Of Taps and apple muffins and panic dances

You get those sort of days don't you? the ones where you just know that things are conspiring to annoy you. A day when staying in bed would have been a good idea except that so many things would not get done that you can't.

Today was one of those happy days. I had to get up because I take Little Miss to school when her Daddy is on morning shift. On the way to school she stepped into a puddle and splashed me. It was totally accidental because we were talking and we weren't looking where we walked. I came home and there were several things that had to be done before I could do what I wanted to do so I was pottering about. Mr M came downstairs and had his breakfast before going off to see his mum. She has dementia and is in a home now so he goes at least once a week to visit.

I decided to make some apple cake to use up some of the free apples we were given - the bag weighed about 10 pounds so there are a lot. I also made apple muffins. I made them using splenda instead of sugar - for diabetic eating doncha know.

I got them into the oven and then turned my attention to the bowl from the Kenwood, I turned on the hot tap ran sufficient water and turned the tap off - and that's when everything went to hell in a handbasket.

We have lever taps that just need to be pushed gently to turn them off. For weeks the hot tap has been turning itself back on again so we have been pushing it a little harder to turn it off. At one stage we were using an elastic band to hold the tap closed by looping the band oveer the lever onto the cold tap. This worked a treat but I said that we should get it fixed. Mr M muttered about it having to be a complete new tap and as it is a mixer tap it will be expensive.

Instead of stopping when I pushed it to where the limit should have been it just twizzled around (sorry to be so technical) and the tap kept right on running. I tried to fiddle with it, hoping that whatever should have stopped it would miraculously work and turn off the water, but no luck.

I ran around shrieking for a few seconds then remembered my mobile phone had Mr M's mobile in its phone book. I rang him and as soon as he answered a shrieked down the phone "The hot tap! It broke! I can't stop it running!"

He explained about the isolation valve under the sink so I grabbe the tool box and sprayed the contents over the floor in my hurry to get the screwdriver out. I still had Mr M on the phone at this point. I opened the cupboard and swept the contents of the shelf out and onto the floor.

It was dark in there.

I rushed down the ha..... I'll try that again. I struggled up off my knees and rushed down the hall to get the torch, came back to the kitchen got onto my one good knee switched on the torch and peered into the cupboard. Did I mention before that I wear varifocal lensed glasses? Well I do. I could now see the pipe where the valve was, I could see the valve. I could not clearly see the slot in the valve for the screwdriver because the angle of my head meant that I was looking through the top or distance part of the lens and I needed to look through the bottom or detail part. I put the torch onto the shelf, changed hands with the screwdriver, adjusted the phone that was wedged between ear and shoulder - this was part of the cause of the funny angle that I was looking from - moved my glasses so I could see the valve and the slot and realised that I now had to change hands with the screwdriver because the angle I was kneeling at meant that I couldn't stretch my left hand out that far.

All the time Mr M is listening and trying to be encouraging and calming.

I decide that trying to keep the phone under my ear is pointless so I tell him I will ring him back if I can't do it. He says he is coming home NOW and won't answer while driving. I sob but not until after I have disconnected. all the time the water is still running into the sink and down the drain and because money has been so tight lately I can only see the coins wasting away. I rearrange everything so that I am now holding the torch in the left hand and the screwdriver in the right. I adjust the glasses again, wrinkle my nose to try and keep them in place and I put the blade of the screwdriver into the slot and turn.

The water stops and starts again. I realise that it is a valve and therefore I should be turning it just until it is closed. It starts to drip hot water onto the shelf! I fling more stuff out of the cupboard until I find a container that will fit under the leaky valve, then I turn it gently until the water stops running into the sink.

I crawl into the breakfast room and drag myself up onto my feet and as I do Mr M arrives breathless and worried. I sob onto his shirt front and he lets me. He doesn't make me wait until he has checked that I have done everything right, he holds and comforts me until I am calm again and then asks if I am sure it is ok. And that's one of the reasons I love him. He trusts me.

So now we have no hot water in the kitchen sink and we have to live with it until we can afford to get it fixed. It has been a bit expensive this last month or two what with two 18th birthdays and a 21st today and a 16th next week and the car insurance.

So how was your day?