Plumbing the depths - In the name of Thiago - Day 11

In the name of Thiago


Okay I’ll admit the title for today’s blog entry is a little melodramatic but as I’ve always been a person who has ridiculous emotional extremes, you’ll have to excuse me.

I slept like a log last night, too much so in fact, not waking up until a minute after my daughter Elisa had left and gone to school. The fact that I slept for so long gave me a sense of failure, (I warned you about the extremes).

Even if I haven’t got a particularly busy day planned, I still like to rise reasonably early. I find that if I don’t, it can leave me feeling quite gloomy. Clearly, I’ve done a lot of feeling sad lately so that gloominess doesn’t need any encouragement but today it just got the better of me and stayed there all day.



Then there was the matter of the burst water pipe under our sink, which is positioned at an insanely impossible angle to get at in such eventualities. Angelica was already downstairs, sleeves rolled up attacking the cupboards with gusto with the big man performing a supervisory role. After smashing the shelving on the cupboards to bits, it was time to call SuperSteve.

SuperSteve should actually be a bone fide super hero in my eyes. So just to avoid confusion, this is not the same Steve who is my walking partner, though that Steve is also thoroughly outstanding. This is Steve my next door neighbour. SuperSteve repaired our boiler, changed the toilet system and today has repaired our piping under the sink.

SuperSteve is one of those blokes that if you have in your life, you feel very lucky. He knows I am absolutely incompetent when it comes to anything remotely practical but he never makes me feel bad for that. I have tried but I’m just shit.

I do feel bad though for the fact that he doesn’t let us pay him a proper rate for the amount of times he helps us. Without SuperSteve I’d have been a lot gloomier today without a doubt.


Sometimes, I think you have to write a day off. That was today for me. The positives are that I am able to do so without having been rude or short-tempered with anyone. Soon I shall retire to my room, read my book set my alarm an hour earlier and endeavour to make more of tomorrow. Wow, what a lousy blog eh?

Comments

  1. JamesJanuary 16, 2020 at 12:58 AM

    I do remember some years ago burning your hand on our leaky boiler...

    ReplyDelete
  2. ChrisJanuary 16, 2020 at 9:55 AM

    Ha ha, wonderful memories of very different times. And to think I had to do my practical teaching assessment for our TEFL course that day with my hand out of commission! 😊

    ReplyDelete
  3. AngelicaJanuary 16, 2020 at 11:47 PM

    I do remember that day clearly. Chris with mummified hands, couldn't do much for days. Or used that as an excuse for not doing much

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownFebruary 5, 2020 at 2:40 PM

      Aaaaah...my dad was a SuperSteve too... Very difficult to live up to someone like SuperSteve or my dad... No one is ever as good as them... I have to live with that 🤣🤣🤣

      Delete
  4. Jackchris OliverDecember 25, 2020 at 9:07 PM

    Its very useful blog but do you have your services in Nottingham, UK. As I lived in UK, and there is so much high prices of plumbing services that's why i am also learning about the plumbing courses online and found your blog that looks very knowledgeable.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

April fool - In the name of Thiago - Day 88

Image
Without wishing to look like a fool on this of all days but I was struggling to think what to be writing about today for the first time in 88 days. Since I started this gig a week before I returned to work in January after a long period of absence in 2019, it seems that there have always been reassuring flurries of activity. All this time the writing has come quite naturally but long periods of being marooned in your home – admittedly while still working – don’t tend to provide an outlet for great material. But I do have an out. For today, as well as being an opportunity for pranksters to hone their craft, is also the birthday of two of my very good friends Saffron and Olly. As I write this, Elisa is upstairs on a call to Saffron’s eldest daughter Primrose. I’ve known Saffron since we were students on an English as a foreign language course back in 2003/4. We have a mutual love of radio, Saffron was a news journalist for a number of years for the likes of Sky and com
Read more

I have no words (Stone to Royal Stoke University Hospital) - In the name of Thiago - Day 286

Image
  I'm going to level with you here straight up. I truly have nothing left in the tank to offer you tonight. I have been completely blown away by everything that's happened. I cannot even offer you the now well established line of sarcasm. I barely have the energy to fucking swear. The well has run dry. And this is why. I walked up towards the children's hospital entrance at the Royal Stoke today and I was greeted by this sight. People lining the streets to greet me. But they weren't just lining the streets, they were applauding. Loudly. I will probably never experience anything like this again but you know what, I'll have this memory for the rest of my life. I was completely overwhelmed. As many of you will know, it is not a common thing for me to be lost for words - it's not a terribly helpful trait for a broadcaster - but today I was truly gobsmacked. These people in their scrubs are the real heroes: the heroes of our NHS - probably the greatest organisation t
Read more

Thank you and good night - In the name of Thiago - Day 330

Image
  For the 330th and final time - at least in its daily format - I will collate my thoughts and feelings of being a grieving father.  When I think back to early January,  I really had no idea how this was going to pan out. But today, nigh on a year's worth of blogs later, I'm allowing myself a smile. On the 8th January when I decided that if I was going to do this blogging thing seriously that I had to commit to doing it daily, I knew that it would be tough but then I also knew that walking 350 miles (which I thought would 'only' be 280 miles at the time doh!) would be a very tough challenge too.  The two challenges have run parallel to each other all year and it is with a heavy heart that I say that the time has come to call it a day for the time being. But it's the little man in the picture there that we all have to thank for the existence of this blog, the fundraising I've done, the rediscovery of my joy of writing. All that walking for quite a fat lad like me
Read more