I prefer torpor to stress.

For some unfathomable reason I pressed the "Update" button on my blog and hoped that the improvements would function without any effort on my part. I have delayed further blogging because I'm not sure I'm in control of it any more - just like lots of other things.

We left England on Sunday, knowing that we were paying water rates at four times the cost of our neighbours, who use more water than we do. The Water Company checked our meter, which was 6 inches under water at the time, after 2 weeks without rain and in a position on top of a hill. That seemed perfectly normal to them and they decided we had no leak.
"Oh , yes we do!"
"Oh, no you don't!"

Today Team 2 appeared , poked about with a rod in our meter chamber and a jet of water spewed up into the air.
"Yes , you do have a leak."
A neighbour said that as the day wore on and the water continued to gush, flooding friends' garages and electricity junction boxes, people at the bottom of the hill were able to use canoes to cross the road. Are we paying for that water ? Yes, I imagine we are.
We await the return of Team 2 tomorrow. Is the leak roadside or homeside of the meter? Is this the only leak or is there another one under our drive? Whose idea was it not to take out leaky pipe insurance?

This same evening Son no 2 phoned to say he had had an accident. A bus had pushed up against his car on a narrow one-way system, denting and scraping his door and back panel. He is fine but shaky and worried because the bus drove on and he has no witnesses.

I hate not being in control. Long-distance problems cause more stress. And I haven't got a photo for this post.