Red in the morning....

Long story so I'll keep it simple. The bath stopped emptying yesterday. It's been emptying slowly for a while now. We had to bail it out with a saucepan. I'm loathe to get a plumber in where every shake of the head, every 'tut' and sharp intake of breath adds £25 to the bill, so I thought I'd have a go myself.

I went on the Internet and found a device called a 'snake'. It extends along blocked drains for 25ft and looked a lot of fun. So I ordered and, as the store opened at 7am, I went out in the dark to pick it up. As I left dawn broke and I was greeted by this magnificent orange sky all aflame. Of course, as the old country rhyme goes, 'red at night, shepherd's delight, red in the morning, shepherd's warning'. And this beautiful sky might just be the precursor to one of the wildest nights of the autumn as Hurricane Gonzalo is expected to blow in during the night. Batten down the hatches...

As for the bath? Well it wasn't as easy as I thought. I poked the snake down and it wouldn't move. I had to take the side of the bath off and take the 'U' bend apart. It was suspiciously clear apart from some evil looking lime scale. It smelt pretty bad as well. I cleaned it all out and reassembled it. Tried it out and it was as bad as ever. The blockage was further down the waste pipe. Dismantled the plumbing for the second time. I stuck the snake in and found a blockage, jiggled about a bit and it pushed through. As I withdrew the snake there was some even fouler ooze with it. Reassembled the pipes and this time the water flowed with ease. Put the side of the bath back on and then noticed some of the foul smelling gunk had stained the paintwork. Up into the loft to find the right colour paint to do a patch up.

Cleaned the bathroom and decided to have a relaxing bath. I drew the bath and as I got in, two tiles loosened by all the banging and clattering fell into the water. I've stuck them back on with PVA glue. It works....