The start of another new day

Hopefully better than the last, as shortly after posting yesterday's appropriate poem, I received the news that one of my cousins had died in rather distressing circumstances, though I guess every death could be categorised under that heading. So, as you can imagine, it shifted the day into another gear, never mind the old or new year. And I had been all set to add to my original post, with a tale about the ending of on the old year, for me, on a totally ludicrous note... So, in the interest of lightening the mood, and with apologies to he who has already heard the saga, here goes.

By 11.30pm on Dec31st, I decided seeing in 2009 was not so important, after all, so off to bed I trotted. (I'd already had a glass of tawny port that evening, to welcome the New Year in early - thought I'd mention this, as port had been listed as an 'interest' by he-who-shall-be nameless)

Having got to the teeth brushing stage, paste poised on bristles, I inadvertently dropped the small ,white plastic lid into the sink. Ordinarily, this wouldn't have been a problem, but I have one of those relatively modern basins with a lever controlled plug - removable for cleaning. In the interest of saving this shiny article from globules of toothpaste, I'd removed it from its seat BEFORE I dropped the lid, which plunged gleefully down the large opening with ease. It balanced precariously on the plug mechanism, but my eagerly searching fingers were just what it needed to send it plummeting further into the depths of the pipe.

I came back downstairs to the scrabble in my glory hole of a kitchen drawer for any implements that might make retrieval of lid possible. A short length of clear plastic tubing looked feasible - with a hard suck, I might be able to lift the lid? Hmmm, not too sure about nearby water level, but hey, it'd only be water, after all...

Next, I collected a long pair of butterfly tweezers ( don't ask) from the pen pot on my desk, a length of twine (for tying large loop through tiny hole in tweezers, to stop them following the toothpaste lid into the depths should I drop them too) [I actually looped this over the tap, just to be sure, in case you're wondering] and lastly, from my kitchen cupboard, I collected a fairly sizable length of fairly fine wire. This I fashioned into a rudimentary fish hook, in the hope it might catch under the rim of the lid so's I could haul it up.

Armed with the above implements, plus a very long knitting needle that might come in handy somehow, and a very small torch that would definitely come in handy to illumine the murky scene of the crime, I returned to the bathroom.

The 'suction pipe' failed miserably, as the serrated surface of the lid was uppermost. But I didn't get any yucky water either - a Pollyanna view.

The tweezers failed miserably - they were just too short.

The torch was a success - its light gave me a fair idea of how to approach the problem with my next trick, the bent wire; I could see at little gap between lid and waste pipe at the top left which should allow me to manoeuvre my fish hook into position... AND IT WORKED, though I admit to holding my breath for this final stage of the operation, which was very 'Will it? Won't it?'

So don't ever mention to me again anything about getting anything out of anywhere!

(Fellow blogger had answered the question 'How do you get water out of one ear?' but saying 'You put a hosepipe in the opposite ear and turn it on full', which sound piece of advice had lodged in my memory)

Enough, I hear you all cry...