Christmas nightmare

Burst pipes and back-boiler, flooded sitting room and cake-hungry mice feature among Áilín Quinlan’s not-so-happy festive memories

I LOVE Christmas – but it isn’t all plain sailing. Not in our house anyway. Last Christmas the back-boiler burst, we lost our water and our central heating and nearly had to cancel our Christmas dinner. And, oh yeah, the fireplace fell off the wall. But even that wasn’t the end of it.

St Stephen’s morning I was putting the rubbish out when I slipped on the icy footpath and sprained both my wrists. Badly.