Dear LPG,

 I am not sure that this is newsworthy, but sometimes it is good to laugh.  With that in mind I have a story to tell you. 

When I was a young mum with two toddlers, in order to keep sane and have an added income, I worked nights.  In the mornings, like many of my peers I would come home just in time to say goodbye to my husband and take over from where he left off.   I would get the little ones ready for pre-school and deliver them, do a quick tidy up of the breakfast things and then get some well needed sleep. Then, at about two in the afternoon, I would get up, and with an hour and a half in hand, prepare my nice relaxing bath before collecting my little cherubs from school, feeding them and having them all ready for bed by the time my husband returned, and it was my turn to go to work again.

I am sure that this all sounds very familiar to many other 1980 night-working young mums.  It became a routine in the end.  But on one occasion, having reached that part of the day when I got up and ready for my working night, I prepared my bath as usual. I dipped my toe, as you do, and found that the water was a bit hot (nothing particularly unusual about that), so I did what I normally did which was to turn the cold tap to maximum.  I had got used to spinning the screw control a bit like one would a gyroscope or spinning top, but on this occasion, the top of the tap spun right out of  its socket, landed with a thud on the floor and left me with a water fountain in my bathroom. 

Well, the water cascaded everywhere, the floor was getting wet and my first reaction was to cup my hands over the fountain so that as much water as possible was being directed back into the bath. 

My thoughts at the time focussed on a few things; there was limited time before I needed to pick up the kids, there was water going everywhere, how long would it take me to call the fire brigade,  how wet would the house get while I was doing that and what should I do next.  I was wondering if I should get dressed or go for the phone.  You see, the worst bit was that I had not a stich on!  Something made me reach for the top of the tap and I did finally manage to put it back in its socket and stop the water-flow for which I thank God. So I managed not to have to call the fire brigade and also to keep my dignity in tact (I had no clothes on at the time).  This all happened within 15 minutes but it really seemed like ages to me.  The good news is that I did pick up the little ones in time, but don’t ask about the state of the ceiling below the bathroom!

Now I can laugh and I really have to thank the Lord that it was the cold water tap and not the hot. 

IC, Bellingham.