Actually, two different things. The revolting first, I feel.
So I decided to unblock the drain out at the back of the house, for one thing it smelt revolting, for another it wasn’t really draining at any sensible speed anymore, and for a third, it needed doing.
I’ve been putting it off because, well, frankly it smelt worse than melaena, and I had no desire to go near it. But last night, with the back window open I decided you could actually smell the unpleasantness that was our drain and felt that just perhaps I should have a look at it.
This drain runs from the kitchen, and that’s all. It used serve the downstairs bathroom too, but that’s all concreted up, so it’s just the sink crud that goes down there now. Well, washing machine, sink, dishwasher. Grey water, y’know.
To say it smelt bad was an understatement. Protected only by a pair of vinyl nitrile gloves I fished out the drain grate, and poked ineffectually at it with my rodding kit. It was fairly quickly clear that there was a load of solid crud at the bottom, mixed with food residue. Mmm.
I got the little trowel and started digging it out. It smelt awful.
Really, really, atrociously awful. Even with my nursing I struggled dealing with it. Having cleared the bottom it became apparent that this was not where the problem ended. No, the U-bend was also blocked…and it’d become apparent that it wasn’t food that was blocking it. No, this was tile-grout/adhesive/leveling compound residue. Or it had been until it’d spent 6 months mixing with food at the bottom of the drain.
Unfortunately my little dinky rodding kit wasn’t up to clearing it, so having persuaded as much of the water to run through the U as I could, and in the process given myself a brief shower in something revolting, I plunged my hands into the murky depths and pulled forth great slabs of nearly-set tile grout.
Thanks builders.
Most people know to wash that stuff away with *lots* of water when they clean tools, apparently you decided to skimp on that bit.
Anyway, it’s now clear, and I’ve got changed, washed my clothes and had a bath (not in that order). And then I sat down to resolve the Tax issue.
The tax office had my tax reclaim over a year ago now, and it remains unactioned – apparently their new computer system has created ‘a backlog’ which means I’m unlikely ever to see my P60s, my P45s or any of the other paperwork I sent them at their behest. It was requested 2 months ago by my current tax office (from my old tax office where I sent it) – and has yet to appear. I suspect that there’s no hope of me ever seeing it again.
To top it off, despite my hope that I’d taken a copy of it before I sent it, I appear not to have, and therefore get to fill in the tax reclaim form again… Woop. I do wonder though, what happens when they ask for my P60s again.
