joys of country living and 'appliance' conspiracy - update

On Wednesday my cordless phone decided the signal wasn't strong enough. No dial tone on the base station.

Blast.

Util I can read the instructions and see what's wrong I'll break out the really, really old Telecom handset. Which works, but has a very short tether which is really impossible when you've had a cordless phone for over ten years!

It's been very wet up here for about 18 months. I asked the neighbour to turn off the water at the meter because the tank would overflow in the storms we were getting at the end of every year for the last two years. I haven't paid for water for about six billing cycles.

Friday night in the shower the water wasn't at normal pressure, it was kinda dribbling - turning the taps on as far as I could didn't help. It took forever for the hot water to arrive. After a few minutes there was normal pressure, but it too a while.

I checked the water tank on Saturday night. Some idiot turned off the town water during all the rain several months ago and has forgotten to turn it back on. Aiieee.

Oh no! What's wrong with the pump?

Turned the water on. When I first moved here in December 2003 I could hear the water trickling into the tank. Now I'm a bit deaf and I can't hear it at all unless I'm right beside the tank. It was raining so I wansn't sure it was the town water trickling in or the rainwater off the roof.

If the water wasn't flowing into the tank there was something wrong with the valve in the tank. Sounds like dollars. This morning I checked the meter and it's clicked over. Hurrah. It's working. I think.*UPDATE* No it's not. No water flowing into the tank at all.

So then to check the pressure pump. Seems OK, but I looked up troubleshooting with pumps and found that there could be gunk in the pressure sensor due to the tank being almost empty.

Tonight I've called the electrician and he said that if the water's not flowing from the meter it's probably the filter blocked up.

I've just phoned a plumber and he's going to look at it for me tomorrow. He thinks the ball-cock in the tank may have seized.

Hurrah!

Now I'm sitting here wondering what's going to go next. The pump, if I have a shower?

Update:
The plumber arrived at about midday or there abouts. The water was switched off at the tank, I didn't realise that.
He made sure the pump was OK, and tried to start it, but there wasn't enough water in the tank to keep it going.
He called Urban Utilities (the mob who now look after the water), and they came out and removed the slow flow valve pipe and put it a no slow flow valve pipe. They arrived at about 2-ish, and the tank is nearly full now!
I had a 500* litre shower a while back. It was gooooooooooooood.

*That's a joke!