BLACKBERRY WATER DAMAGE REPAIR

Outer space had always been the destination that humanity wanted to reach, but when they got there they wanted to push outwards and explore more and more of it. They wanted to live in space and as such they began to build colonies through the blackness of space. Most were close to Earth and the moon, but others were a little further. There was one colony on the far outskirts close to Jupiter that was a military colony. There it developed weapons in secret, but it was abandoned for something far closer to earth as shipping times were just too much. But the colony was left and people still went there. It was there that Alex Stone and his family lived. A young eighteen year old boy, colony born, and raised. He'd never seen Earth except for in holo vids and pictures in his text books. He was extremely smart for his age and showed promise as both an engineer in repairing the colony, but also mobile suits left behind. He was happy in his own little world in the colony with his friends and family. But not all stories can stay happy. It happened quickly as a military force known as Phantom arose to power through out the colonies. It was a group that sought to control the colonies and free them from Earth's control. They proclaimed the the colonists were slaves to Earth and that in order to be free they had to fight against the Earth. Many of his friends agreed with there claims and went to join. He himself considered it, but his father wouldn't have it. He was forced to stay behind and watch as his friends went off to fight in a war as heroes... Oh how wrong he was. War is nothing glorious or beautiful although poets paint it out to be with there fancy words. He was left behind to continue with his studies as the war spread throughout the colonies. His father was almost never home nowadays as he was working on some secret project for the Earth Federation. He didn't understand it and almost resented his father for it. But one night changed everything. He remembered the tremor that threw him from his bed and to the floor in the middle of the night. He remembered the screams of the people as buildings exploded and holes were ripped into the colony breaching the hull and exposing the inside to the void of space. His father came into the room bursting the door open. "GET UP DAMNIT!!!" He yelled as he pulled Alex up and pushed a flight suit into his hands. "Get that on and follow me," he said in a hurried and yet panicked voice. He saw worry and fear in his fathers eyes and it scared him, but he did as he was told. Slipping into the suit quickly he followed his father from there home and to the base where his father worked. Once inside he followed his father down a pathway he'd never seen before. He'd been there countless times and had never once seen it. But when the lights came on it became clear as to why. There in the middle of the floor stood a mobile suit he'd never seen before; blue and white armor shown brightly in the light as alarm lights were flashing. His father then turned to him. "I'm sorry son... But I must entrust this to you... In order to save what I love the most," he was then cut off by another explosion. "No time... I'll have to explain everything quickly to you," he said as he pulled Alex up and thrust him into the cockpit. He gave a quick and brief explanation of how to maneuver the suit and eed that it was locked on to Earth and that he had to get it there. He watched the hatch hiss close and the suit come to life. It was amazing to be inside something so powerful and yet it didn't matter to him. At that moment he was focused on his father who was watching the suit fly away with tears in his eyes. And then a flash of light and explosion ripped through the base and his father was gone as the suit shot off into space with sparkling particles following behind it. Everything else felt rushed as he raced to Earth and to the based. There he was given a room where he confined himself for the time being to think of what had happened and the choices he'd have to make. He slept most of the time, but was awoken with horrible nightmares of what had happened. And tonight was no different as he sat in his bed soaked in a cold sweat in an unfamiliar world.

We heard a noise downstairs and I couldn't work out what it was. Mr O said I'd been doing a bit of nocturnal laundry and the washing machine was on. I assured him it wasn't. Being the man of the house (and me being a coward) he went first to investigate - there was water peeing through the kitchen light - it was also runing down the window and door. Foolishly, the first thing I did was put the light on (Durghh), luckily I wasn't electricuted and the light was still working. Whilest I was in the kitchen on my own I heard this slow deep voice reminiscent of the type you get from poltergists in films - it freaked me out a bit, until I realised that it was Chef from South Park, sitting on the window sill, being activated by the water. He sang 'I'm gonna make love to you woman and lay you down by the fire' a few times in a slow spooky manner and did his swan song in the style of Pinky and Perky.
Mr O swiched off the water and we left buckets everywhere.
The next day, we had the man from the Gas Board (how old am I, calling it the Gas Board?!) come round to see if he could pinpoint the leak, at this point we thought it could've been related to the heating. He said he didn't have the right tools in the van and would come back the following day. This left us without water until the following afternoon (it makes you realise how much you take it for granted whn you don't have it).
He came round the next day and cut a hole in the bathroom floor with a circular saw where we thought the leak was coming from and didn't find it there. He removed the panel frm the side of the bath and found the source of the leak - a burst pipe for the cold water tap. Only thing was, he couldn't repair it, because it was cold water, if it was hot water he could've done it (?!). He kindly left us a replacement pipe and my hero, Mr O, fixed it himself.
We thought we could live with the hole in the bathroom floor for a couple of days. Wrong. My husband, Mr Magoo, forgot it was there and put his foot through to the kitchen below. Luckily he only had bruised elbows from the experience.
The hole in the bathroom floor has been repaired. The builders are coming on Tuesday to replace half the kitchen ceiling. Friday we get new flooring in the bathroom and kitchen.
What I've learnt from this is that insurance companies are a) a bunch of rob-dogs and b) they make you do all the running around to get things put right. They weren't prepared to reimburse us for a plumber because they don't pay out for the fault itself. I've obviously been duped by house insurance ad's on the telly - the ones where a jolly person with a clipboard comes round to you house (or a smiley woman in a call centre) and magically takes care of everything with the least amount of trouble and disruption to the house-holder.