Water, water everywhere

... and not a drop to drink. I finally know what that means: it's all about a week in the life of Nobby and me in Sesame Street, Budapest. (Our road is named after a Hungarian children's TV programme, you should see the looks I get when I'm asked to recite it, I guess anyone who lives in a Ramsay Street or Cockleshell Bay knows what I mean.)

Water, water, water. This week I have either been jumping into it, getting pelted with it, mopping it up or wondering why none of it is coming out of the taps. And there I was imagining I would spend the summer holidays just using it in frozen cuboid form to cool my Pimms and lemonade.

After the fun and games of Pickle's indoor party we were hoping for a better weather result on Tuesday night for the open air Depeche Mode concert at the football stadium. After all, this is Budapest in late June.. durrr, what were we thinking? When we [abandoned] parked the car things were looking OK and there was almost enough blue sky to make a pair of sailors trousers (another old English saying, oh we're on a roll tonight) but being a Mummy for the past eight years has clearly hammered some precautionary sense into me and I tied my raincoat round my middle while Nobby decided to 'risk it'. As David Ghan appeared on stage in all his glory (and Nobby proudly noted that 'he's got more chins than I have') a little light drizzle began to fall, which was all well and good because we were packed in like sardines on the pitch between a goth in her best funeral hat and a bloke wearing black angel wings over his T-shirt. But by 'A Question Of Time' it was pretty much pelting. Lucky me having my raincoat - trouble is the hood acoustics weren't up to much so I couldn't really put it up so I opted for the free hair wash instead with everyone else. Meanwhile Nobby got drenched to the skin. As a consolation, next day I popped out and bought two tickets for their return trip in January, mercifully at the indoor Arena.

One of Pickle's favourite non-Lego presents at his birthday party was a snorkel and flippers set. So that explains why I have been (reluctantly) jumping into water. The little monkeys know that swimming is Mummy's least favourite activity - given the choice between a trip to the local pool or unclogging the toilet, the U-bend wins every time. But it's been raining and they've been driving me mad - when they drag themselves out of the virtual reality world of My Sims and Mario Go-Karting on the Nintendos long enough to take a pop at each other - plus I'm supposed to be a yummy mummy who encourages their kids to do sports, getting them swimming and riding two-wheelers before they're able to walk, so I had to knuckle down and fish out the one-piece. Luckily now they can swim a bit I don't have to supervise quite as much these days, apart from the occasional 'Help!' from Pickle when he gets out of his depth and out of breath. Which is all the time in the outdoor pool at our local sports centre. I just have to ask, who builds a 'children's pool' complete with slides and sprays that is a uniform depth of 1.5 metres? Do they all have their bean-pole growth spurts early here or what? Anyway, I got through several chapters of my book while they pretended to be sharks in the jacuzzi, although I don't think they much amused the old couple in there for a spot of relaxation before their afternoon nap. Pickle declared himself very satisfied with snorkelling, once he'd mastered the art of dipping his face in the water without dunking the whole breathing pipe in as well and trying to respirate chlorinated water. Poppet has declared that she needs some flippers now, having beaten me six times in races down the pool (I was doing my very best front crawl too, can't imagine how she did it...)

Today was actually relatively dry and warm so late afternoon I somehow persuaded them that poor neglected Tiggy might like a walk and we could go somewhere flat so they could ride their bikes at the same time. We had a very pleasant jaunt up in the hills, even Tiggy behaved herself and didn't sniff too many people in inappropriate places (crotches). Then there was an ominous rumble of thunder and we bolted for the car, generously swinging by the office on the way home so Nobby wouldn't get another soaking. There followed the mother of all storms. You know when books say that the clouds were 'boiling'? Well they were, it was absolutely fascinating. And the setting sun turned the sky all different shades of pink and orange and red, wherever it wasn't already a dirty grey. There was a beautiful rainbow at one point, and lots and lots of lightning, followed by an almighty hailstorm which pounded the house for half an hour. I decided the best view of the light-show might be the glassed-in balcony in the kids' rooms. Indeed, it was a lovely view, however the sight of the storm gushing in through the closed windows was far more alarming and I missed the next half an hour as I shifted toys out of the flood, mopped up and manhandled plastic sheeting over the outsides of the windows to stop further leakage. Then I called the landlord, who happily started telling me how he was out inspecting his flowers and fruit-trees after the hail before I interrupted with the news that his windows are knackered, then he shut up and agreed to come over in the morning.

So there you have it, a watery old week. Oh, except for the two days when the water supply was once more cut off without warning, I was only alerted to the fact when I tried to fill the kettle for a well-earned cup of tea after one of the swimming trips. The water company have two enormous holes in the already narrow roads leading up to our place which are daily surrounded by well-fed looking blokes, each one variously sporting wrenches, bum-cleavage and/or man-boobs who happily interrupt their loitering to say hello whenever we pass them. I reckon they might all be a tad muddy tomorrow morning, the torrents of water coming down the hill may even have filled the holes in for them.

So tomorrow one of my best friends is coming for the weekend with her hubby and toddler and we are planning to stop in at the free open-air Simply Red concert up at Heroes Square on Saturday night - weather permitting. I'll let you know.