Back to work

This home ownership thing is definitely not all it is cracked up to be! The chap came with his entourage to fit my cooker and fix the central heating, both of which he succeeded in doing but because the woman who lives upstairs hasn’t been about for days I couldn’t arrange for access to her place so that they could sort out the outlet pipe to prevent my hot water tank from exploding. The chap also found that the thermostat is broken on the hot water tank so it will continue to heat up even when it has already reached its optimum temperature. It’s not dangerous, but it is a complete waste of power, so he’s going to some back and fit a new thermostat for me. I reckon it will cost about £1000 to fix all these things.

The washing machine turned up but the chap ended up not even bringing it in because when he unpacked it in the van he realised that it was damaged. So now it is being delivered on Saturday morning instead. You may be advised to stand at a distance from me until I am able to do some washing again.

However, I did phone the water company the other day to query the bill they had sent me. I couldn’t understand why they were pre-charging me if I was on a meter. It turns out that despite me actually discussing being on a meter with the woman who set up my account and her saying that the place was already metered, that in fact it wasn’t and still isn’t. Somehow I have slipped through the net and they can no longer oblige me to be metered. You may now therefore flush the toilet at will should you come to visit. Given the amount of water they used to flush out my radiators, it is probably a very good thing that my water isn’t metered, as I would have needed a second mortgage to pay the bill. I might go on to a meter at some point anyway because I think it would be a lot cheaper but it isn’t really a priority to think about that right now.

Today it is finally back to work. Someone I work with texted me yesterday because they didn’t know I wasn’t going in and people were wondering where I was. I had arranged to take the day off, but it was when I had already gone on leave. Someone from work then wanted to speak to me last night as he needs a reference from me and it needs to be done today, so we had a chat about that and it will be one of my first tasks when I get into the office this morning.

On an unrelated note, if you are feeling creative then you might want to give this a go. I had meant to mention it a few days ago and forgot - and I think the deadline is tomorrow. Alternatively, although I don’t think it is an open invitation you could turn up at Julia’s party a bit like a stalker and join in on the celebrations.