Trials and tribublations
There are some things in life that you really just live for. There's always some occasion or other when you are busting for the toilet, no? Well, I had a bit of an episode yesterday. Please not that, despite earlier postings, I'm not some kind of compulsive bladder control freak.
Left work and was kinda needing to go as I approached the station. No matter, train due soon, 3 min ride home and then a five minute walk. Do-able, no? I thought so. And so it proved, even with the train delayed by about 10 mins. Still do-able! Walk quickly home from Headingley (all downhill, about 5 mins), get to the front door....key goes in, key turns *ping*.....key keeps on turning.....and turning...and turning......
Oh crap, the springs in the lock had snapped! So tumblers would not turn the bar is completely stuck in 'locked' with no way to move it! ARSE! And me badly needing a pee!
There's a bit of a happy ending though, luckily there's the tapas bar at the end of the road, so I nipped in there where they let me go. Nice people, must go and eat there when I have the cash.
Anyhow, we are now urine-free but still unable to open the door. Quick call to landlady (who it turns out was out somewhere, and didnt have the right numbers) tells us to go to one of her other houses on the street for the phone no. of the maintenance guy. Luckily someone was in, and we got hold of it! One call, and the guy is on his way.
Owing to heavy traffic in Leeds (a chronic problem - they are always queueing up both ends of my street), he takes about 40 mins to get to our house. During this time it has a nice stab at raining, though a quick glance skywards and mumbled threats from myself seemed to put that one to bed! Anyhow, guy comes, inspects lock, tries the credit card trick - which doesnt work, and wont ever - and then decides only thing to do is drill the lock. So we do. Repeatedly! So much so, that the lock snaps off his 10mm diameter drill bit. Oops. Luckily there's a spare, drilling and suchlike continues.
When this point of entry seems intractable, I suggest it might be easier to unlock the back door and cut through the security measures there, so we go round for a look. At this point I forgot that there's an alarm on the house, which is promptly set off by opening the back door, setting off a loud alarm.....which we cant turn off because we cant get in the house. Oops. One set of pissed off neighbours no doubt! At least it wasnt too late.
Back to drilling the lock. In the end, the entire lock has been drilled through and the door still wont open, even with much fiddling about with screwdriver in hole to move the bolt back. Cue more drilling, all to the melodius tune of the alarm. Eventually the guy takes a bloody huge blunt chisel-thing and a massive mallet and with brute banging bashes the lock away from it's moorings on the inside, through the drilled hole. How the bloody thing held all this time is a mystery, since there was no mechanism left (just a pile of metal shavings on the doorstep!), yet finally we were in and could switch off the alarm. The rest is silence - amazingly peaceful silence. Delight! In at last.
Luckily there's a second lock on the door which we can use till the yale is replaced today, all free as part of the service (:-) But obviously I was not in the best frame of mind by this point....and there's more issues with the whopping gas bill left over from previous tenants to deal with on the mat. Gonna be ringing them today......*fun*.....and bill for phone line rental, not much, but not what I need right now! One hurried dinner later and I'm changing bedclothes and watching Sheila Hancock trace her family tree, which was a fascinating programme really - makes you kinda want to investigate your own family, except that all of that has already been done. Well, the records are there, but not much of the details. Still....interesting watching!
At least we dont have to pay a TV licence, since one of the John's transferred his to number 7. Some money saved! Hopefully today will be less eventful......
Left work and was kinda needing to go as I approached the station. No matter, train due soon, 3 min ride home and then a five minute walk. Do-able, no? I thought so. And so it proved, even with the train delayed by about 10 mins. Still do-able! Walk quickly home from Headingley (all downhill, about 5 mins), get to the front door....key goes in, key turns *ping*.....key keeps on turning.....and turning...and turning......
Oh crap, the springs in the lock had snapped! So tumblers would not turn the bar is completely stuck in 'locked' with no way to move it! ARSE! And me badly needing a pee!
There's a bit of a happy ending though, luckily there's the tapas bar at the end of the road, so I nipped in there where they let me go. Nice people, must go and eat there when I have the cash.
Anyhow, we are now urine-free but still unable to open the door. Quick call to landlady (who it turns out was out somewhere, and didnt have the right numbers) tells us to go to one of her other houses on the street for the phone no. of the maintenance guy. Luckily someone was in, and we got hold of it! One call, and the guy is on his way.
Owing to heavy traffic in Leeds (a chronic problem - they are always queueing up both ends of my street), he takes about 40 mins to get to our house. During this time it has a nice stab at raining, though a quick glance skywards and mumbled threats from myself seemed to put that one to bed! Anyhow, guy comes, inspects lock, tries the credit card trick - which doesnt work, and wont ever - and then decides only thing to do is drill the lock. So we do. Repeatedly! So much so, that the lock snaps off his 10mm diameter drill bit. Oops. Luckily there's a spare, drilling and suchlike continues.
When this point of entry seems intractable, I suggest it might be easier to unlock the back door and cut through the security measures there, so we go round for a look. At this point I forgot that there's an alarm on the house, which is promptly set off by opening the back door, setting off a loud alarm.....which we cant turn off because we cant get in the house. Oops. One set of pissed off neighbours no doubt! At least it wasnt too late.
Back to drilling the lock. In the end, the entire lock has been drilled through and the door still wont open, even with much fiddling about with screwdriver in hole to move the bolt back. Cue more drilling, all to the melodius tune of the alarm. Eventually the guy takes a bloody huge blunt chisel-thing and a massive mallet and with brute banging bashes the lock away from it's moorings on the inside, through the drilled hole. How the bloody thing held all this time is a mystery, since there was no mechanism left (just a pile of metal shavings on the doorstep!), yet finally we were in and could switch off the alarm. The rest is silence - amazingly peaceful silence. Delight! In at last.
Luckily there's a second lock on the door which we can use till the yale is replaced today, all free as part of the service (:-) But obviously I was not in the best frame of mind by this point....and there's more issues with the whopping gas bill left over from previous tenants to deal with on the mat. Gonna be ringing them today......*fun*.....and bill for phone line rental, not much, but not what I need right now! One hurried dinner later and I'm changing bedclothes and watching Sheila Hancock trace her family tree, which was a fascinating programme really - makes you kinda want to investigate your own family, except that all of that has already been done. Well, the records are there, but not much of the details. Still....interesting watching!
At least we dont have to pay a TV licence, since one of the John's transferred his to number 7. Some money saved! Hopefully today will be less eventful......
posted by J at 8:49 AM
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