The Leaker Monday May 7, 3:19pm
How can I ever thank you enough? The drips... have stopped. I can think again.
Which is good, because there's quite a bit to think about. Not just that juicy mystery I mentioned, but the utter bizarreness of the man whose flat was producing the drips. I'll get back to both of those in a minute.
Kurt has, in fact, worked more of his magnificent mojo and found me proper plans of the building. But before he managed to do that I'd already received a host of emails telling me to go have a talk with flat #13, first from Jason R Miller (aka Milkman), and then Ben Harris, Justin Peeples, David Waring, Lizzie Colclough, and on and on. Thank you, all of you, for your aid and support in this trying time for me.
So I went up to the flat you sent me to, #13. Knocked on the door several times. No response. Shouted. No response. Took my boot off and hammered on the door. At last it was opened, by a man dressed in a battered tweed suit, wearing two pairs of glasses at the same time and sporting the most enormous beard I've ever seen. I introduced myself, explained the problem. He blinked at me.
"Yeeeees," he said eventually. "The new supercoolant might produce that effect. I suppose it's possible," he giggled, "it's possible I shouldn't have used it in a residential area."
It was my turn to blink at him.
"Come and see," he said, beckoning.
It turns out that this Gustaffsen has been using supercoolant intended for a new high velocity aircraft to... run his refrigerator. The thing was sitting in the centre of his living room, juddering like a PCAG hopeful hopped up on Ceretin, looking pretty likely to explode at any moment. Fortunately, he was a friendly fruitcake and was quite willing to turn it off to stop the drips. I can't help feeling that I've also prevented a blast which would have taken out most of the Old Town but, as ever, The World Will Never Know.
Gustaffsen's definitely on the more harmless side of eccentric. He insisted I stay for a cup of tea (there were beard hairs floating in it, so I politely 'left it to cool') while he told me about his terrible postal problem. All his parcels are being delayed, he says. Now, everyone always complains about the postal service, and we've all had a parcel take 30-40 minutes more than expected to arrive. But he reckons his parcels have been delayed by up to a day. Which would be, in my experience, unheard-of. I haven't had that problem in this building yet but I'll be watching out for it.