There is a saying along the lines of ‘disasters come in threes’ – this weekend saw the third event that I would put in that category in the last fortnight - car crash, ruined kitchen floor and now the latest challenge.
On Saturday afternoon (04/8/12) my 4ft fish tank, recently moved into my newly fitted kitchen cracked and began releasing its 38.5 imperial gallons (or 175 litres – this is a huge volume of water if you think that an average car fuel tank will hold 60-85 litres of petrol/diesel).
We had visitors at the time and fortunately one of the kids spotted the problem and shouted to us. Chaos then ensued as every towel we owned (and then some belonging to our next door neighbour) was pressed into service to mop up the water as it cascaded out of the tank and down the units and the wall. Our very own flash flood and nothing to do with the pouring rain.
And in our brand new kitchen! AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!
It is fair to state that the stress levels in the Baldwin household spiked massively over the next frantic minutes.
I grabbed a syphon pump to suck water out of the tank and into buckets to start lowering the gravitational effect (and the water pressure) to stem the flow. The collected water was then taken to a stand-by tank and used to fill it so that the tropical fish wouldn’t be too shocked in the transfer from one space to another.
Before the water ran out, all the fish were caught and moved into their new home and luckily none perished in the in chaos.
Once enough water was out, Jez and I manhandled the tank out of the house and into the garden, which is where it is pictured (on its side and in disgrace). If you study the pictures you’ll see that the tank’s failure was spectacular – this wasn’t just a failed seal, this was a full-on fracture.
After the panic subsided and the mop up was complete I felt drained, distressed and depressed but a night of the best sport I have ever seen helped lift the spirits.
Jessica Ennis was mighty and her emphatic win of the heptathlon was nothing short of awesome. Then came Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford and their performances were just wonderful. I was enthralled.
On Sunday things didn’t feel so bad; I hope that the house has escaped any lasting damage, the fish are all still alive, a new tank has been ordered and the sport just kept on engaging. Well done Murray!
That night, watching Usain fire quicker than a bolt of premature ejaculation was tremendous. All over in less than ten seconds and leaving everyone wanting more (to make sense of the analogy)! The 200 metres will only last slightly longer.
I wrote another piece a short while ago about luck. I finished that in the same way I’ll finish this; on Saturday I bemoaned my bad luck but the fact is that it could have been so much worse – the fish didn’t die, the tank didn’t crack when we were all asleep (which would have been truly disastrous) and we might not have had friends around that leapt into action to support us.
I am a little nervous though that our new kitchen has it in for me; does the room get colder every time I wander in to it? Maybe I have just read one too many Stephen King novels?
Jez and Julia, if you read this, thank you so much for your help. We didn’t exactly have the most relaxing of evenings!
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On Saturday afternoon (04/8/12) my 4ft fish tank, recently moved into my newly fitted kitchen cracked and began releasing its 38.5 imperial gallons (or 175 litres – this is a huge volume of water if you think that an average car fuel tank will hold 60-85 litres of petrol/diesel).
We had visitors at the time and fortunately one of the kids spotted the problem and shouted to us. Chaos then ensued as every towel we owned (and then some belonging to our next door neighbour) was pressed into service to mop up the water as it cascaded out of the tank and down the units and the wall. Our very own flash flood and nothing to do with the pouring rain.
And in our brand new kitchen! AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!
It is fair to state that the stress levels in the Baldwin household spiked massively over the next frantic minutes.
I grabbed a syphon pump to suck water out of the tank and into buckets to start lowering the gravitational effect (and the water pressure) to stem the flow. The collected water was then taken to a stand-by tank and used to fill it so that the tropical fish wouldn’t be too shocked in the transfer from one space to another.
Before the water ran out, all the fish were caught and moved into their new home and luckily none perished in the in chaos.
Once enough water was out, Jez and I manhandled the tank out of the house and into the garden, which is where it is pictured (on its side and in disgrace). If you study the pictures you’ll see that the tank’s failure was spectacular – this wasn’t just a failed seal, this was a full-on fracture.
After the panic subsided and the mop up was complete I felt drained, distressed and depressed but a night of the best sport I have ever seen helped lift the spirits.
Jessica Ennis was mighty and her emphatic win of the heptathlon was nothing short of awesome. Then came Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford and their performances were just wonderful. I was enthralled.
On Sunday things didn’t feel so bad; I hope that the house has escaped any lasting damage, the fish are all still alive, a new tank has been ordered and the sport just kept on engaging. Well done Murray!
That night, watching Usain fire quicker than a bolt of premature ejaculation was tremendous. All over in less than ten seconds and leaving everyone wanting more (to make sense of the analogy)! The 200 metres will only last slightly longer.
I wrote another piece a short while ago about luck. I finished that in the same way I’ll finish this; on Saturday I bemoaned my bad luck but the fact is that it could have been so much worse – the fish didn’t die, the tank didn’t crack when we were all asleep (which would have been truly disastrous) and we might not have had friends around that leapt into action to support us.
I am a little nervous though that our new kitchen has it in for me; does the room get colder every time I wander in to it? Maybe I have just read one too many Stephen King novels?
Jez and Julia, if you read this, thank you so much for your help. We didn’t exactly have the most relaxing of evenings!
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