Boiler saga

Not even a year old and my beloved new Boiler has died. No heating, no hot water, no lights, no nuffink. The Boiler Man came yesterday and proclaimed it dead by virtue of drowning. I could see the water myself when he took the cover off. In every nook and cranny, it was. “Where did that come from?” I asked. “The sky,” he replied amusingly.

It turns out that when it rains heavily water gets in the vent, runs down the hose thing and drips/pours into the fan where the electrics are exposed. And there is nothing that can be done about it except replace said fan and hope it doesn’t rain heavily again. Ha!  Oh yes, and he suggested that when the guarantee runs out we take out continual insurance for it. Take note, Vestry.

Harumph

The past fortnight have not been good for us in Durham Towers. We are all rather grumpy and with good reason too.

For twas on that Monday morning that the Gas Board came to dig up our street.  Neighbours round the corner have just had their pipes renewed and said it was a little inconvenient but you could still get in and out of your driveway with a ramp. Ha! I noticed a fortnight ago that all the men in the street somehow had ramps but none of us women did.  Those men who are out all day and only park their cars overnight. Whereas I work from home and am in and out all day long. Despite protestations to the crew from Newcastle and promises made by them, along with excuses, nothing has been done. So I’ve had to park my car away down the road, half on the pavement which is doing no good to my tyres, and watch lorries squeezing past it.

Of course, this all happened just as I moved my study from the peace and tranquility of the garden at the back to the ratatatating of the tar flattener and an assortment of diggers and dumpers at the front. I’ve made them cups of tea, I’ve willingly reversed all the way along the road when I couldn’t get through with nary a grumble, but none of it has done me one iota of good. I still have no access to my driveway.

And my other grumble, while I’m in the mood, is the weather. Oh yes, we have weather here on the east coast and it ain’t good. None of the heatwave that is mentioned every 5 mins in the media – oh no! Heat?  Ha! I laugh in your face!  We have had a fortnight of haars and chilliness with one slightly sunny hour 2 days ago in the evening. So I am sick and fed up of warnings on what factor suncream to wear, how to stay cool (when we are all in jumpers) and skin cancer scares. It’s pneumonia we’re worried about!

So there! Rant over. And don’t get me started on the amount of coverage Michael Jackson’s death has got…

Sunrise at Portobello

Up early this morning and out in my dressing gown to capture the most beautiful sunrise.

Blogging break

On my post-Christmas break this week and was hoping to get away. However, after a quick visit to the doc on Monday I was sent off post haste to the hospital for a chest x-ray and told to stay put indoors in the meantime. You’d have thought that I would have got my Income Tax done by now… may be tomorrow.

Was going to risk a trip to the supermarket today but its fair  blowing a storm here. During the night I thought the windows were going to come in and indeed if the wind had been in another direction, Son #2’s basketball net might have joined me in bed. As it was it has fallen into next door neighbour’s garden.  So I think I’ll stay put.

Global warming?

Yesterday it was hailstones the size of golf balls.
Today the leylandii hedge caught fire.

(The latter may have something to do with the semi-naked men on my garage roof and their very large blow torch.)

Buckets of water have been passed (where are the hailstones when you need them?) and the fire has been put out. The hedge remains. Drat.

Plumbing question

When it rains very heavily should water come UP your sink plughole in a bubbling and threatening manner?

It’s a funny old world

Son #2 is in Malta on holiday with some mates. I wasn’t around when he left because I was at Synod and worried that he would forget things or not get up on time. It’s hard to let go with children. He is 27, after all!

In the old days when you went on holiday that was that. No contact unless it was an emergency. Of course with mobile phones that has all changed, but they can still be a bit pricey so I told him not to worry. But today he popped up on Messenger so we had a nice wee chat, just as if he was upstairs and couldn’t be bothered coming down to have a conversation with me. Computers really have made the world a small place.

Our little chat made me smile too. Son #2 is a great sun-worshipper. (Whereas I am a Son-worshipper!!) And he is fortunate in that he hasn’t inherited my fair skin with goes pink to red to peeling. He goes as brown as a berry almost effortlessly. So he was really looking forward to getting some rays and coming back all gorgeous and tanned. But Malta has had some pretty lousy weather since he got there on Friday. In fact, no sun at all. I did feel obliged to tell him that many people had to pull out of the Edinburgh marathon yesterday because of the high temperatures. That went down well, I can tell you.

Let it snow

Day off today and I was going to start some Christmas shopping and then head over to Bathgate for our St Andrew’s ceilidh. Now I’m not so sure…