cleaned the grill and the burner covers and everything was going well, and then i opened the stoppers on both of the sinks, and...nothing. the water just sat there.
oh boy.
i put the stoppers back in the sink, put a basin under the trap, unscrewed it, and watched the water flow out. okay, fine. emptied it outside. repeated this several times. i could only drain into a wide, shallow basin. water kept slopping, despite my best efforts. an awful, wet mess. i ran to get towels and get them down before getting back to manually draining the sink.
eventually i got everything drained, & everything cleaned up. i put a lot of towels through the wash. i called the plumber, and today being easter sunday, he was apologetic, but the plumbing stores are all closed in case a part is needed, can this wait till tomorrow? and it can, and i guess it will, but what a shitty day. hopefully tomorrow my sink will get sorted.