“Is that rain?”

It was approaching midnight and I’d just drifted off to sleep, only to be reawakened by the sound of a heavy downpour. Mike agreed. Rain. And at first I was delighted, the garden so desperately needs it. But as wakefulness increased its hold so did the realisation that this rain was like no other we’d ever experienced before, not even in the tropics. And it was getting louder. Out of the window all appearances seemed to suggest a clear, cloudless night. Just as they’d predicted in the weather forecast.

I ventured into the corridor outside the bedroom where the sound of rushing water became louder still. Opening a cupboard the source became clear. I could hear water, and a great deal of it, rushing into the cavity between the bathroom and the cupboard walls, saturating the carpet and by now my bare feet as well.

Mike, only steps behind me in the corridor, rushed past and on down the stairs. Which is where he did find rain, a veritable waterfall in fact, cascading down from the dining room ceiling. The rate of flow would have been enough to take a shower by, if you’d had a mind. In the few minutes that it had taken us to wake and get downstairs so much water had accumulated on the dining room floor that it came to meet us at the door before seeping onwards into the hall.

With the mains stopcock turned off we stood in the dining room numb in disbelief, watching as the shower of water diminished slowly to a trickle and then, mercifully, stopped altogether. The plumbers responded to the middle of the night emergency call and were with us before 9.00. a.m. A connection in the bathroom supply pipe had burst open, possibly due to either the water pressure or temperature running too high. Both things that can be adjusted.

How lucky were we. Firstly that we were home at the time and able to stem the flow. Secondly that the broken connection was in a place that was easily accessible and not buried beneath the tiling under the bath. And finally that the dining room is currently an empty shell. No decoration, furniture or fixings to spoil. Heck, the builders were about to take the ceiling down anyway. That task at least might be a bit easier now..