot to order bottled water on my supermarket delivery, I have two large bottles left which hopefully will last me until they fix it.
6.10 I go out into the back garden to ensure Audrey does what she has to do before being shut in the house for a few
hours (I can’t leave her in the garden because the wasp removal man is coming).
As I walk past the pond and bearing in mind that I never walk down the garden at this time, I see a large fish which has got itself out of the one small hole in the netting in the top pond and is gasping its last on top of the net. A quick grab of the fishing net and a gentle shuffle towards the hole and off he goes, good as new. A very lucky ghost carp who was nearly just a ghost.
7.00 My friend arrives (time keeping is not one of her specialties) and we set off in convoy. It’s only twenty-two degrees at the moment, which compared to the thirty-three degrees we have been having, feels quite pleasant, hence the early start. The journey down is reasonably quick for the A27.
8.38 A text from SE Water apologising for the ‘interruption to water supply’ they are ‘working round the clock to fix it’. The word I most don’t like to hear in their description of a burst water main, is that it is ‘complex’.
10.30 Business done; we start to head home. The temperature has been rising steadily and is now thirty-one and within a couple of miles we hit the first traffic queue. Well I say the first but actually as soon as you are out of one queue, another one begins. Note: why didn’t I get the air conditioner fluid topped up last year when it stopped working properly?
12.35 Finally home. One happy but panting dog and no wasps. I immediately feel guilty for destroying the colony because every creature has a right to live. Maybe it’s the looking for a purpose to its life that makes a wasp so…….waspish?
13.21 Another message from SE Water. They are setting up water stations around the area. Oh Dear.
16.00 A friend and I have been invited to go and swim in a pool up the road. It’s glorious to spend time in water with friends who have as much intention of not growing up as I do. Just before we go home, we eat ripe warm plums straight off the tree, that’s the way fruit should be eaten, full of sunshine.
20.45 Still no water