Not a day to remember

While Angie rode on Sultan with the dogs in tow, during the heaviest rain possible, I went to the Rathaus in Sontheim (Parish Townhall). Sounds grand for a 2600 inhabitant parish but they probably have a bit more to do than a UK parish council. Births, Deaths, Marriages & Residents registration, Civil Weddings, Passports, Pensions, Water & Sewage, Garbage, Planning & Development, Schools, Fishing licences - the list goes on & on. The mayor is in charge of the whole thing but he isn't paid, instead the day to day running is managed by a paid civil servant and I think, 3 office staff plus a part time, tractor driving, man for all things physical. As an example of what they get involved in, this week the mayor and German Railway network agreed the multi million financing for the four railtrack crossings/barriers which have to be changed to over/underpasses for the impending electrification of the line from Munich to Zürich, as well as complete refurb of the station platforms. All I wanted was a "Furniture Disposal" card with which bulky items up to 300kg or 3m³ can be collected free of charge & disposed of, but only once a year. Also picked up Angie's postal voting forms for Sunday's Bavarian state elections. The German national elections are then a week later.

Back home, still pouring, thought it time to do something with the masses of tomatoes and fennel and prepare an evening dish with the zucchini & aubergines. Pots out, wash & chop etc etc and just as it was all looking good, Angie came by & asked what glass I had just dropped?! Not me I claimed. To cut a long story a teeny bit shorter, our cellar was under water & some empty jars were floating around. Water a bit deeper than my wellies. The fuse to the cellar had tripped so the sump pump wasn't pumping and the emergency pump was just as useless. The third outdoor pump had juice but the float had got stuck in the "off" position. So had to get the petrol pump out but no petrol in any of the canisters, rob the lawn tractor of it's fuel, haul all the heavy stuff to the house, set it up, fill pump with water and pull starter - nothing! Had forgotten to get a new spark plug but luckily the generator uses the same type. Spanners out, try again. OK. There followed hours of cold wet work, cleaning pumps, pumping out the swimming pool which was "flooded". When the electric pumps were in operation again, the fuse kept tripping and after a while noticed the oudoor porch light with movement detector hung on the same ring. When I switched it off, the fuse no longer tripped. So the whole problem was almost certainly caused by a short in the lamp, rendering the pumps useless.

At 9:00pm returned to the kitchen and fought my way through the next 3 hours, sieving, pureeing etc etc. At midnight finished the washing up and clearing up the mess that men make in kitchens. Naturally there was no evening meal, Angie resorting to toast with something or other. I had lost any appetite I had. Perhaps another try tomorrow.

Another late night when I don't get around to commenting - sorry! Hope all are prepared to get Friday wrapped up and for those in southern UK & Ireland, get the central heating fired up for the weekend. Looks to be cold & wet. We should have a good Saturday before it starts again. Stay dry Blipers.