Twenty four hours after our water supply dried up I thought that I should perhaps go in search of an alternative source. Unlike the city centres, water bowsers and street-corner tanks have not been forthcoming in this area and there was no issue of free bottled water announced so I headed for our local Waitrose. I guess they anticipated the needs of their customers.

A timely two-for-the-price-of-one offer on wipes means that we won't be quite as smelly during these times when we can't shower and our household surfaces are not going to become sources of disease and infection, thank goodness.

I managed to buy enough water to keep us and our immediate neighbours - all elderly - going for a couple of days and now we have these large containers, we can visit friends and relatives living in nearby villages to refill them as necessary. Not so much "cupboard love" as "tap love"! Confused messsages report that we could be water-less for anything from two days to two weeks.
A couple of dilemmas remain: what will happen to the millions of plastic bottles which are being issued - I'm hoping someone will begin a collection point to recycle them! And once our water-butt water is used up, how can I possibly use spring water to flush the loo?!

Whilst I write this blog entry, I have our local radio station playing, Can't quite believe the music right now - "Message in a Bottle" by Police! At least someone hasn't lost their sense of humour...