What Happened To You Last Week?
Its been a long while since I told a chapter. The last few chapters haven’t been the most light-hearted I know but they were subjects that I’d been wanting to tell for a long while. And I am glad I told them, the response has been overwhelming, with others telling me their stories. So grab yourself a cuppa or a glass of wine (depends on what time you're reading this) and get settled because there is a lot to tell.
I went home for initially two days, got stuck in Leeds for the night because of the floods. Wasn’t too bad because I got to see an old friend and played Mario with his flatmates which wasn’t so bad. Anyway, ended up staying in Yorkshire for a week instead. Came back to uni all was well. Went out out for the first time this year.
The club reminded me of why I don’t go out.
A) I can never settle because of anxiety.
B) The floors were so sticky I thought the carpet was going to come up.
C) I can never hold my bladder, I spent more time in the toilet that actually dancing.
Had to write up statements for my latest art project and start my presentation which was causing me to pull my hair out. Also because I left it all last minute it meant I had to stop reading for a week! On the brighter side though, I made a stew in the slow cooker for the first time, we were just about to sit down and eat when I got a phone call off Megan (the other Yorkshire lass) who lives in the flat next door but one from me. She never calls me so I knew it was an emergency.
“Phoebe my flat is fucking flooding I can’t” She shouted down the phone.
“Fuck off what! I’m on my way.” I put the phone down and turned to Kylie and Beth who were on facetime to Beth’s family. They heard what I said and were looking at me expectantly.
“Get your shit, the mop buckets, Megan’s flats flooding this is not a drill.” We all ran to get our boots on. We were already in our pjs as it was past seven in the evening, I was the first out of the flat and ran around to Megan’s. The other two were carrying the mop buckets. I walked into the flat, there is 7 bedrooms and the kitchen is at the far end of the flat. Megan is outside the kitchen door, her sleeves rolled up. The water was already filling up the hallway, my feet were instantly wet.
“I can’t stop it.” She said, I looked round and two of her flatmates (not naming names) were standing round like lost chickens.
“Right have you called security?” I asked one of them.
“Yes but they aren’t answering.” One of them said obviously.
“Well keep trying or go to reception and look for them instead of standing there.” She walked off, not ran, walked. Obviously her room flooding wasn’t much of a concern to her. Kylie and Beth came in with the buckets, something we learnt from the last time our flat flooded. Do you know in a medical drama where the doctor makes all the shots and commands everyone? That’s what I felt like. I turned to face everyone, “Right get towels, plenty of them, start soaking and draining them, mop buckets get them from the flats and get security down here we need them to shut off the water.” Everyone did as they were told and me and Megan walked into the kitchen where the water was pouring out from under the sink. It was like a scene from Titanic when the iceberg hits them.
“I can’t pin point the leak, there too much water.” Megan felt around under the sink until, “Got it, its coming from the tap pipe.”
“Here let me get it, I’ll hold it, you get the towels and make sure everyone’s stuff is off the floors.” She did just that, commanding everyone in her flat. Security came and she was useless. Telling us to turn off the water from under the sink. I must have told her not once, not twice but three times that the stop tap wasn’t under there but that it would be in the boiler which is locked away from students. She opened the boiler but refused to touch it. I mean fair enough cause she wasn’t sure. But she wasn’t the one holding on to the burst tap getting wet. Maintenance finally came and first thing he did was turn the water off at the bloody boiler. I was fuming. I got up from the floor, I was dripping from head to toe, my shoes drenched and my watch had water damage, it was only a £12 watch from Sainsburys but still. I was under there for 40 minutes holding on to that pipe. I walked out of the kitchen where the flatmates were stood around, they looked at my soaken state.
"Not a fucking word." I warned them in which we all began to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.
We then began to clear up, people from other flats donated their towels and helped mop up the floor the best we could. Me and Kylie were in the showers draining the towels so they could go back out and soak up more water. All seven rooms were affected. Poor Faye had come back from dropping her boyfriend off at the train station to come back to a flooded flat. Lucy wasn’t there because of a family emergency the night before. Luckily we were able to get into her room and pick up all her computers before the water went into her room. There were still people from that flat, who live in that flat who were still standing there doing nothing so Beth. Beth who never speaks out loud or voices her opinion to strangers burst.
“Oi. Are you gonna keep standing there or pick up a mop and help?” Me and Kylie were pissing ourselves and cheered Beth on when she came out with that. It was such a brilliant moment.
It was decided that the people living in the flat get moved upstairs above my flat which were spare ones. So just like me and my flat had to once, they began to pack their stuff. Faye was having a tough time with it so me, Kylie and Beth walked into her room. In a line we began to sing. You know the Ghostbusters song? Well it was that but instead we sang these words.
“If you’ve got a leak, and it don’t look good, who you gonna call? Flat 140. I ain’t afraid of no leak.”
It was a terrible version but it did make her laugh, we even did some terrible dancing to match.
Since the leak and the flooding. Which was way worse than the flood we had in my flat. Megan and the others have been living above us. Convenient for me as all I have to do is just walk upstairs to see her, Faye and Lucy.
It’s been a struggle of a week for us all. The weekend was a real low for me, Faye and Megan in that we are all full of flu and spent the weekend laughing, watching childhood shows, singing to Cher to the top of our voices at half one in the morning. Next door texted Faye and thanked us for the free performance. There was also a lot of hair involved over that weekend. It was like an episode of America’s Next Top Model when they all get there makeover, except it was more like Broke Student’s next top model. The bleaching of my brown hair and dying it pink. So yea I have pink hair now. It was either that or a tattoo. I went for the cheaper option. Megan then had the idea to cut her hair. So I did it for her at two in the morning. I’ve never put so much effort into something in my life. The next day I bleached her brown hair and dyed it blue that blends into teal. Its really nice to be honest, I think Brad Mondo would be proud. And hey, if I fail as an artist I could be a hairdresser. Faye went bright orange and Lucy’s gone a really dark blue. Its clear to see that the four of us have gone through some stuff this week, but its ok because we all have dyed hair. Dying your hair always makes things better, right?
So that was the week. Well more or less, it may sound depressing or sad in some areas but it’s a week I will never forget. One of the best weeks of my live. Its like when your watch the Breakfast Club or read about a group of people who all have their problems but no matter what life throws at them, they still manage to laugh about it. That’s what we’ve done. We’ve laughed so hard that it hurts and that’s all that matters.
After all it was just another week in the life as the Yorkshire Bookworm,
Till next time,
Phoebe x