Men and holes

Today's blip was always going to be a backblip and it was always going to be a record of the archaeological excavations going on, now, right under our windows, but in the end there is a bit more to say about Friday than I expected....

Shortly after taking this photograph, I had to go out to undertake some errands, so I took the opportunity to have another chat with the archaeologists. They told me that their trench along the eastern boundary of the site had just reached the northernmost edge of the Vulcan Foundry which was built on the site in the mid nineteenth century. Previously, they hadn't encountered anything of interest in the trench, although they had come across some modern concrete structures which they had simply worked around (to avoid cutting any pipes....). Looking up the outline planning permission documentation, I can see that the site might also contain not only the Foundry, but also remains of medieval mills as well as possible remains of a sixteenth century siege of Leith. I don't think any of that has turned up so far.

Later on, after dinner, we watched a bit of TV and had some Friday wine, and then the day really kicked off. Setting off to go to bed we realised there was a flood in the bedroom, with water coming in from above... I rushed out to go and ask our upstairs neighbour to turn off her water, and I met our downstairs neighbour coming up to ask us to do likewise as the water was already reaching her flat. Long story short, it seemed that V upstairs had a problem with the toilet in her ensuite bathroom, and switching off the water at the stop cock stopped the flow into our flat. So, about 20 wet towels later, we had mopped up most of the mess and ascertained that there was nothing serious happening. We eventually retired to bed in the spare room, which is not an entirely satisfactory situation, but ... hey ho. As I'm blipping on Saturday, I can report already that there doesn't seem to be any lasting damage (although I think I will have to throw a rug away and there are a couple of places where the plaster looks a bit dodgy, but I'm not going to worry about that) and V's father is in situ trying to sort out the problem with what looks like, at first sight, a dodgy cistern valve. Seems a likely candidate.

It was only on Saturday morning that I contemplated how much of a mess this would have been if we had been out, or - heaven forbid - away.... Makes you think.