The flood
On Saturday night it was raining at our house. The problem was it wasn't raining down the street.
Mike and I had been home for an hour or so before Becki got home at midnight. But we thought that all the water coming from our apartment was from the floor below us. We were wrong.
We live on the 5th and 6th floor of our apartment (the top two). So when we realised that we could hear water dripping on both sides of the apartment we knew we had to look up on the roof. As we ventured up the stairs we realised that half the kitchen had about a cm of water on the floor. We grabbed torches (thats a flashlight for N Americans...) and kitchen chairs and peered through the darkness at the roof.
On the top of apartment buildings in Taiwan are little buildings that house the water tank. This building had a steady waterfall flowing down the sides.
We didn't know what to do. We tried turning off the water but that didn't help.
We tried calling the landlord. He didn't answer his phones. So we did what we always do in an emergency. Called our boss Milly! After a couple of phone conversations with her she said "I'm coming".
Amazing huh? It was 1am and she came to our rescue. With her brother and sister-in-law.
Her brother "Uncle Max" climbed up on the roof and investigated the problem. After about an hour we managed to stop the water. I must mention at this point Michael's heroic act of bravery and display of monkey skills. He squeezed through the metal bars to get into the basement in search of the water pump.
Milly and co went home at 2.45am.
To make a long story short. By Sunday night at 8pm the problem was fixed with the help of the local plumber. Turns out to have been a very simple problem. The ballcock in the tank was broken.
So now we are high and dry. Thank goodness! But mostly thank God for wonderful people like our boss! She's a Godsend for us.
