Lost, Found and Three Floods

Thursday 16^th July 2015

 

OK, we may be in the Ark but we were not planning on having any floods. However, if something goes wrong with the outlet pipe that takes wastewater from the sink or the bathroom hand basin into the wastewater tank, then the water backs up into the base of the shower. We had decided that while we can use camping ground showers we would not use our own, so the space is very useful for storage. When we arrive at a new place and set up one of the routines is to connect the hose between the outlet pipe and turn on the tap. Note: TURN ON THE TAP. Ha ha, twice now the tap hasn’t been turned on and we don’t notice until we have a little flood in the shower. Then we have to take everything out and dry it out. Twice the most affected item has been the laundry bag, but both times I was about to do the laundry anyway, so it wasn’t too bad, just load the wet washing into the washing machine where it would get wetter still. The third time it blocked was in Timaru where the severe frost caused the end of the pipe to freeze, and it didn’t defrost until we were on the road to Christchurch.

 

The third flood yesterday was the first to actually run over the lip of the shower base and onto the floor, making the carpet slightly wet. Dean put it outside to dry.

 

Then a funny thing happened, although Dean thought it was far from funny at the time. I had to go out late morning and after lunch when I went into the bathroom to do my teeth I was reminded of the mat outside. I called to ask Dean where he put it. On the top of the car, he replied, hurrying out the door to check on it. I heard his yell from inside that it was gone, and of course I could see immediately what would have happened, but couldn’t reply till my mouth was free of toothpaste.

 

No sign of the mat, so I walked to the gate of the camp, still no sign. We jumped in the car and drove up Whiteleigh Avenue on the lookout. Thankfully about 500 metres up the road was our folded over bathroom mat huddling in the gutter. Was Dean relieved!

 

Our earlier lost item was our TV. We are not big TV watchers, but thought it would be useful to have a TV anyway and bought a small 12volt TV especially for the caravan. In the bustle of moving day when our household goods were stored in the storage unit it went missing. Dean didn’t notice until the next morning when he went to get it from its place on the shelf.

 

Realising what had happened, we decided that 18 months without TV wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing and we could cope. Anyway, our friend Ian was helping that day for the second day, and yes, he could remember it going into the storage unit; he had carried it in himself! When he and Dean went back to the unit with a further load, Ian looked up and said, look, there’s the TV box. With a bit of scrambling Dean was able to climb up and retrieve it. So yes, we have our TV and have watched one movie so far. Dean rigged up our satellite dish on to a wooden base and it sits in the caravan when we travel and on the ground outside when we are parked. So we get very good reception.