Week Seventeen

On Monday evening I screech home from work and set to work on the plumbing – I fix the pump, filter and heater in position and then start gluing all the plumbing bits together.


It looks good!!  Guy arrives and makes suitable admiring noises, we tighten everything up (hand tight, like the DVD says, so as not to crack the fittings) and put more water in the pool.  All seems fine!

Guy starts on his walk home, I go to do something else and then about half an hour later go back into the cabin to check.  DRIP, DRIP, DRIP.  In THREE PLACES!  One of them is not so much a drip as a torrent….  I phone Guy, who comes straight back and we both peer at the THREE offending joints.  Blunkett sits outside the cabin and points out to anyone who’ll listen that she Hasn’t Actually Had Any Dinner Yet.  By now it is getting dark, we use Wyn’s arc light, and we can’t see what’s wrong.  Apart from the fact that it’s leaking.  At which point I give up.  Completely and totally.  Obviously I Don’t Do Plumbing.  BUGGER.

We put the plugs back in to keep the water in the pool rather than the pipes, and Guy goes again – it’s late by this time – and I head for the phone to ring the Andrew The Spa who says yes, he can come and look at it – on Wednesday.

On Tuesday I have to confess I don’t even go into the cabin apart from a brief look to make sure it’s not leaking any more.  I am so tired by this time and it really seems as though it’s beyond me.

On Wednesday Andrew The Spa phones me at work at lunchtime to say he’s arrived and it all looks fine.  But, as I point out,  IT’S LEAKING!  I whizz home (thanking my lucky stars again for sympathetic work colleagues and flexi-time) and Andrew The Spa says apart from the fact it needs tightening it’s all fine.  He gets out the most enormous monkey wrench and starts tightening all the joints – they are tightened WAY BEYOND hand tight, and the thing stops leaking.  I am much comforted by his encouraging words and the fact that he actually knows about pools – I have realised that I know nothing about what I’m doing!

We take the plugs out, the pipes fill with water – and they don’t leak!  I don’t add any more water because Guy and I are away for the weekend and I’d rather be here if it’s going to drip! On Thursday we add the roller for the security cover and on Friday we GO ON HOLIDAY!  We’re off to North Wales because Guy has three gigs over the weekend – pub sessions Friday night and Sunday lunchtime, and a wedding at Portmeirion on Saturday night.  We take the Smart (because it’s Fun!) and the drive up is spectacular – stunning scenery.  We are staying in a walker’s hostel in Tremadog, and it’s great – four poster bed and peace and quiet.  The gig on Friday night is not quite what we were told….. and the band end up playing all evening rather than just the one hour slot they were booked for.  I eat tough chicken from the local chippie and entertain myself while the band are setting up by misting up the windows in the car and then switching on the air conditioning to clear them again.  Who says a girl can’t have fun?

Saturday is free until the wedding, so we go to Criccieth and paddle in the sea and explore a fabulous little castle, then we head to Portmeirion – amazing place or what?

Beautiful colours and buildings – quite extraordinary.  The other band members arrive and the equipment is set up for the evening, and we get more time to look around.  When we go back in the evening the wedding is running late, so we have another couple of hours to explore – except this time there are NO TOURISTS!  It is just us and the whole estate – so we explore all sorts of little paths and walkways… and play Poohsticks on the beach in the little rivers that are running out to see.  The gig is great, the band is excellent (as usual) and the bride looks stunning.

On Sunday Guy and I take the Blaenau Ffestinniog railway to…well, to Blaenau Ffestinniog.  This is a little steam train, it makes proper train noises and toots appropriately too.  All we have to do is sit still and admire the scenery…. Lakes, trees, forests, mountains and waterfalls.  Quite stunning yet again.

The lunchtime gig runs a little late (so what’s new?) and we finally get home about 8.15pm – and go to have a look at the cabin.  Wyn has visited over the weekend while we’ve been away, and the electrics are now ready to go…. All I have to do is fill the pool with water and Switch On!  Oh golly – this is crunch time!  My good friends Sarah and Vincent are coming to stay on Monday, so we decide we will wait for them and then have the Grand Switch On.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Hours worked: Plumbing: about 3.  Wailing and gnashing my teeth about plumbing: 76.  No hours at all at the weekend – went away instead!
Achieved:  It’s plumbed and it’s stopped leaking, the electrics are connected, and the security cover roller is in place.
Wine consumed: No wine, but rather a lot of sloe gin on Monday night when the Damned Thing Leaked.
Purchases and Pressies: a child’s fishing net bought in Criccieth for fishing racing ducks out of the pool.  Cost 99p and I am exceedingly pleased with it.  It’s green so it matches the Smart.  Well, what other colour would you buy?
Sarah’s tips on plumbing:  (1) ‘Hand tight’ means ‘get the monkey wrench on it and pull till you go blue in the face, (2) flexi pipe is The Best Thing Ever (3) when it leaks, Get a Man In.

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