Flushed

Hmm, this home purchase thing is meant to be an improvement isn’t it? At the moment I am having my doubts. The chap came to fit my oven yesterday turned up but then wasn’t able to fit the cooker as some electrical work needs to be done. He can’t do that until 2 January… It seems that it should have been possible to fit the oven but the previous owner did something dubious with the electrics and the cabling is not right.

I asked him to look at my radiators as well and it seems they need to be ‘power-flushed’, which is expensive and also can’t be done until January either. I had actually already worked out what the problem was and how much it was likely to cost to get it fixed, so I know he was telling the truth and not just trying to make money out of me. Sometimes it pays to be slightly geeky about working these things out . While he was checking the central heating he had a look at the hot water tank and said that he was really worried by the work that had been done on that because basically if the immersion is switched on and the water boils, the tank could explode because there is no outlet pipe. I’m going to have to talk to the woman who lives upstairs because he will need access to the loft space above her in order to rectify this. So… this is going to be a decidedly expensive list of things to rectify, but seeing as I want to be able to cook, be warm and not explode, there isn’t much choice.

I am really not in the Christmas spirit at all, partly because of all the hassles this week , I also have various other things on my mind and have just generally been so busy that I haven’t quite tuned in to the imminence of Christmas. However, I have got my Christmas Radio Times and yesterday I got a Christmas card from an old manager. She retired and moved to Wales a couple of years ago and seeing her handwriting again reminded me of all the work I had to submit to her that would come back with her comments scrawled on them and I’d keep amending the work until at last it got her seal of approval. She was a really good boss and I wish I’d had more like her over the years.

Anyway, today’s tasks are to go to the dump, do some cleaning at the old house and possibly buy some paint to repaint my bedroom - it is currently very pink so a repaint is needed at some point. I might watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” tonight to try and summon up some Christmas cheer. Ho Ho Ho! I’ll keep working on it…