I have 30 minutes to wait so thought I may as well update this blog. Why do I have 30 minutes to wait? Well let me start at the beginning...
A couple of days ago as I was taking my morning shower I noticed the water seemed to be circling the drain at a slightly slower pace than usual. I knew this was bound to happen eventually but by looking at the rate of drainage I figured I'd have a week before I'd have to do anything about it.
Yesterday, the pace was even slower but nothing to worry about - a little water left over in the tub after I'd finished but it went down pretty quickly after.
This morning however, the drain decided to completely die on me and suddenly I found myself ankle deep in water (most of the showers here are in baths so it's not as bad as it sounds). Rushing off to work I left it to drain out during the day.
Throughout the day I completely forgot about it, or the idea that I should call my super to go unblock it, but when I got home, memories came flooding back and I anxiously peered into the bath ... and darn it, the water level hadn't moved. Unconvinced, I inspected the water level more closely (having made a mental note where it was at when I left this morning!), but nope, it hadn't moved at all! What? that's impossible? How could the drain deteriorate so quickly?
A couple of minutes were then spent cursing while I searched the bathroom cupboard for the plunger. The previous owner had left it behind, but for good reason. It was pretty beat up and didn't have good suction at all. But with few other options I discarded my socks, rolled up my pants and with a grimace stepped into the dirty, cold bath water. eeew.
After 5 minutes of hard "plunging" (is that a word?) I inspected the water line again. Nothing. Nada. No movement. Instead I was left with pieces of black slimy gunk now floating in the water. I swore a lot. I don't care if I wake the neighbours I thought, I'm going to do more plunging till it clears. It was about 11:45pm at this stage as I'd got home late tonight.
After another 5 minutes of plunging I looked at the water line again. I think maybe it moved 2 millimeters but that's it. Shit. By this stage it was past midnight. Knowing I had to get the water out somehow, I turned to my trusty cooking pot from IKEA and started scooping water from the bath into the toilet. It was a workout (which I probably needed anyway as I quit the gym today - haha! but that's another story).
Once I had gotten most of the water out, I tried the plunger again. More black slimy gunk but the drain wasn't moving.
The only way to clear it was to get some Draino, but what's open at this hour? There was only one thing to do....
It was scooter time.
I jumped on my trusty steed and sped down the streets trying to find a store that was open. It's actually quite fun scootering late at night. There's no one around to try and avoid so you can go pretty fast. Eventually I found a 24 hr Duane Reade and picked up the biggest bottle of Draino I could find.
So now I've poured it down the drain and am just waiting for it to work its magic. It's been about 1/2 an hour so will go look. Please, please let it have worked. Otherwise I'm in a worse off position. Can't plunger anymore cos I'll plunger all the chemical/bleach/whatever it's made off back up and it could spray into my face.
Fingers crossed... stay tuned.