I’ve had to say ‘bye-bye’ to my folks today and send them on their way home. It’s been lovely having them here and being able to show them a little bit of our new world. We’ve found ourselves feeling pretty proud of it by the time they went home.

Yesterday I reported on my Dad’s valiant efforts to provide us with a functioning sink, which failed at the eleventh hour when we tested it last night and water gushed from the same spot. Dad had spent a good deal of his day up to his elbows in someone else’s nasty greasy gunk, firstly unblocking the pipe then trying to reseal the u-bend which had clearly been deliberately disabled at some time in the past because of the blockage.

My hero remained un-bowed and this morning, before setting off, he applied more of the sealant material we’d found in the dreaded Trago Mills yesterday and left us with instructions to leave it until the end of the day, then test it again by pouring water through the pipe. He said that sooner or later, with the application of enough of this stuff, we’d find it would eventually seal.

We duly carried out his instructions and tested it this evening and guess what? It worked. No water came seeping out at all. Hurrah. Hurrah. Hurrah. My joy at not having to spit in that bucket again knows no bounds and my admiration for my Dad grows unabated into full-adulation!!!

This is said lead pipe, fracture fixed with (would you believe) plasterboard tape, soaked in the sealant and applied like a bandage to the pipe, across the fracture. The bung, which was donated by the wonderful men at Plumbase in Moorswater features at the bottom of the shot and some frayed bandage, complete with sealant is visible at the bottom of the curve.

So, something in our world has been ‘sorted’ even if there remains chaos and disorder all around. We discovered today that Pickfords had not only broken our bed but also our beautiful sleigh bed (in the guest room) too. In fact, they’d broken it and deliberately concealed the break so we wouldn’t discover it until after the end of the insurance window of opportunity. How callous is that?

Last year, I had been put into an almighty strop by someone at work who thought that their precious home time was more important than mine because they'd got kids and I don't!