Climbing The Roof.

Ah, the weather gods are paying us back.

The last few days the weather has been trying to dampen Austria's spirit by deluge, flooded streets, mud slides, overflowing rivers and flooded cellars but as annoying as it is, Austrians are made of sterner stuff. The first few days Burgenland was akin to the promised land with sunshine and nary a rain cloud in sight but that changed last night.

The sky blackened and the rain came riding in on the back of a wild bronco. It stormed so badly that doors flew open, rain was smashed against windows and trees just about folded in two. All we cared about was that the vines would be spared and I still have to find out from Bob if they were.

Both of us were standing in our kitchen yesterday evening viewing the rain through the comfort of a window when we noticed a few tiny streams of water running down the kitchen wall. Ah yes, we panicked for a second imaging our house collapsing ( drama queens I tell you ) and after checking every room discovered another rivulet from the bathroom ceiling. Yikes, nothing for it but to go up into the attic to inspect the leaks.

Now our attic resembles a set from Steven King; dark, dusty, precarious and inhabited by spiders, martins, mice and a feral cat and to top it all off, it is only reachable by climbing a spindly ladder and somehow fitting through a tiny hole ( about a meter square ) in the wall. Yes, stuff of adventures and also stuff I tend to pull the it's a man's job card.

Bob reluctantly agreed to go up but as he opened our front door to dash outside he heard the siren. Wasn't he pleased! A fire brigade call-out naturally takes precedent and with a quick peck on my cheek he ran off, telling me to be careful going up the ladder.

Well, equipped with bowl and pluck I went up the ladder only to be met with my personal hurdle of how to get my sore knee ( two botched cartilage ops ) over the threshold of the attic. Thank goodness nobody was watching from below as it must have been a funny sight. Once there I nearly toppled back out again when the feral cat shot past me in fright. Jeez, he could be a bit more considerate seeing that we feed him.

The gaps in the roof were quickly discovered and I did a sort of MacGyver-ish job with the odd old building material laying about and said a quick prayer for the rain to stop. Fat chance, it carried on sporadically through the night. At one point I was petrified of having to wait atop the opening until Bob came home because it wasn't easy trying to wriggle out backwards onto the first wrung of our wooden ladder. Imagine not being able to bend one of your knees! I managed though and at least have worked out a quicker way to go into the attic.

Eventually Bob returned from pumping out several cellars with the fire brigade and was quite proud of me when I told him about my endeavour. After both of us had stopped panicking we sat down and worked out a plan of how to fix the leaks and will start repairs this weekend. Thankfully the sun is set to stay with us from tomorrow for a fortnight. Nothing we can't handle together...

Biggi