We arrived back in Amsterdam yesterday evening. The luggage took an eternity to roll off the conveyor belt at Schiphol and I arrived with a splitting headache (which had started midway through the first leg, from Tenerife to Madrid), an affliction that is becoming all too common for me these days when flying. This time, I was really nauseated and could barely eat anything when I got home. I crashed on the sofa around 21:30 and slept for about eleven hours. Most unusual.
Worse, however, was the sight that awaited us in the dining-room. Going on holiday doesn’t seem possible for us any more without some kind of watery incident occurring in our absence.
You may recall that last time, our boiler had leaked its entire contents via a circuitous route onto the dining-room ceiling. We had wasted no time in getting the boiler repaired and the ceiling was repainted just before going on this most recent holiday.
Alas, although the boiler had, indeed, emptied itself last time, a separate problem must have been behind the water on the dining-room ceiling, because the same thing has happened again this time, too. Our lovely paint job, just a few weeks old, is ruined; the brown stains on the ceiling are back with a vengeance.
Of course, upon seeing the damage, I immediately suspected our boiler again, so I bolted upstairs to check it. To my surprise (and relief), there was nothing wrong with it.
This leaves us with something of a mystery. What is the cause of the leak? I think it must have something to do with either the pipes of the shower cabinet or the heated towel rack in the bathroom above. Troubleshooting this problem could prove very difficult without breaking open walls and/or floors.
One thing’s for certain: there’s no point in having the ceiling repainted until we get to the bottom of this puzzle and have the problem fixed. Let’s hope that, when we do, the insurance is prepared to cough up for the damage a second time.
Groan…