Scottish Water have been digging up our road again. It’s part of a £4 million project to overhaul the town’s water supply, which means replacing some 15 km of water mains. (They started last year, but had to stop when the war in Ukraine caused a worldwide bitumen shortage.) So far they’ve mostly dug a lot of holes, some of which go down a surprisingly long way. At least I assume they’re specially-dug holes: given the state of the roads up here they could just be potholes the water board has coned off and pretended were deliberate.
The Trinkie gets its annual overhaul
It reminds me of the Lord of the Rings movies, when Saruman warns Gandalf: “You fear to go into that street. Scottish Water delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Miller Avenue… shadow and flame. Well, I say flame; it’s mostly water, of course, or possibly gas. But there’s definitely shadows, especially at night.” It’s all a little disconcerting. The other day I was passing one of the holes and I could’ve sworn I heard a voice from below exclaim “Ai! Ai! A Balrog!”
Reiss Beach
I wouldn’t mind, but I had to ask one of the workmen to move his digger so I could get to work, only for him to cry “You cannot pass! I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass!” (“Drama wizard”, I thought.) They’re going to turn our water off for a couple of days this week, but since the internet tells me that’s one day less than a person can survive without water I reckon we should be fine.
Finally this week, thanks for all the good wishes when I was taken ill the other day. I’m delighted to say that the swelling in my elbow’s mostly gone, in fact it might be wholly gone and what’s left is just how my elbow looks anyway – elbows being one of those things I’ve never really paid much attention to, like cosines or the name of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Even more excitingly, the assorted drugs seem to be clearing up my chesty cough, and for the first time in months my breathing no longer resembles Darth Vader sucking up the last drops of his milkshake through a straw. The treatment still has another month to run, but already I feel like a new man (I wonder where I can get one at this time of night, ahaha). Meanwhile I shall keep taking the tablets, assuming the water supply holds out, and keep knitting, about which I’ll say more next week. But thank you once again for all the good wishes.
The knitting is looking good.
Maybe if you had knocked on the digger and said “Friend” it would have helped.
Don’t they sell bottled water there? Or at least something in bottles? You might want to fill some large containers (pots, pans, buckets) with tap water, if only to flush the toilet.
I’m very glad to hear that the treatment is working, and that you understand the need to take the full course.
Hi Tamar, yes, we stocked up on big 5L bottles of water from Tesco’s, plus we have a water barrel equivalent out the back full of rainwater, so we could flush the toilet at need. In the end the water was only off for one morning, not the two days they expected, so it was all a bit of an anticlimax!
I suspect addressing a Scottish water board employee as “friend” is probably like calling a Glaswegian “pal”, and is likely to end up with a trip to the dentist…
Thank you Gordon for your optimism. And may you feel better and better and better. You are wonderful.
Hi Felicity, you’re very kind. Though I suspect Margaret can tell you stories of times when I’m tired with too much shopping and I’m cranky and in need of a sugar and caffeine hit, when “wonderful” is hardly the mot juste! 😀