Repair Fail

I climbed my old wooden ladder to the gutter this morning.  My wife persuaded me to ask a neighbour to stand on the bottom and I took a stick to push out whatever was blocking the downpipe.

I succeeded, but the downpipe came away and showered my kind neighbour with muck from the blockage.  And the downpipe fell on the lower elbow joint, smashing it.  I'll have to pay a professional to repair the whole thing :-(.