Because there's some sort of intermittent leak coming from the flat above my airing cupboard looks like this. It used to be full of linens, towels, warming socks, and everything else I wasn't sure what to do with. The leaks been a problem since the new year when I first noticed it but it's been sneaky and most of the time the ceiling has been dry to touch. The last few days however I've caught it out (can you tell how much this is getting on my nerves...). For no reason either I, or my upstairs neighbour, or apparently the plumber employed by his letting agency, can fathom - it's only the last one that worries me - water's coming from somewhere, and only seems to be doing so around about lunchtime. It might help if the plumber was prepared to have a proper look.
This is why, after dispatching a suitcase full of blankets and spare duvet to my mother's thankfully dry house, I spent hours clearing my wardrobe to put the rest of the bits in there. By about midnight everything was neatly stowed away and I thought I might get almost a nights sleep. then I went to set the alarm on my mobile. I couldn't find my mobile. The last time I saw my mobile was on the bed with all the things to go in the wardrobe, 20 minutes hopeful searching revealed nothing. There was nothing for it but to haul everything back out of the wardrobe where finally the phone revealed itself in the depths of a pillowcase, needless to say approaching 1am nothing went back in neatly. Which is why my wardrobe now looks like this.
Fortunately it was a half day for me at work and only 5 hours sleep perhaps helped me make the man who has to tell the plumber to pull up somebody else's floorboards believe it's something he Will Have To Do. I hope so anyway not least because I'd hate to think the fraught conversation I had whilst balanced on a stepladder inside the airing cupboard listening to water dripping from Somewhere was a waste of time.
After all that I made cake, Dan Lepard's (I should be on commission) semolina cake from The Guardian a couple of weeks ago. Sadly it's not in 'Short and Sweet' which is fast filling up with cuttings from his column, but this one is a winner. I was looking around for a good recipe for Revani last year and finally this is basically it. the texture is perfect - light and sticky and delicious. It does sound like a lot of syrup but the semolina soaks it up perfectly and it was very simple to throw together. Totally recommended.
Fingers crossed that this time that daft plumber can get it identified, and fixed!
ReplyDeleteIdentified yes, fixed - not so much.
DeleteHope you get your leak fixed. I had a similar problem in my office at work and had hot steaming water for three hours! Been assured today that it will not happen again? Mmmmm something makes me suspicious.
ReplyDeleteOh dear Jo, hope you've stayed dry ever since.
DeleteOh my, that sounds AWFUL. I hope that it's soon repaired and that you've had some more sleep since you wrote this.
ReplyDeleteHelen
Stupid plumbing - problem has been identified, solution is still a matter of debate - sleep is correspondingly fugitive. I hate it when things don't work, and neither books or pictures take kindly to water so I'm not happy about it making it's own way in. Otherwise it's fine ;)
DeleteOh no! That doesn't look like a great deal of progress, poor you!
DeleteHelen
Slow process, got to wait for the man who owns the flat above (and rents it out) to agree to pay for the work. I assume that eventually he'll have to but meanwhile there isn't much I can do apart from harass his agents.
Delete