On Wednesday morning 6th January at 415am there was a loud bang from downstairs in our house - so loud it woke Conor and I (but Diane slept through it)
We ventured downstairs knowing that it wasn't an intruder because the house alarm hadn't gone off and Dougal (our dog who sleeps in the hall) hadn't barked
We discovered that a picture frame containing three photos of the Anton / Garretts had tipped forward off a shelf and onto the floor breaking itself in the process - the shelf was too high off the ground for Dougal to have done it and the frame had gone from leaning back against the wall to leaning forwards and onto the floor
No sign of Dougal.....
Our house is open plan from the hall into the kitchen - I could see through the kitchen doors that our garden lights were on - not the ones that shine down onto the patio, rather the ones that cover the garden (which means that they cant have been left on for at bedtime while Dougal did his night time business). I walked to the back door to turn them off and found Dougal sitting there beside a puddle of water - I thought he had wet himself from the shock.
I opened the back door getting the key from where it sits in front of the fish tank. At this point I noticed that water had started to pour from the seam between the side and back of the tank
Anyway, if the picture hadn't fallen I wouldn't have been in the hall. If the garden lights hadn't been on I wouldn't have walked to the back door. If Dougal hadn't been sitting there wanting out I wouldn't have looked for the key and found the leak.
Conor and I got the two fish into another bowl, emptied the tank out and cleared the mess - setting off the alarm in the process (but Diane slept through it) and fielding a call from the alarm company (but Diane slept through it)
If we hadn't got up, Wednesday morning would have had fifty odd litres of fishwater soaked into our kitchen cabinets ruining them and dead fish - if we had got up fifteen minutes earlier the leak from the tank wouldn't have been noticeable and we would have been none the wiser
What caused the picture to jump off the shelf?
Fast forward to Thursday morning. Conor comes into our bedroom and tells us that one of the goldfish has died and is floating around on its side in the fish bowl - I poke it, I prod it, it seems dead. I go to the garage to get the net from the box of fish stuff and notice that our central heating system in the garage has emptied itself overnight, the garage is soaked and the boiler is heating little water but much air...not a good but quite a dangerous combination. I stop the boiler and make it safe, come back into the kitchen with the net and the dead goldfish is swimming happily around the bowl....
I wouldn't have gone into the garage this morning if this had not happened. I would not have noticed the flooding threatening to soak everything on the floor (and there is a lot) and I wouldn't have turned the boiler off perhaps preventing a breakdown, fire or worse....
What brought the Goldfish back to life?
I've had a couple of strange unexplained things happen to me in previous years and there's been an event associated with them - thankfully not the same this time. I'm not religious, and I don't claim divine intervention but I would like some answers......
