My parents just left for Australia yesterday. Today my youngest brother, Riki, called me up and told me that the head cylinder in our parents rafters had sprung a leak. As a result of this, the area of the house immediately below the head cylinder was basically waterlogged and swelling. When he described how much area of the house it had affected, I became very worried.

Myself and my older brother Matt drove up to assess the damage, and it wasnt good. The leak occured away from the overflow system that would typically prevent water damage from the cylinder failing, eye-row-knee. No hardware places are open on a Sunday with the parts we needed, and so we went into damage control mode – the water was shut off, the continued leaking was stopped and I removed three rubbish bags full of sodden pink bats. Benny and Geoff arrived and gave some input, and we agreed that we would remove the waterlogged gib to allow the house’s framework to dry out, so that was done and I guess we’ll have to re-gib it next weekend. Fun.

Having to take care of this when I had other plans sucked. Being “The Responsible One” while hungover and making decisions about my parent’s house sucked too. Having to tell dad on the phone what had happened while he is supposed to be enjoying his holiday sucked even more. Oh well, I hope he tones down the story for mum so she can enjoy her long overdue holiday, I hope she doesnt pop into an internet cafe and reads this, and I hope I can have it fixed or at least in a workable state by the time they get back :/