one down, five to go

One of the great things about xmas is I get bottled beer as presents and sometimes special editions. This one is know exception as 7% job that was very drinkable. And boy do I need it. The Wild's have been away for a Xmas break in the Lake District with father in law (89) in tow. Now that he is on his own we decided to go away have him with us and to keep him company having recently lost his wife. He was all up for it, cottage on a farm logfires, good food however it panned out like this;

Day 1 - borrowed 4wd pickup from work or else we would never have reached our snow bound cottage nr Skelwith Bridge. Arrived cottage cold but soon warmed up with roaring fire. So far so good. Pack f-i-l off to bed 10:45 no running cold water. I promised to sort it out next morning with farmer. 11:00 pm Coniston earthquake 3.6 on Richter scale felt like epicentre was under our cottage.
Day 2 - still no water. farmer supplied us with bottled and drums while he tried to unfreeze supply. No joy supply pipe from spring on fell side frozen. Regretfully he asks us to consider leaving. Tripped down to Ambleside to find alternate accommodation not the only people frozen out it seems. Find somewhere at Silverdale. Place is cold but owners will put heat on. Back to our cottage.
Day 3 - owner of Silverdale cottage rings they are frozen up will have to cancel. packed up and set off to Coniston. Helpful lady fixes us up with house in Coniston. Cold but frozen up stairs. Place starts to warm up slowly. Disaster burst pipes in bathroom shower, flood in kitchen time to abandon this house. Cottage agency fix us up with bungalow in Ambleside functional but warm. Yours truly and Mrs Wild at wits end having loaded and unloaded truck 3 times.
F-i-L likes the new place !!!!!.
Day 4 Xmas eve all utilities functioning and it is a bright cold day Wild's leave F-i-l to own devices while we chill out on Wandsfell Pike.

The rest of the time was incident free until we got back a day early Monday night. F-i-L settle back at home then phone rings. He's no cold water, he spends the night with us after a gallant attempt by me to defrost his pipes.
Today at 3:30pm water finally comes back on with the thaw and we can send F-i-L home.

Can you see why I need the beer?