The thaw has started and my outside toilet exploded.
I’d missed the fact that the toilet had frozen over totally.
Well as usual I’m gilding the lily a little but the connection into the cistern had completely blown off and the water was spraying up over the ceiling and had flooded the floor and the patio by the time I’d found it.
The stop cock , is located behind the toilet and I’d stored some electric heaters and other crap in the loo so I was soaked to the skin before the deluge was stopped
My screams sent the dogs scurrying upstairs .
How I didn’t electrocute myself God knows
I missed this mornings Christmas Fayre as a result
Sods law.
I’m not too pissed off..
The Fayre was a great success btw, I loved the fact that as part of their remit , the community Association and villager Jo sorted out free food for all from the Olio food waste app.
Apologies for my absence everyone.
Free food for Trelawnyd villagers
I’m making a comfort meal for my friend Colin tonight,
I’ve made creamed cabbage, pork stuffing with apples and garlic mash potato
I’ve not enough oven space so I’ve bought Yorkshire puds ( I know!!!!)
But I’ll make gravy with sloe jelly to fill them
I love cooking for someone
What a disaster with your new outside toilet! You need to wrap all the water pipes in pink insulation and duct tape to prevent them from freezing again. Enjoy your meal and get-together with Colin tonight!
ReplyDeleteYes, I need to get my arsed into gear
DeleteOr shut off & drain the outside plumbing altogether for the winter.
DeleteI thought I had left you a comment about putting some kind of heater in your new outside toilet, my dad used a pariffin lamp in ours, or sometimes an old railway lantern. Hope your lovely plumber is able to mend.
ReplyDeleteThe dinner sounds delightful.
Jo
You did , but I hadn’t noticed the toilet had frozen , I thought it was only the incoming pipes duh!
DeletePlumbing problems are horrible and toilet pipes freezing and cracking has to be one or the worst problems. You could ask your plumber to install PVC pipe outside for this toilet. PVC does not freeze and crack. Enjoy your time with Colin. The dinner sounds outstanding.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough it was a plastic pipe that “ blew off” not cracked
DeleteIt sounds like the connection was faulty. I've had no problems with plastic pipe. Of course, now that I've said this, I'll prepare for a flood!
DeleteWhat a shame about the toilet, but lesson learned, albeit in a hard way! Enjoy the meal and catch up with Colin. xx
ReplyDeleteYeap, the neighbours rushed around too , ( because of the screaming )
DeleteThat meal is almost as good as a giant hug. You are the man ,lovely sir.
ReplyDeleteYes, I like feeding people
DeleteAt first I misread the title. I thought you had written "Blog Disaster" so I was expecting a tale about a blogpost containing a mass of spelling, syntactical and punctuation errors. I hope Colin appreciates the lovely meal you have prepared - even if the Yorkshire puddings are not homemade!
ReplyDeleteI know( hangs head in shame)
DeleteOh no! That sounds disastrous! I hope your bathroom can be repaired without too much drama. We had a water main break not too far from our flat and people's houses were flooded. This cold weather really brings chaos.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a glass or two of the wine will help settle your nerves. As I recall that one hadn't worked in years, so you were not expecting it to freeze.
ReplyDeleteI swear dear, you never have a dull moment there.
ReplyDeleteHope you have a lovely warm shower after that cold shower you got outside! Does Dorthy love workmen as Winnie did? Is there a plumber in your future?
ReplyDeleteIt's always something!
Hugs!
Also, what a wonderful feast you're preparing for Colin. You're a good man, John.
DeleteIf you would like to plate that up and bring some round, will exchange for Apple crumble and Eton mess...
ReplyDeleteBurst pipes are horrendous! Good luck sorting that out. You can get plastic and foam pipe shaped cladding. And little duvet type covers for the stop tap. Not elegant, but efficient. Things like this only and always happen at Christmas! Screaming like a girlie, eh? Tsk!
You can cook any time for me. I love being cooked for. I’ll even do the washing up.
ReplyDeleteWas it only water that exploded? Please just tell me ”yes.”
Your meal sounds amazing. I hope the good time you will have will help make up for some of the bad stuff lately.
ReplyDeleteTo look on the bright side John -Could have been worse -Your friend Colin wasn't shocked in your loo and - All's well that ends well x đźš˝
ReplyDeleteA home owner's work/problems never end!! And there's no landlord to call to deal with them, only our own selves. I hope you get this sorted before the next cold snap. It might be easier to not have the outside toilet in use from October to May - shut off the water, drain the toilet and pipes, and pour in some antifreeze. That's what people here have to do with their seasonal cottages that aren't kept heated in winter. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteWhy is there an outside toilet?
ReplyDeleteOh S#*T!! That would have been awful to deal with. No wonder the neighbours came running! I remember living in the mountains when I was a child and you had to leave the taps running overnight, but I don't remember 'frozen bogs' . I am impressed you could pull yourself together to create a spectacular meal later in the day. Most people would retire to the couch with a bottle of gin !!
ReplyDeleteI don’t understand; I mean I do understand what happened but I don’t understand how - was your water still under pressure or did your cistern overflow? Or both?
ReplyDeleteWhen water freezes it expands, thus cracking the pipes it's held in.
DeleteYes obviously- but if the water is frozen why did is spray?
DeleteThe outside toilet is fascinating - so one goes outside to access it but it is part of the fabric of the cottage? Or its a totally separate unheated building? My friend from Glascow used to speak of an outside toilet behind their building but I never quite got my head around it, when we have them here they are mainly called "outhouses" and are a strictly very rural thing.
ReplyDeletececi
Outside toilets were the norm in the UK, right up until the Sixties. Cottages built before indoor plumbing usually had a row of outside toilets - yes, unheated buildings more like brick sheds - where residents either had their own delegated toilets, or shared one with neighbours; I remember my grandmother living in such an arrangement in the 1950's, where the only running water laid on was a single outside tap (which also froze) shared between all eight houses.
DeleteFor many years toilets were basically wood or brick boxes with a wooden hole in the top (if swanky, there was a smaller one alongside for the children) and the contents were emptied in the night by the local council staff called night soil men - or, being genteel, the midnight horses - via an access trap door affair at the back. The excrement was spread on fields to mature, then used as fertiliser on council owned farms or gardens. Efficient way of rural life before anyone was talking about recycling!
Our house was built in the Twenties, and the only toilet was outside through a sort of passageway beyond the kitchen door, in a space shared with the coal house (no central heating) I vividly remember going to the toilet in the middle of a winter night, coming downstairs in the dark and stepping off the six inch high kitchen step and dropping down into a foot of snow in slippers and pyjamas where the snow had come under the outside door. In those days it was considered unhygienic to have the toilet inside the house. My parents did not put a toilet into the upstairs (unheted) bathroom until 1976.
I do have an inside toilet too lol
DeleteOutside toilet---like Pixie this archaic item baffles me. And why the sudden freezes, surely it gets cold every winter? [I do , yes, recall your saying that being unprepared is a British thing. But still...---you've lived there like 20 years?]
ReplyDeleteDinner looks amazing. What is pork stuffing w apples--w chicken? Hope your Colin visit was special.
My cottage was originally build in 1695
DeleteThen it was a two up two down and in four rooms up to ten people including a lodger would be housed.
The toilet was a an outhouse down the garden
In the 1970s the toilet was relocated to a outdoor shed by the back door
Goodness, now that way some morning. Sorry you missed it. Your dinner sounds wonderful !
ReplyDeleteThose of us who live in laces that never get cold enough to freeze the plumbing are currently counting our blessings. and thnking maybe a snowy Christmas isn't everything after all! I hope you have a lovely evening with Colin. Looks absolutely delicious.
ReplyDeleteThat must have been chaos! What a shame you missed the fair though.
ReplyDeleteI remember my granny's outside toilet which was in a row of toilets for each of the six cottages and in a sort of quadrangle. It was pretty grim even in summer (huge spiders) and was the only toilet the property had.
Your meal looks delicious.
I live in hope that everything works as expected. Cars, mowers, taps, sockets, etc, I totally panic if they go wrong.
ReplyDeleteI love how I never know what I'm about to read just by the title!! Did John and the dogs get stuck in a peat bog somewhere or did his toilet explode?? LOL!
ReplyDeleteYou do such imaginative cooking John - wish I could just knock on your door tonight and join you.
ReplyDeleteQuite right about the preceding generation thinking inside toilets unhygienic! Back in the 1960s a wealthy farming family hired my papa to build a "house in town" for the retiring matriarch. Still visible from a major road is the heated, carpeted, brick-veneered outhouse in the rear garden. (There was a modern bathroom inside, and the old lady loved the tub!)
ReplyDeleteI still remember the vicarious pleasure I got when you wrote about your plumber stumbling upon your outdoor toilet and miraculously putting it into working order within minutes. Your cottage went from a one bedroom to a two bedroom in the blink of an eye. I hope you get it up and running again in the spring.
ReplyDeleteYour dinner looks delicious.
Oh gosh, sorry about the toilet! You sound like a great cook!
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