Tuesday, 15 April 2014

NO Water

Today at 9.14am precisely I received a text message from SWW (South West Water) who said that there was a burst water main in the area, they had dispatched a repair team and anticipated that supplies would return to normal within the next 1-2 hours.


To be honest, I ignored that message because I'd got up, had a shower, had breakfast, done a bit of cleaning and everything had been normal.


.......................Then I went to work, about half a mile up the road.


While at work, I received information (via the grapevine) about a burst water main about a mile down the road in the opposite direction.  Zillions of SWW vans/workers had been spotted digging up a road.  Again I ignored this because we had water at work.


At 12.57am I received another text message from SWW which said there had been a large burst water main about 6 miles away and they were re-routing water supplies to the affected areas.  At this point I was still at work and we still had water so I didn't care??!!


Came home just after 2pm and there was no water in my house.


Not too worried.  These things happen.


15.27 - Another message from SWW - 'We are undertaking the repair as quickly as we can to restore supplies to normal standards.  We will send out a further update on progress by 17.30.'  Obviously not intending to restore things very quickly then?


Went out.  Came home about 5pm-ish.  Still no water.


17.33 - Another message from SWW - 'We have been working as fast as we can to re-route supplies.  We expect it will take some hours for supplies throughout the system to recover fully.  We will issue further information throughout the evening.'


Now I'm getting a bit fed up.  Haven't flushed the toilet all day.  Just about to start cooking tea.  Haven't washed my hands?!


Actually........................ to be honest........................... I'm not too much of a 'ranting middle aged spinster' today.............................  You may think otherwise. LOL!


I live by myself, it doesn't actually matter that the toilet hasn't been flushed - I've just put the lid down.  I don't need to drink gallons of coffee - wine will suffice.  Who cares about the washing up - it can be done later.  I had a shower this morning - I'm sure the water will be back on by tomorrow morning.  I have one small bottle of bottled water for cleaning my teeth.  I hate going to bed without cleaning my teeth.  I have cleansing wipes for the rest of me.  And even if the water isn't back on by tomorrow do we really need to have a shower every day.  I'm sure I can't be that stinky!!!


I remember growing up in the 1960's and the water/electricity went off on a regular basis.  At the time we lived in a culd-a-sac and I remember my mother regularly having to walk to the end of it, with a bucket, to get some water because we had no water.


There were no mobile phones in those days to keep everyone up to date with a text message, no internet, no tweets.  The water just stopped coming out of the taps and we dealt with it!!! 


.................And I'm pretty sure no-one demanded compensation or a refund on their water bill because they hadn't had any water for a few hours.


Those were the days!!!!!


Having said that - It's almost 7.30pm - hope the water comes back on soon.



Tuesday, 8 April 2014

Car parking

OK I haven't had a bit of a rant for ages.  This isn't because I haven't had anything to rant about (I've always got lots to rant about), it's because I've been so busy I haven't had time to document my rants??!!


So today I worked until 2pm and then came home and went straight out on the dog walk.  I didn't even have lunch because I wanted to do some 'outdoor jobs' after the dog walk and the weather was fabulous.


Came home about 4.30pm and expected to drive straight into my parking space.  Couldn't do this because a large van with a trailer was blocking my space.


As anyone who has visited small towns in the SW will know - parking is at a premium.  Anyone who has a parking space is really lucky.  I am lucky. I have a parking space.


However this privilege is constantly being abused by people who think they can just park behind me and block me in.


Today when I came home the driver of the 'large van' was actually hanging around so I said, 'How long are you going to be?' and he said, how long is a piece of string?  'Not very long'.  I took that to mean 5mins.  Not more than an hour?!


I totally sympathise with trades people.  They have a job to do, they need to park their vans.


................However as a resident who has paid a lot of money for a property with a parking space, I do not expect not to be able to drive in and out of it.


As a 'ranting middle aged spinster' I have now started to photograph every vehicle that is blocking me in when I want to go out.  Not actually quite sure what I'm going to do with all these photographs. But it's what middle aged ranting spinsters do isn't it???  Perhaps I'll show all the neighbours the next time we have a meeting??!!


Anyway to get back to my car parking space - my car parking space is mine.  And if anybody tries to block me in there will be trouble???


I am a ranting middle aged spinster grumpy old woman and woe betide anyone who blocks in my parking space.