Plumbers with letters : Ken Gibbs

   

UNICEF staff – in former years – came with a range of skills befitting their respective roles.  Health staff often were recruited from the medical profession – or perhaps from the local barbers’ shop; nutrition staff sometimes had experience within their family’s kitchen.  Communication staff were normally good at writing fiction and, “Yes, you guessed it”: WASH staff knew something about how water behaves – like when you spill it, it takes forever to dry up.

On retirement, XUNICEF members sometimes brought their skills to bear when events took over at their home, if they weren’t restricted by arthritis, lack of teeth, and failing sight.  Teeth, by the way, are essential for stripping the plastic sleeving of flex when fixing electrical switch gear associated with water systems.

My stage in life is such that my teeth can be extracted to examine them and to pick out the odd bit of meat lodged in them. . . .but this is all about my friendship with a local plumber whom I had asked to help me when I couldn’t resolve a recent event.  Let’s look at the sequence of events:

On Monday evening when I was doing the washing up, I noticed that the cold tap water was discoloured and had a lot of entrained air in it – a sign that a recent mains leak had been ‘fixed’.  I immediately checked with my neighbours whom I advised NOT to drink the water until the discolouration and air had cleared.  Use bottled water or boil your water required for drinking, I said, as we often did in the field.

I took a number of photos on my phone, just in case I needed to contact the water company.  Having spent a number of years studying engineering, I always found the simplest photos are usually the most effective.  Here we have a glass filled with ‘aerated’ water set in the window which can show how fast the air rises to the surface.

By Tuesday evening, the discnolouration was reduced but the aeration was still very much in evidence.  Ditto for Wednesday evening.  Usually when this happens, it clears in a matter of hours, but here we were, days into the event and we were not getting clean, clear water and, horrors upon horrors, all hot taps throughout the house stopped flowing.

Happily, our shower unit works on the cold feed so we could remain clean for the duration.  I called my friend John, the plumber, who said he’d come the next day to check what was necessary.

He came, made a couple of tests, then sat down and scratched his head.  I suggested that there was probably an air-lock which needed to be cleared.  John was not entirely convinced, and he drew me a sketch to explain what he felt was the setup in our very ancient water system in the house.  He didn’t have the right ‘kit’ to clear it – if that was the problem - but he promised to return early next morning.

Saturday morning bright and early he arrived; was given a cup of hot coffee and he set to work.  As he is about 40 years my junior, I watched in admiration, remaining ready to switch various taps on or off as required.  Sure enough, his solution obviously cleared the problem and all hot taps started running with hot water again, thank heavens.

I cunningly hid the sketch he had made lest a precious example of his art be lost for ever, and he departed, promising to send me a photo of his youngest grandchild over whom he absolutely dotes.

As John didn’t come with paintbrushes, his sketch was rudimentary, and I felt it needed completing.  A short time later, I had the sketch virtually complete and I signed the art work for him, providing him with the approbation of RA after his name.  While the great masters have RA after their name to indicate that they are elite members of the Royal Academy (of Art), for us simpler mortals, the RA perhaps indicates ‘Rudimentary Art’.  Incidentally, I have a number of letters after my name, but they are there for decoration only, even though I consider myself a plumber of sorts.

I won’t charge John for this priceless art work, but I have emailed him with it for his records.