Tanks for the Memory

S thinks that he gets a bad press in this blog.  That I represent him as a killer of baby birds, pet dogs and plants.  I merely report the truth as I see it.  I apologise if that seems harsh in any way but as cub reporter of this parish, I abide by the wise words of the long serving editor of the Manchester Guardian newspaper, C.P. Scott, who said in 1921: "...but facts are sacred".  And they are.  So, over the next two posts, I intend to report further facts and, in so doing, to showcase some of S's greatest achievements on this renovation to date.

The first triumph was the replacement of the water tank.  I went to get H's room ready for one of her many and welcome returns the other week.  There was a strange musty, damp smell.  I checked her 'wardrobe', the ex-server room.  There had been a fan in the window that has been removed, leaving a circular hole in the pane.  It has been made weatherproof with sellotape.  I wondered if the system had failed and rain had got into the room.  It hadn't.  And it hadn't rained either.  Then I happened to look up.  There are many faults in H's room but the ceiling is not one of them.  It is pristine.  Correction.  It was pristine.  There were two damp patches.  What the....?  I couldn't think what was above her room that could be leaking.

Damp Patch

Another Damp Patch

The investigation continued up to the top floor and to the water tank.  Water was pouring down the beam to the ceiling below.

Wet Beam

The first thing that I did was to insist on moving H's bed so that it was no longer positioned below the tank.  I remember reading something about someone lying in bed and the tank of hot water above them bursting.  They died as a result of the scalding.

We emptied the tank by siphoning out the water with the garden hose, which trailed down the roof, down three floors across the garden and into the shrubs.  And then we tried refilling it.  It reached a certain point and then started to leak again.  We figured out that it was leaking at a certain point so we had to keep refilling the tank to that point every time someone used some hot water.

Did I mention that it was Sunday?  It always is when these things happen.  There is some universal law.  Let us call it A's Law.

On Monday, S set to: he found a similar tank, removed the old one and replaced it.  Just like that.  And had to make it all fit by putting in new piping.  A very neat job and a great relief.  Tanks, S!

Ex-Tank

This Tank is no More

Lovely New Tank

Further Proof of Loveliness of Tank