Well two heating engineers later and we still don't have heat downstairs.
The first one arrived early yesterday morning, decided it was our three way valve, replaced it and waited for the radiators to heat up upstairs and then left. By midday we were back to square one, no heat anywhere. The second engineer turned up at seven in the evening and left around nine after replacing the pump and managing to squeeze a little bit of heat into the radiators downstairs. We woke up this morning to find no heat downstairs and only tepid radiators upstairs. Peter is not happy and I'm back in my thermals wishing I'd taken next week off instead as I've got barely anything I'd planned done. So we are now waiting for our third engineer who is due between noon and six this evening.
After engineer number two left I lay on the settee absolutely shattered from my evening of rushing up and down stairs to show him where everything was. Peter had to go out and couldn't cancel so it was left up to me to do the honours and I was passed out in front of the TV when he finally arrived home. I felt exhausted so collapsed into bed and was soon fast asleep, until the phone rang. Looking at the clock it said nine minutes past one and the caller display showed 'withheld number', wide awake now I answered it with my heart racing hardly able to believe my luck.
' Allo, is Brian there, I wanna speak to Brian.'
The caller was extremely drunk and very insistent until I vented my disappointment and frustration at him. I think he must have got the message because after that the phone was silent and I had a little cry before falling back into a fitful sleep.
Before being put on the transplant list we would turn our house phone off and just have our mobiles on at night as very few people have our mobile numbers and we were always getting crank calls on the house phone. Now of course we have to leave everything on just in case. I suppose I must expect the odd crank or mis-dialled number but when you are shocked out of sleep, and you know the middle of the night is the most likely time to get 'the call', it is so disappointing when it turns out to be a drunk.
In the news an Australian Billionaire is going to build a replica Titanic and is calling it Titanic 2. The ship will be ready in 2016 and it's maiden voyage will take the same route as the ill fated first Titanic. The new ship will have features the original didn't have, such as air conditioning, radar and enough life boats for everyone on board. Apparently 40,000 people have already registered interest in buying tickets for the first trip. Call me superstitious but I'd give it a few trips before I even though of venturing onto the deck. I would, however, love to go and look at it.......from the safety of the harbour wall.
Also in the news another form of travel and another tragedy. This time it's a balloon trip over Luxor in Egypt. What always gets me is that these things seem to gain importance by how many Britons have died. The newsreader I was watching yesterday afternoon almost bounced in her seat with excitement when she announced that news just in had confirmed three people from Britain had been killed but then adopted a sneer as she told us that the third person was just a 'British Resident' and not a 'British National', as if not being a National somehow makes that death less important. It is awful that anyone died on what was supposed to be a pleasure trip and I wish the UK media would stop grading people by their nationality. Sorry but this really does make me angry.
Well, with a bit of luck our third heating engineer will be here in just over thiry minutes so I'd better start emptying out the airing cupboard, again, and get the kettle ready.
The first one arrived early yesterday morning, decided it was our three way valve, replaced it and waited for the radiators to heat up upstairs and then left. By midday we were back to square one, no heat anywhere. The second engineer turned up at seven in the evening and left around nine after replacing the pump and managing to squeeze a little bit of heat into the radiators downstairs. We woke up this morning to find no heat downstairs and only tepid radiators upstairs. Peter is not happy and I'm back in my thermals wishing I'd taken next week off instead as I've got barely anything I'd planned done. So we are now waiting for our third engineer who is due between noon and six this evening.
After engineer number two left I lay on the settee absolutely shattered from my evening of rushing up and down stairs to show him where everything was. Peter had to go out and couldn't cancel so it was left up to me to do the honours and I was passed out in front of the TV when he finally arrived home. I felt exhausted so collapsed into bed and was soon fast asleep, until the phone rang. Looking at the clock it said nine minutes past one and the caller display showed 'withheld number', wide awake now I answered it with my heart racing hardly able to believe my luck.
' Allo, is Brian there, I wanna speak to Brian.'
The caller was extremely drunk and very insistent until I vented my disappointment and frustration at him. I think he must have got the message because after that the phone was silent and I had a little cry before falling back into a fitful sleep.
Before being put on the transplant list we would turn our house phone off and just have our mobiles on at night as very few people have our mobile numbers and we were always getting crank calls on the house phone. Now of course we have to leave everything on just in case. I suppose I must expect the odd crank or mis-dialled number but when you are shocked out of sleep, and you know the middle of the night is the most likely time to get 'the call', it is so disappointing when it turns out to be a drunk.
In the news an Australian Billionaire is going to build a replica Titanic and is calling it Titanic 2. The ship will be ready in 2016 and it's maiden voyage will take the same route as the ill fated first Titanic. The new ship will have features the original didn't have, such as air conditioning, radar and enough life boats for everyone on board. Apparently 40,000 people have already registered interest in buying tickets for the first trip. Call me superstitious but I'd give it a few trips before I even though of venturing onto the deck. I would, however, love to go and look at it.......from the safety of the harbour wall.
Also in the news another form of travel and another tragedy. This time it's a balloon trip over Luxor in Egypt. What always gets me is that these things seem to gain importance by how many Britons have died. The newsreader I was watching yesterday afternoon almost bounced in her seat with excitement when she announced that news just in had confirmed three people from Britain had been killed but then adopted a sneer as she told us that the third person was just a 'British Resident' and not a 'British National', as if not being a National somehow makes that death less important. It is awful that anyone died on what was supposed to be a pleasure trip and I wish the UK media would stop grading people by their nationality. Sorry but this really does make me angry.
Well, with a bit of luck our third heating engineer will be here in just over thiry minutes so I'd better start emptying out the airing cupboard, again, and get the kettle ready.
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