For those that are interested here's my Saturday Saga.
A possible sewerage leak discovered just outside the end of my garden, after the snow, turned into a blocked toilet first thing on Saturday morning.
With Welsh Water and the Environmental Health department both claiming it to be the other's problem we eventually got a diagnosis that pointed to a) a collapsed sewer pipe under my garden and b) a very large bill for excavation and repair. Fortunately I remembered that my next door neighbour at my last address worked for one of those drain unblocking people and so a quick visit secured his assistance to try and temporarily clear the problem and then pop a camera along to find the problem so we didn't have to excavate the whole length of the pipe.
Fortunately not only was he able to clear the blockage but his camera showed that the pipe hadn't collapsed and the leak was mealy due to seepage of the standing water behind the blockage as the pipe is clay and not modern plastic.
Feeling immensely relieved MrsA and I headed to Cardiff to visit my friend who is in hospital recovering from the quintruple bypass operation he had on Thursday and then to collect our niece and her friend for dinner at Ichiban.
On the way to Ichiban I was driving along Castle Street.
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Those of you that know the area will know that Castle Street is 2 lanes in either direction. Just as we passed the junction with Westgate Street, I was in the outside lane with a bus in the nearside lane and slightly ahead of me. As we passed the Holiday Inn I noticed the bus slowing, which seemed normal as there are a couple of bus stops just outside. What I didn't know was that the bus was stopping short to allow a 4x4 that wanted to turn right towards the Castle out of the Holiday Inn car park.
The first I knew of the 4x4 was when it appeared around the front of the bus directly in front of me. The driver had just not considered that there were 2 lanes of traffic and just pulled out. I started to brake and swerve right hoping to go round her, but even though she had seen me as well by this point I think she panicked and just kept coming. Due to the on-coming traffic I had nowhere left to go so we hit corner to corner.
I was stuck in the middle of the road having obviously come off worse and she was able to reverse back into the Holiday Inn. Mr Bus Driver just waited for her to get out of the way and pulled off before anyone could stop him. Thanks Pal!
She was most apologetic and verbally took responsibility, in front of witnesses. I called the Police and they sent a car. As no one was hurt they didn't make it into an incident, but did breathalyse us both (neither of us had been drinking) and arranged to recover my car, as hers was roadworthy and drivable they said.
Nobody was really hurt. I have a nice seatbelt bruise on my chest and MrsA hit her knee on the dashboard and cricked her neck. Everyone else was un-injured. Whilst I set about trying to get us home, Carol called Ichiban to cancel our reservation only to find out that they claimed never to have heard of us and hadn't made us a reservation anyway!
We were all a little stressed by this point and so Carol decided that the best thing we could do would be to go somewhere and sit down and have something to eat as we could always get a taxi home if need be. So we went to a rather nice little pizzeria a few yards away in Castle Street, by the end of which we had found someone who could give us a lift back to Aberdare.
Today has been spent mostly on the phone to the insurance company and so far I can recommend Admiral's handling of the situation. Looks 99% like my car will be written off so I have to get to Cardiff Monday to collect my stuff before they drag it away for good, but I'm entitled to a free hire car until 7 days after they've paid me out which I was quite impressed with and any and all recoveries are taken care of.
So I'd like to offer a big thank you to all those that offered assistance, advice and generally enquired about our well being. It was much appreciated. Right I'm off to look at the Autotrader! :-)
