These items have been known to cause grown men to cry and/or tear their hair out.

One of them once gave me nightmares for months.

When I bought one from the hardware shop yesterday, the assistant looked sadly at me and said “Good luck with that.”

What is it, you ask, that has this great power to instil such fear?

If you look carefully behind your toilet, perhaps scraping away years of dust and cobwebs, you will see that there is a rubber seal where the pipe from the cistern goes into the toilet pan. Because the water comes down with a fair bit of speed and then runs around the rim of the toilet, there is a lot of turbulence and the joint has to be well sealed.

Hence the rubber device, which has to fit very tightly on both the pipe and the toilet, otherwise you get a very wet floor.

The first time I replaced one, it took me hours to get the large end onto the toilet. Other people seem to have trouble with getting it onto the pipe.

Eventually I went back to the shop and asked what the secret is. It is so simple. You put the pipe end on first then roll the rubber back, turning it inside out. Then you insert the pipe into the pan and unroll the rubber.

Yesterday’s job took me about ten minutes, including removing the old one.

Then Margaret discovered our other toilet also had the same problem.

Two of those in two days, no tears or nightmares.

I should have been a plumber 🙂