It never rains...

It never rains, but it does occasionally leak heavily. Today we got home from our short stay at my Mum's house for Christmas and found that our kitchen ceiling was soaked with water that was dripping into a small lake across the kitchen floor.

So lighting in the kitchen is out, using the central heating is out and cooking (which would require night vision goggles) is also out.

The last ETA for the insurance company's emergency plumber of "tomorrow" was not greeted entirely gladly by me, so they have marked our case very urgent and are trying to do better.

Meanwhile Lucy, who has not been her self the last couple of days, is screaming more than usual and as Hayley left our un-heated, semi-lit home a few minutes ago to enjoy the hospitality of friends in warmer dwellings, Oliver decided this was a good moment to have "a little accident".

I am now waiting by the phone, which no doubt won't ring and I'll have to chase the insurance company up again. Things can only get better. I hope.

To tell you the truth, all of this, temporarily stressful though it is, has not spoiled my day quite as much as the fact that I took lots of pictures over Christmas using a superior camera, only to have the SD card reader corrupt the files in transfer today. There was one beautiful shot of Hayley and Oliver in profile, laughing, face to face. Now lost. I'm gutted.

As I say, things can only get better.