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It was a chilly morning and in spite of the expense I cracked and put on the central heating. But in typical this-fucking-house fashion the central heating did not come on. Luckily the water is working (though it was a bit dodgy after the recent work we had done, but seems to have settled) but the heating was not playing ball. This boiler has been terrible since we had it, breaking down several times in the first few months and trying to carbon monoxide poison us twice. And has had to be looked at a few times since - this year after we had problems we were told that the megaflow tank had been installed in a borderline illegal fashion and was the wrong way round, so we had to have it turned. Our new boiler guy came come round at the weekend and luckily it’s still not properly freezing yet. But thanks to this old house for trying to save us money on our fuel bills (after the next bill I am actually going to have to start paying for electricity and gas for the first time since we very first moved into this house - who would have thought those Bulb referrals would outlast Bulb?). If you can’t turn the boiler on then you can’t get charged.
We can all huddle round the log burner and camp out in that room if all goes to pot.
A slightly frustrating day for me. We had our friendly neighbourhood handyman round and he was putting together a bunk bed for Ernie’s birthday and doing some other bits and bobs (some complex, some easy, but all still way beyond my capabilities) and it turned out that a bathroom cabinet we’d ordered had been sent with the wrong fittings. I took over an hour trying to get a replacement part sent to me (it’s just a little bar to hang it on). I think they’re sending us a whole new unit. That is not necessary and this took out a big chunk of my day. Then we get a delivery of swimming goggles for the kids, but though I’d ordered two pairs, there was only one in the envelope. The envelope was slightly open and when I realised I tried to chase the delivery woman down the street, but she didn’t see me (or maybe she did, but wasn’t going to let me stop her getting away with her booty of one pair of children’s goggles) and drove off. So I then was back on the phone and finally got through to a trusting Eastern European lady who managed to organise another pair to be sent out.
She was very trusting. And I think I may have found a way to open a swimming goggle online store, where I see swimming goggles at dirt cheap prices, because I just tell John Lewis they never showed up. They might get wise to me.
The bunk bed was well received though. It has a slide on it, like the one the kids slept in on holiday back in 2020. Ernie wasn’t quite three then, but still remembers that slide and was delighted to have one of his own. I don’t know how long it will keep him entertained, but it’s a big thing to be almost five and to have a brand new bed (with a choice of sleeping levels). Tonight Phoebe slept in the top bunk and Ernie in the bottom. I suspect this will not be the case for long, but it was sweet.
Hard to believe Ernie is five next week, which means we’ve also been living in this cursed and often cold house for half a decade too. And that we’ve had Wolfie for just a little over five years too. Even accounting for the pandemic that slowed down time, those five years have gone fast. If the next five go quicker and then the next five and the five after that, then I’ll be 75 by the end of this paragraph and the devil will be coming to cash in his deal.
Twitch of Fun tonight was a lot of fun. I hadn’t been looking forward to it, but Ally came out of the blocks full of beans and surprised me. We also finally got an illustration for the timkey cartoon and I think it’s rather glorious.
Or
as a podcast though there’s a fair amount of visual humour in this one, so you might want to actually watch it.
