Water works

Up and over West Hill this morning, to find this contraption on the way up. Gurgling audible and water visible down the hole, so hopefully temporary.

Over the hill to be greeted with 'Road Closed' signs and no fewer than five Thames Water vans attending a large, water filled hole in the road. Maybe twice as many hi-vis's. A couple of tanker lorries parked in the small car park by Fair Green. A modest amount of water running down towards the railway bridge.

Some cars got the message early and U-turned as soon as they saw the queue. Others waited until they actually saw the hole. Others still were taking a turning to the left, which was odd as all of the turnings on this stretch are cul-de-sacs: perhaps they were older drivers who had not got the hang of their sat-navs.

Was there any connection with the water on the other side of the bridge noticed at reference 1? Bing turns up the snippet above from Surrey County Council, suggesting that we might be in for a protracted closure, a closure which might have been planned. Protracted closure of one of the main roads connecting Epsom to the outside world? Thames Water site unhelpful (to me), but Bing does offer reference 3 in support, paywalled at Elsevier, but available for free from ResearchGate.

Pushed on into town where I was a little early for my appointment, so having strolled about and not found any trolleys, I took up a seat in the market square, carefully avoiding the ones with notices saying that I did not mind if people came along to chat with me. 

Onto the waiting room where I turned the pages of an ENT magazine, where I came across pictures of elaborate ENT workstations which looked rather like dental workstations with knobs on. Probably best not to inquire what all the gadgets on the end of long lines are for.

I then learned that my hearing was very good (for my age). But at least my ears are now empty of both oil and wax and there was no talk of hearing aids, at least not just yet. I also learned that shops in Epsom had been troubled last week by early arrivals for the Derby getting the idea that it was OK to take a shopping trolley into a shop, fill it up and then take it out again without paying. Perhaps relatives of the skirmishers noticed at reference 2? And I had thought that all that sort of thing was long in the past, in the days when said early arrivals used to tour Epsom housing estates selling odds and ends - perhaps old-style clothes pegs or sprigs of heather - and perhaps with an eye to the main chance. Perhaps a job that did not really need doing, an insecure car or an open back door.

One washer added to the collection. Aluminium, medium sized, say about an inch in diameter.

The strange weather continues, with a cool start to the day - but with warm to follow. Yesterday broke the pattern with warm starting around 10:00, but today it was more like 12:00 before the warm came on.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/05/around-epsom.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/06/trolley-572.html.

Reference 3: Water quality modeling in the dead end sections of drinking water distribution networks - Ahmed A. Abokifa, Y. Jeffrey Yang, Cynthia S. Lo, Pratim Biswas - 2015.