The shower situation has reached defcon 5

For those of you living in Ireland, or following the local 'national emergency' you will be familiar with the situation our recent inclement weather has left us with. I speak specifically of Dublin, as I have not experienced first hand what might be going on down the country.

Firstly a small amount of snow and ice managed to practically ground a post celtic tiger nation to a halt. On Sunday we all eagerly (and with some trepidation) anticipated the arrival of a snow blizzard that was to be 'the last coming' only for rain to arrive and wash our meagre, but deadly, snow and ice away. And now, now what do you ask is the catastrophe facing the Irish people? (well maybe not the entire population, but definitely me) NO RUNNING WATER!

It appears, that not only did the snow and ice grind the city to a halt and many of us to our bums, it has also unleashed its own personal kind of havoc on our water system. Leaving a once great and abundantly flowing city cracked and dry. Thankfully the various County Councils have gotten their asses in gear and are all actively repairing and providing water when and where they can, so we are not going without. But the lack of piped, running water has brought with it some interesting personal challenges;

1. My washing machine is stuck mid cycle and wont stop or start because there is no water to complete the cycle - not a major worry but I am sure it is having some untold effect on society that will show itself once I get water flowing through the pipes again. This I fear!

2. I have an inner personal dilemma; can I put the dishwasher on? Sure I've checked out the Fingal Co Co website and they advise to conserve water at all costs (and BELIEVE ME I have, you'll read in a moment some of the extremes I've been forced to) and to only use dishwashers that are totally full -well mine is... but I feel like there should be a number or something I should be ringing in order to get permission.

Why are you being so prissy about this I hear you ask... lets progress onto reason 3 and 4 and it will become clearer.

3. With no water, my toilets don't flush. TMI I hear you scream. Oh believe, that isn't the half of it. Now I Googled it, and you can make toilets flush manually, but you need to water to do that - water I don't have, well not abundantly anyways. So I think to myself, if I rather grossly don't flush the toilet all the time, surely it wont use too much water to flush? 6 bloody litres is what it takes to flush a toilet! A HELL of alot of water, especially when you don't have much.

4. The shower situation. After 3 days of baby wipes and flannelet rub downs you need a shower. Well there is that and the fact you have to wash your hair - OR ELSE. So today I think to myself, we've not used any water upstairs in quite sometime, surely the tank has refilled just a little and I could, at the very least get my hair washed.

I also think to myself if I wash my hair into a big blue barrel I will have a supply of water to flush the toilet with. [This will make a conservationist out of me yet!]

So I get set up. All is going well, hair is wet, shampoo is on, I decide to chance a bit of face wash at the same time. All still going well, I reach for the shower head, turn the dial - NOTHING. No water. NADA. You could probably hear my 'CRAP' in the next town.

I start thinking what the fook am I going to do? So I decide that if I boil some water and mix with some cold down stairs and use a jug to pour over me into the barrel it will have the same effect. Only problem? I'm running out of containers. So I have to mix in the sink. So four trips up and down the stairs gives me enough water to rinse. AND the lovely back and forward motion I have to use between the sink and my barrel (which is too heavy for me to move) with my dripping hair means that my floors are soaking too. Now normally I would HATE this, wet floors drive me crazy (YES JAMES THAT IS AIMED AT YOU) but I think to myself - this is an opportunity, so once the hair is rinsed I get out the mop and clean the floor too! I know, I know, I should be put up for a Greeny Award or something.

So hair rinsed and floor mopped I'm not brave enough to chance the conditioner and I still really need to shower, cause if I don't shave my legs soon we could have another ecological disaster on our hands. So this evening I am high tailing it over to my parents house for a proper shower! Ironically my parents are currently in India working with disadvantages children! Come back I say, your own are disadvantages at the moment!