It seems like a couple of years ago, but may have been the shocking Winter of 2010, when our toilet downpipe was frozen solid for over 2 weeks right over the Christmas period, despite the best efforts of Dynorod, British Gas Homecare, and my DH with his magic hammer (which comes out for any necessary repair around the house). We were lucky in that our next door neighbour was away and kindly gave us her keys, so there followed many nocturnal trips and slips on an icy pavement. We had a houseful on Christmas Eve, and dozens of bags and Christmas presents piled up high in our small hall out of the way. On Christmas Day we found that someone making the toilet trip had left the front door open, but fortunately the local ne'er do wells must have been full of the Christmas spirit and hadn't noticed.