I've always said that any disaster which is over in one evening can't be that bad. It's a rule which applies to most of my dating experiences, but it's also true of last night. By the time we made it to bed at 11pm, the dripping had stopped (including our tears), and everything salvageable had been cleaned, dried, and laid out to air on the floor.

In addition to a load of old videos and paperbacks, plus a couple of minor appliances (not of the surgical kind), the main victim of the flooding was a big plastic tub of toddler toys which used to belong to Amelie, and were being saved for Toby's future. It bore the brunt of the initial leak, and had filled with water to a depth of more than three inches before we even knew we had a problem. A lot of the semi-submerged toys were battery operated or easily spoiled, so a lot of it had to go, but the good news is that I managed to save the set of sparkly plastic balls we bought in Hamleys three and a half years ago. It was Lisa's 40th, our first ever night away from Amelie, and the only time I've ever treated my wife to a fancy ball in London. So they have sentimental value.

We did have a slightly dodgy moment at about 10pm when Amelie woke up crying, and we found her bedroom light was flickering despite being turned off, which is not something you want to see when you've recently watched 'Paranormal Activity 3' on DVD, and had water spouting out of the wall by the light switch.

But fortunately we all made it through the night without being electrocuted in a pool of water or burnt alive by a short-circuiting light fitting. Sadly we didn't manage much sleep though, as the adrenaline which had got us through the evening failed to leave our bodies until the early hours.

As for today, I spent this morning shut in a room with a pretty woman, had lunch with a talented young man, and spent the evening at the flat of a single lady who answered the door in her night clothes and then gave me thirty quid for my efforts. Unfortunately I'm too knackered to write about it.