No flood water has ever succeeded in coming past our doorstep, yet.

But on 8 November, our dining area and a little of the kitchen had water. And we had no idea where this water was coming from. It made its presence known by making mother slip (and yes, she caught herself just in time).

Apparently floods can come from inside your house if your walls have water seeping through it and down to the ground due to a pipe that's leaking because a rat gnawed on it.

Well then, it was a Saturday evening, and no contractors/pipe fixers work for their usual fee after working hours. Guess what the next day was: Sunday. Well you didn't have to guess, I've... already told you. And nobody works on a Sunday for their usual fee either. Maybe 3x more, parents say.

!!!!!! *insert angry face here at people who charge more to work on Sundays*

What were we poor folk to do to stop the water from coming in through our walls then? We turned off the main water supply.

Admittedly, I was so not used to it. This made me realise the importance of having water come from your tap. Clean water, we had; electricity, we had; internet connection, we had. What we didn't have was water coming from a tap. It's a bit ridiculous thinking back how disturbed I was. I know now that we can actually survive without water coming from a tap, as long as you have clean water (you can survive with dirty water as well but it wouldn't exactly be considered healthy).

Ah, then it became easier and just a tad bit exciting to do manual work. Water-collecting times spelled a buzz of activity for our family. The moment the main water supply was turned on, water would start leaking through the pipe in our house and down our walls so cloth had to be put on the floor to soak it all up, and twist it dry and soak and twist... I became the Master S&T (Soak and Twister).

So we got our dishes washed; buckets, tins and tumblers filled (you need water for all sorts of things like rinsing your teeth after you brush them, you know) in record breaking time throughout those couple of days that we had to turn on and off the main water supply.

On Monday afternoon (finally), two not-really-square-ish holes were cut out in our ceiling and a new pipe was put in - water was coming out through our taps again!

Hooray!

Well now, aren't you grateful for the water you've got coming out of your taps?

Tip of the Day: You can flush your toilet one last time after the water supply has been cut. One time only, make it count. ;D