Good things about being a juror

- Nice building

- Judges and lawyers really do wear white wigs, how cute is that?

- free lunch (quality: dubious)

- free coffee

- time off work

Having said that, all that concentrating is really quite tiring. And because its court, and high court at that, you’re faced with the fact that bad stuff happens in the world.

Lesson learned: never ever, under any circumstances, try heroine.  It takes nice people and makes a huge big mess of their lives.

And the other good thing is that I didn’t have to have any part of making a decision, which was a relief.  Didn’t feel entirely ready for that level of responsibility.

It was the final day of the event where I was volunteering for the weekend.

People from all around the world had met, exchanged ideas, encouraged one another and even had the chance to “vote” using very cool voting pads. I’d never seen these things before, but they make a conference a very interactive thing (“if you think membership of this organisation is too expensive, press 3 now”).

Anyway, the event ended with an inspiring speech and a nice metaphor comparing NGOs to Christopher Columbus (he didn’t know where he was going, when he got there he didn’t know where he was, when he got back he didn’t know where he’d been, but he changed the world and he did it all on other people’s money!).

Then there was the inevitable list of thank-yous, which only differed from usual thank-yous by the fact that as well as thanking all the volunteers, staff, waiting staff etc they even thanked the producers of the food! Nice thought.

And then came the bit that was different to any other secular conference I’ve ever been to. They sang a song! And did a dance! It was a calypso, possibly the only calypso in the universe with the words “accountability” and “responsibility” in it?!?

Much nicer way to end than with just thanking everyone and lots of clapping. It got everyone smiling, even the ones who were far too british to join in!!

uh-oh, and its even made it onto You-tube ! (warning, it will make you dizzy!)

Oh and another good thing was that while tidying up at the end of the conference, recyling was done as a matter of course, and they paid attention to how much was left over in order to better plan for even less waste next year.

Some time last year, my hot water stopped being hot.  I ignored it for a while, because I have an electric shower and I can wash my dishes with hot water from the kettle.  (and possibly also because I’m too lazy to organise repairs and kind of expect things to fix themselves….)

Apparently the problem is the element in the water heater.  The resistance has gone which is why the fuses blow.  My colleagues reckoned it should be easy to fix, and the first step was to drain the hot tank.  So I sussed out which tap to turn off, and then ran the hot taps till they ran no more.  And thought I was very clever.

But little did I realise I had in fact switched off and drained the hot water tank AND the cold water tank.  So the kitchen still had cold running water and the shower still worked, but there was no water at all in the bathroom.  Argh.  Obviously I had to undo my good work with the tap and let the tanks fill up again.  So once again I had running water.  But this time the cold tap was running a bit less enthusiastically, and after a time it stopped running at all, and the toilet cistern no longer filled up.  Hmmm.

And I really really HAD turned back on the tap that I’d turned off, honest.

There was nothing else for it but to call a plumber.  The plumber turned out to be a nice man.  There is something a bit odd about having a stranger in your cupboard…! but he was very easy-going and not in the slightest scary. Within minutes he’d sorted out the cold water.  Apparently it was an air lock.  He fixed it by connecting the hot tap in the sink to the cold tap, and turning the hot tap on.  Clever yet simple.

So I now have running cold water in the bathroom and no longer have to take a bucket to retrieve (cold) water from the hot tap in the bath to refill the cistern!  Whew.

And on Monday the plumber will return with a new element, so with a bit of luck I will once again be able to have a hot bath.

Ooh isn’t civilisation luxurious! I’m SO happy to have cold running water, and looking forward to hot running water!