Wondering why water will travel uphill

We are so near the end of the gutter replacement job on the house that I thought it was time to show the master craftsman Eric in full view. I have been ably assisting him all week.

However today we hit a snag. When the house was built 40 odd years ago the builders at the time had a quaint faith that water would travel uphill when draining out of one gutter.

Now Eric, who regards anything that is 1mm out of true as a personal insult was having none of it. We spent some hours today re-establishing the correct fall until he was happy and in the long run I am glad that he did it right.

Mind you, it being Friday, I could cheerfully have crawled off the site today and put my feet up...