Head down and typing away, suddenly I was interrupted by a call from a lovely lady reader called Margaret.

“Janice, I hope you don’t mind me calling you,” she explained.

“But I just turned to my husband Richard and said: "You know what? We’ve just had a ‘Janice Bell week’. And it’s only Monday!”

“A what?” He queried.

“You Couldn’t Make This Up!”

Margaret then went on to unfold their recent unlucky catalogue of costly misfortunes.

Now it turns out that Margaret who is 74 was over the moon when her husband Richard, 77 announced last weekend that they could both do with a much needed last minute break in the sunshine.

“Right Margaret, let’s take the bull by the horns and book ourselves a holiday somewhere nice and warm. After all, we could both do with a break.”

“But Janice,” Margaret continued. “Although initially I thought it was a great idea, I suggested to Richard that perhaps we should wait, what with Christmas just around the corner.”

Nevertheless, Richard apparently seemed determined to go ahead with his bright idea.

“We’ve don’t have an awful lot going on this month Margaret.” He assured his reluctant wife.

“So there’s nothing really stopping us.”

“Well,” explained Margaret. “He went ahead and booked us a week in Benalmadena leaving the following weekend.”

Sunday night after booking their wee break, Richard went upstairs and had his nightly shower before it was Margaret’s turn.

“However, I had no sooner stepped in the shower when the water turned ice cold and I realised that the shower had packed in.” Margaret confirmed.

“I’m telling you Janice that was just the start of things to come.”

Seemingly Richard had just paid for the unexpected holiday on the Sunday and then on the Monday morning realised that he would have to fork out a wee fortune for a plumber to come out and fit a brand new shower.

“I know the feeling Margaret,” I sympathised. “I’ve had three new showers in the last few years.”

“Just as Richard hung up the phone to the plumber, a letter dropped through the letterbox reminding us that the car insurance, which we had both forgotten about, was due,” explained Margaret.

“Oh no, that was an expensive couple of days for you then,” I said.

“Well, we had booked the holiday and there was no way of cancelling, Janice, so we decided that even although we had to pay for the holiday, the shower and the car insurance, it was still worth going.”

“But then with all the mounting bills in mind….”

“I decided that rather than tell Richard I was heading out to buy some new clobber for our holiday, I pulled out my old holiday clothes to give them a wash and freshen up.”

“Good thinking,” I surmised. Best not to push your luck at times like these.

“But just as my last wash was almost finished,” Margaret added, getting rather irate. “The blinking washing machine broke-down.”

“On No.” I felt sorry for the pensioners. “That’s another expensive outlay that you hadn’t accounted for.”

“Too right it was,” Margaret agreed.

Apparently Margaret was now all the more determined to go on the much needed holiday.

“Well,” Margaret continued with her saga. “As most of our household items seemed to have given up the ghost, I was sure that nothing else could go wrong.”

“So we went to bed and managed to laugh off the mounting bills and decided to put the last minute holiday costs, the replacement shower and plumber bills, the car insurance demand and the washing machine repairs to the back of our minds and look forward to our break.”

“That was until……..”

Apparently the next morning Richard and Margaret woke up to find that out of the blue somehow their toilet system had packed in too.

“Now you couldn’t make that up Janice,” Margaret insisted.

Margaret seemed to be in fine fettle considering the week she was having (and it was still only Monday.)

“I’m glad you phoned Margaret,” I laughed. “At least now I know I’m not the only one to have a disastrous week.”

“Richard and I can’t wait to lie on the Benalmadena beach and order a large jug of ice cold sangria.”

“After all. What else could go wrong?”

I wished the ‘lucky couple’ a happy holiday and thankfully to date I haven’t heard of any further misfortunes.

Fingers crossed!!