Brazil and A Lesson in Life II

The electrician/plumber returned to ascend the ladder and found that, even at 24 feet, it was several feet too short to reach the second roof. So he removed some pantiles from the kitchen verandah on the ground floor and tried that but it was still too short. He then found a flat piece of hardwood and put this on a beam in the roof of the kitchen verandah and pushed the extended ladder up to rest on the wood. He ascended the ladder and removed the edge tiles from the top roof and went over the top. I had to turn the water pumps on so that he could identify the leak. This done, he came back down and went off to buy a new piece of pipe. When he returned he went back up and fixed the problem. He also made it clear that several of the pantiles on this secton of roof were broken. Fortunately, there were more than enough spares and he fixed that problem too. Just watching him made me feel anxious: no ropes, let alone safety harnesses and scaffolding, helmet and all the rest of it. My parents had a Sky dish fitted to the chimney of their house and the workman told them that he should really fix scaffolding to the building with bolts because using just a ladder was a breach of health and safety legislation!

Ultimately, I persuaded electrician/plumber to get the ladder taken away by car.