The Story of the Blocked Drains

I think it starts out around Friday 6 March when I tried to take a nice long shower, do my hair, tart myself up for the weekend ahead. Things quickly turned to custard when my shower started looking a lot like I could actually take a bath in it. I turned off the water & got the plunger & attempted to unblock it. The water went away so I proceeded to jump back in the shower & lather up my head in conditioner & start shaving my legs. Next thing I know the water is building up again. I jumped out of the shower again & tried the plunger again. This time it didn't work. I got back in the shower, quickly rinsed off the conditioner & finished my legs & got out.

I rang Scott at work & told him that he'll have to add plunging the shower to his list of things to do in the weekend. He came home & didn't bother plunging, he just looked at the drains & sure enough they were running high. So he called the plumbers. Oh the plumbers couldn't come until Saturday so I had to stay home on Saturday morning while the boys went off to tennis. The plumber came & water blasted down the drains & said it's fixed but he suggested we get a camera to look down the drains next time it happens. I was just handing over my cheque when Scott & the boys arrive home. All fixed I cheerfully say.

Everything was going well until Monday 16 March when I was experiencing that deja vu thing in the shower. Yes I was having a bath again! I called Scott at work who called the plumber. This time the plumber couldn't come until Tuesday. So Scott then tells us we are not allowed to use the bathroom, laundry, dishwasher, anything that uses the drains until the plumber has been on Tuesday. That's all very well for him, he's at work with all his ammenities operating, try being at home with no such ammenities & it's freezing cold to boot. Eventually the plumber comes back. This time he brings a cutting device & sticks that down the drain, he pulls it out & says it's done. Great! Then I tell him that it had better be because I have the camera due to come & check it out. Oh yes it is done! Fine.

The boys come home & so does Scott & the camera man arrives. The boys are fascinated. There's a camera at the end of a cable that is put down the drain & a tv screen so we can see what is happening in the drain. We get to the first inspection plate & it looks like cabbage tree roots were growing through it. Not much we can do about inspection plate problems, lining the drain won't fix it. We carry on down the drain until we come to another inspection plate, & lo & behold you can actually see the roots. The camera man says that he thought we had had a cutter down the drain & I said yes we had. It would appear the cutter didn't get put all the way down the drain after all. The camera gets to the end of the drain & then it's brought back. We get a nice little dvd of our drain & the camera man proceeds to call the plumbers to tell them to come back again because they haven't unblocked the drain at all. The plumbers can't make it until Wednesday. Luckily in the meantime I am allowed to use facilities again. Aren't I privileged, but you know what I would have felt a whole lot better if the plumbers did it right the first time & not on the 3rd!