What an 'interesting' week - well part of it, anyway. Dad's week went well - he had a sixth guy in the class for the week. This guy had started the course in Brisbane and then came to Perth (where he lives) to do the second week with Dad. The course was made up of two days at the airplane and three days in the classroom each week. In Brisbane, this guy was only able to get in one day at the airplane, so Dad had to spend some extra time with him after everyone went home on a couple of days. Dad was quite impressed with this group of mechanics - they really seemed to know their stuff.
On Tuesday morning at 3am, I woke up to go to the bathroom. I thought that I could hear what sounded like a fire crackling. Very concerned, I walked out of our bedroom and towards the sound. It was coming from the second bedroom - and it was a flood of water pouring out from the ceiling. I ran to wake Dad up and he came to have a look - he went to turn on the light and received a good jolt from the switch. Needless to say, he took his hand quickly away. Checking around the bedroom with light coming in from the front room, we discovered that there was water coming through the ceiling light, through the fire sprinkler in the ceiling, down one corner of the ceiling and down the wall (where the light switch was). The carpet near the door (about a one metre square) was soaking wet as was the bed. We put all sorts of bowls and pots under where the water was pouring out and I kept having to change them every couple of minutes.
Dad had to take the elevator to the first floor to get the emergency number for the manager which was on the manager's office door. When he was waiting for the elevator, he could hear water pouring through one of the elevators. When he got to the main floor, he could see that the carpet in the hall was soaking wet and the water was pouring out of the ceiling on the way to the manager's office. After getting the emergency number, Dad called the manager from the first floor. There was no answer, so he left a message for the manager to call him right away. When he came back upstairs he rang the manager's number again and again, there was no answer, so he left another message. He waited five minutes and called the manager again - still no answer. We would have gone upstairs to tell the guy above us that the water was coming into our unit from his unit, but you can't get onto any floor except the floor you live on (and the first floor and basement).
I was getting really worried about what was happening and so I suggested to Dad that we call the police to see if they could suggest anything. We ended up calling three police stations as the first two stations were not open in the middle of the night. When we got to the third station, the woman who answered said that there was nothing that the police could do and suggested we call a plumber. That wouldn't work cuz we couldn't get the plumber onto the fourth floor, either. Fortunately, when Dad tried the manager a fourth time, the manager answered. When Dad told him what was happening, he rushed to our unit (fortunately, he lives in the building) and he was shocked to see what was happening. He rushed up to the fourth floor and knocked on the guy's door in the unit above us. When he went in, the guy's whole unit was covered with three inches of water.
The manager called a company which had wet vacuums and industrial dryers so that our units could be dried out. It took three days for our unit to dry out and the guy in the unit above us had to have his carpets ripped out and have new carpeting installed. The gym on the main floor was closed for two weeks as it was flooded and the carpeting had to be removed. The plugs which the machines plug into were on the floor and so were wet from the flood, so they, too, had to be replaced. It turned out that the whole thing started from the dishwasher in the unit above us. The guy had put it on before he went to bed. For some reason, it caught on fire and the fire had melted the water hose. The water then poured out onto the apartment floor and then began leaking through his floor into our apartment and the one below us as well as into the elevator and the gym.
What fun! NOT!!
water dripping from the ceiling of our second bedroom
bowls and pots catching water coming through the ceiling
water coming through the light fixture, the fire sprinkler and through the ceiling
industrial dryer used to dry out the carpet - you can see the wet area underneath the bed frame
On Saturday, we met up with our friends, Rob and Rosalea, and they drove us to Fremantle. We had lunch at Cicerello's, where we went last week with Rosalea, for fish and chips (I had a chiko roll, of course :-). We then went to the Fremantle markets for a walk around - didn't buy anything this week, though. Then, it was off to 'Baskin and Robbins' for an ice-cream - Dad and I shared one as we were still so full from lunch. It was so nice to catch up with our friends - Rob works at the mines, so we missed seeing him last weekend.
beautiful architecture in Fremantle
more beautiful architecture
more beautiful architecture
an amazing motorcycle
Me, Rosalea and Rob enjoying our ice-creams
my giraffe I bought last weekend at the markets - isn't he gorgeous :-)
We flew back home today - first to Brisbane, a one hour layover, and then another flight to HB. When we were in Brisbane, we got a message from Rob, the shuttle
driver in HB, that he was not going to be able to pick us up from
the airport, but had arranged for a limousine to pick us up. I was
quite excited about the limo until I saw it - it wasn't what I was
thinking - it was just a Lexus. To me, a limo is a very long car -
but, it was a smooth ride and only cost $2. more than Rob would have
cost, so that was good. It feels so nice to be home! :-)
our 'limousine'
