Murphy’s law
“No one realises how beautiful it is to travel, until he rests his head on his old familiar pillow” – Lin Yutang
We had waited a long time to be able to take a trip to see family. A year had passed, being ‘socially distanced’ from everyone, in a forest in Central Italy. After getting vaccinated and gaining confidence to travel at this time, we made plans to go.
During that trip we got the news that you never want to hear when you’re away from your home. There was a problem at the house.
Messages went to and fro, and via google translate. At first it had sounded like the water company had turned us off. It took some days to get the full picture. We were told that there had been a big water leak. A passer by had discovered the water coming out of the house and finding no-one at home, thankfully, they thought to turn the water off at the mains.
And so our long awaited trip was cut short. We travelled back, with no chance to break up the journey, because of current quarantine rules. Over 16 hours, taking one taxi, one plane and three buses, images were playing out in my mind, of what we would find when we turned the front door key. It was bad. But not as bad as I had imagined.
Five days of quarantine, a requirement after a stay in England, gave us plenty of time to assess the damage, salvage what we could and begin to sort out the mess. Water gets everywhere!
I thought back to our time in Ireland and remembered ‘Murphy’s law’. In the last year, while we were at the house, nothing had gone wrong at all. In fact, like for so many people during Coronavirus times, with spending more time at home than usual, we had worked hard together on various DIY projects. Nothing goes wrong for ages. Then something goes wrong when you’re far from home. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy’s law.
We thought back to times in the desert, away on international Award expeditions, in the sweltering heat of the United Arab Emirates. Then we were typically armed with only ‘wet wipes’ and drinking water. Those days prepare you for times like these. We got by with a good supply of drinking water and red wine. We washed our dishes and ourselves with water from a nearby natural spring.
And we knew that there was no point in jumping up and down to try to get things fixed quickly. We had travelled to Italy just after the big Ferragosta holiday and in the middle of August, when so many tradesmen take their family vacation for a week or two. We knew it ‘would take as long as it takes’ to get straight, lessons learned when living with frequent power cuts in Zambia, Kenya and South Africa.
For those first couple of days we were drying out floors, airing fabrics and building a mountain of laundry. A friend came by. He brought us cappuccini, pasticceria and an electrician. The damage was assessed. The electrics were re-set and most were O.K. And the broken water pipe was replaced.
The following day there was a visit from a man to service the hot water boiler (geyser) More water damage. Some new parts were required, all very boring really. But by the end of the day we could take a proper shower which was wonderful. It had been a good day. One more issue had been resolved.
We were now about half way though our quarantine time. We had not received a phone call from the health authorities, checking on us. And if they had e mailed, well we couldn’t check.
We waited for WiFi to come back for many days. It worked for a few hours, then went away again. The last time that this happened the cable on the roof had been munched by a pole martin. Perhaps he was hungry again!
But it was really quite something to be disconnected from the world for a while and reconnected with this place, our place. We read more. We slept more. We spent less time looking at screens. The blue skies, wine and sunshine said to us “we’re home”.
Overall, quarantine days passed quickly, being busy overcoming so many problems. For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, we were not checking new case numbers or reading reports of the virus.
We spent two days without running water, two days without electricity and two weeks without wifi; lots of time to talk. We reflected on our trip. And while it was good to travel, it’s great to be home.
Have you had house hassles while you were travelling?
Where had you gone and what happened?
© Maggie M /Mother City Time