Broken Shower to Fixed Shower in 10 Easy(?) steps

My shower broke about last May or June. Seeing as it was only about 6 months old, I was pretty annoyed. Now by broke, I mean that there was still water coming out of the showerhead on demand, it was the right temperature so you could still have a shower, but there was also a shower coming out from behind the shower box. Not good...

I called a plumber in who told me there was no hope for it, but that I should call the makers, because it was still under warranty. I called the makers. They told me that it sounded like my shower safety valve had kicked in. Shower safety valve? Apparently this safety device kicks in when a shower's water pressure goes too high, due to a kinked pipe or something. So it was a simple fix, the nice lady told me. And sent me the list of 10 easy steps to fixing my shower.

Problem 1. My shower was grouted into the wall. So of course I put off doing the necessary repairs...until last weekend. So I printed the instructions and got going...

1 Switch off electric.
Boyfriend did this bit.

2 'Unscrew shower hose pipe'
Boyfriend did this bit.

3 Remove logo badge and casing screw
Boyfriend did this...

4 Pull off temperature dial
I had gained in confidence by this stage, so I did this

5 pull shower casing towards you and slide off downwards

Hmmm. 2 hours and one broken bathroom tile later, we managed to pull the casing off. But there was rejoicing, as surely the hardest (and most irritating part) was over.

6 Find the white plastic outlet pipe
Located it.

7 Remove the two small fixing screws.
Ah yes. The two small fixing screws. That would be the screw at the front, which is easy to access, and the screw at the back, which was obviously put in by a machine in a factory before my shower was stapled to the wall.

Boyfriend removed first screw, which was tighter than a crab's ass. Then he went off to have a coffee and fag. 1 hour and much teeth grinding later, I managed to remove the back screw (and much skin from my knuckles).

8 Remove the white plastic outlet pipe
yes yes yes

9 Locate the silicon ball in the t-junction of the white plastic outlet pipe, and push it back into place.

OK. I located the silicon ball and pushed it back into place, where it obviously was going to stop the overflow from the outlet pipe.

BUT I COULD'VE DONE THIS WITHOUT TAKING THE CASING OFF, WITHOUT UNSCREWING THE WHITE PLASTIC OUTLET PIPE AND MOST IMPORTANTLY WITHOUT SMASHING BATHROOM TILES TO GET THE CASING OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The t-junction was actually accessible from outside the shower. I could've just poked the ball back into place without any of this.

Instruction 10 - put everything back together again.

Oh God. Unscrewing the screws was a nightmare. Screwing them back in took forever. But the rest of the shower wasn't so bad. Got it all done and switched the shower on (boyfriend got me to switch shower on - before I did this I asked him if he knew what to do in cases of electrocution involving water. Response? Gallic shrug).

But the shower worked. Well, mostly. There's now a drip drip drip thing going on. But that's miles better than the gush gush gush thing.

10 Easy Steps? NEVER trust ANYTHING that's got 10 Easy Steps.