THE HEAT IS
ON…
Belle says ‘What’s going on?’ This was
supposed to be a good new year, a brave
new world after the trials and tribulations of
2013. And now in the space of one week
(admittedly in February, the most dismal
month of the year) we’ve had a case of
pneumonia, revisitation of the arthritis, the
dog has had another fit, and our 22-year-old
boiler finally ran out of steam. Remember
Christmas without power? Not quite so bad
this time, because we still have electricity,
which means we can still shower; the
washing up is another (minor) irritation – we
can boil up three kettles of water for that. I
must admit, it was no pleasure to be
washing the kitchen floor with cold water at
2am last night after the dog had her fit and
then scarpered out into the back garden
leaving me to it.
But with a drop in temperatures, the house
is subject to creeping cold, so we heartily
thank the friends who turned up the same
day with an extra heater. And at last we have
been able to use the silk long johns we
bought recently, and very snug they are too!
So we were plunged into the world of quotes
from installers. We thought we were getting
au fait with those, given that we are in the
middle of a complete refurbishment of our
girl’s ex-bedroom. Since my personal
handyman (PH) was incapacitated with the
afore-mentioned pneumonia (‘I can’t even lift
a feather – don’t expect me to demolish
cupboards!’) you should see the quotes,
spreadsheets and layout diagrams Belle has
accumulated, not to mention the number of
decorators etc. with whom she is now on
first-name terms.
So it should be a simple task getting quotes
for a replacement oil boiler: