As we all know, sometimes - usually - it's the small things that get us down. Recently, as those of you who follow me on twitter will know, this has included a perpetually blocked sink and, on Friday, a car that wouldn't start. Picture if you will, the husband is away in Switzerland. I've had to take another day off work to wait in for a plumber who, sure enough, appears to have fixed the sink problem. I buy snacks for the car journey up to Derby and download the latest Young Sherlock Holmes mystery on to my ipod. I then break all known rules, and take my son out of school an hour and a half early in order to steal a march on Friday traffic. We're settled in the vehicle, everything looks good - then the car won't start.
Out we get, back up to the flat, by which time the sink is no longer mended, but filling up with someone else's disgusting, black water. The repairs team for the building tell me that they won't be able to send someone until February 17th. I almost start crying but instead explain that my kitchen is becoming a health hazard comparable to post-Catrina New Orleans and they say someone will be there on Tuesday. Meanwhile, my son is sobbing on the stairs at the thought of not seeing his grandmother. I look into rail tickets, which, on a Friday, at such short notice, would cost us hundreds of pounds. Son cries again. All looking bleak.
After a period of calming down, and on the advice of the Swiss jury, we decided to abandon the car for the time being, catch a train the next morning, cadge lifts from various grandparents, and trust that the husband will return as predicted to bail out the sink later that afternoon.
And all that worked well. I knew it had worked because, on Saturday night, I went up to bed at our little house in Deryshire, leaving my son and his grandmother snuggled up on the sofa bed, watching Match of the Day, both celebrating the end of Man United's run.
I know I sound like someone who should be on Oprah, but sometimes, for the sake of the other generations, a weekend of stressing and muddling does pay off.
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