[WillowTheWhisp]

I was in the middle room doing a spot of ironing when my daughter came home from school and asked me what that big grey thng was across the road and what all the people were doing gathered round it.

I looked. It was a water tank. I tried the kitchen tap. Trickle, trickle, drip. I looked for a big pan and went to join the people across the road, sent second daughter to check if the neighbours had water and if they knew about the tank.

Some people were filling plastic dustbins with water. We found a couple of pop bottles which thankfully hadn't been recycled yet because they aren't collected until tomorrow but before we'd got much the tank ran out.

Point 1 I am a little miffed with the greed and selfishness of people who were intent on getting as much water for themselves and to heck with anybody else. I am especially miffed at the exceedingly selfish soul who washed out his container before filling it and poured a couple of gallons of precious water down the road!

Point 2 I am also a little miffed with United Utilities who were able to bring a tank but didn't make any attempt to let anyone know about it as far as I am aware. People who saw it through their front window were of course first in line for water.

Apparently there's been a burst watermain up Willows Lane somewhere which they are attempting to fix.

There are more tanks around Fern Gore but it's too far for me to be able to carry pans of water so we'll just have to try to manage with what we've got for now and hope it won't be off for too long.

Can't even get through to UU - all you get is an automated message telling you there's a burst and where the tanks are, which is pretty useless as the one they say is outside here is already empty. For all I know the others probably are too by now.

If we haven't any water tomorrow I can see me going on the scrounge to friends in other parts of Accrington!