John: Tony the plumber, Nile cruise, jokes

Mar 26 2009 By John Avison

ON our Nile cruise we were sitting opposite Tony, a retired plumber, at mealtimes, and he regaled us with several stories about things that go wrong in the trade.

He recalled one occasion when his crew got a job to fit a bathroom radiator at 19 St Anne’s Drive. The owners would be out and the key was under the mat.

They got into the house and Tony drilled holes in the tiles to fit the radiator.

"I can’t find the boiler," his mate shouts up the stairs.

There wasn’t a boiler. There was no central heating in the house. It was, in fact the wrong house. They should have been at 19, St Anne’s CRESCENT.

It was just an amazing coincidence that both houses had keys under the mat.

Tony quickly filled the holes in the bathroom tiles and they beat a hasty retreat.