Saturday, March 05, 2011

Pluming the depths

Yesterday morning, shortly after John had left for work, I went into the bathroom and noticed that the water in the loo was higher than it should normally be.

I gave the loo a long flush to see if that would clear what ever blockage there was. That only made the water level rise even more.

Taking the loo brush I gave the loo a couple of good pokes. The water instantly turned chocolate brown and bits of poo started to float to the surface. Yuck !!!!!!!!

I gave the loo another couple more pokes. More poo appeared. Double Yuck !!!!!!

I rang my mam to see if she knew how to unblock a loo. Her suggestion, other than what I had already done, was to try and get some wire to see if that would unblock it.

As wire was John’s department I said I’d have to phone him at work to see where it was kept.

“Until I can get the blockage clear, when you come through this morning you’re going to have to use a bucket when you need a wee”, I told her.
“I’m not using any bucket”, she exclaimed, “I’ll just use the loo as normal”.
“What!! Pee in that gunge”, I replied.
“Yes. What’s wrong with that”.
“Mam, you’re disgusting!!!!”, I said, shuddering at that the thought.

John was still on his way into work so I rang his office and left a message for him to give me a ring when he arrived.

He rang back about 10 minutes later.
“The wire’s in the shed”, he said, “but I don’t think that will work. Why don’t you try putting a freezer bag round the loo brush, as that will give it a good seal, then give it some really vigorous plunges”.
“How vigorous”, I asked.
“As hard as you can, and then some”.

For a person with a bad back and only one good leg, that wasn’t going to be easy….

Donning my rubber gloves again, and praying that they didn’t have any holes in it, I wrapped two freezer bags around the no longer white loo brush, then immersed my hand into the brown water and plunged, plunged, plunged.

Success !!!!!!

2 comments:

Jennysmith said...

Phwor! Marie, what a way to start the day! A wire coat hanger might have done it. I try to keep wooden ones, but always have a wire hanger for such purposes. They're very handy!

Get really scared when the water comes up high!

Marie and John said...

What a good idea.

Next time John puts his suit into the dry cleaners I'll keep the coat hanger.

xx