LIFE is anything but quiet right now for a Blackpool buttie shop which recently suffered a nightmare week.

And for Kim Hearty at Kim's sandwich and grocery shop on Cookson Street, the only way to cope was through laughter.

At 1am on Sunday (January 26), somebody broke in through one of the windows and Kim told the Citizen: "The intruder obviously didn't know our sandwiches are only made to order and that he would have had to wait until Monday morning for one to be made. The police were told there was a hole in the window and they said they would look into it."

Then, on Thursday, North West Water had to cut of water supplies along the street to work on the road.

As environmental regulations demand running water is available in a sandwich shop, Kim asked the road diggers what she should do if an inspector arrived.

She said: "They said I should send him to their hole in the road and they would bury him! The inspector only visits once every 12 months, but he was visiting the pub across the road when the water was turned off, so he came and paid me a visit too. He was not amused at the prospect of being buried!"

The water was switched on by 4pm, but unfortunately for Kim nobody told the tenant in the flat above the shop who had left his tap on.

Kim said: "Did you know that suspended shop ceiling tiles melt when soaked with water? They then fall in a soggy mass on the floor."

Now Kim can laugh at the experience and sees a funny side to it although it took a while to clear up the mess.

Business at Kim's sandwich and grocery shop is nearly back to normal ... apart from a boarded up window and a hole in the roof.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.