Monday 5 December 2022
This morning, after our first night back in Scotland from five nights in London, the grass is most definitely not greener. There’s water through the kitchen light, the stove is generating more heat than usual but the radiators are tepid at best and I appear to have packed all of the landline phone components except the main, crucial bit, which has only just been revealed by the BT engineer currently connecting us.
Extra duvets (and that plural is not sloppy editing) kept us warm last night. Chris wore head-to-toe thermals and I wore tights, vest, long sleeved nightshirt and a cotton head cover/beanie-style hat. This is not nightwear to impress or seduce, but it at least kept us warm.
Chris added coal to the stove at around 02:30, I re-piled it shortly after 07:00 and there was a semblance of a flickering fire. But still the house is cold, which means we’re cold and which means we’re both prone to self-pity.
I decided to go outside, still pre-sunrise, and was putting shoes on when I heard pouring water from the kitchen. I turned on the kitchen lights and saw a steady flow of water pouring out from around one of the inset lights. Chris was having a shower at the time, the shower being directly above that light.
We dealt with the leak (shower off, lights off, water collector in place). Then, just as I was cooking up a consolatory bacon, egg and mushroom breakfast, the BT engineer arrived. In the meantime, we couldn’t find a plumber available or open, so resumed the cooking of breakfast. Then found out I hadn’t packed the main base for the phones (I at least thought to pack a phone). There is no mobile reception here so we’ve been using WiFi calling but my phone in particular doesn’t keep the connection easily. I had been looking forward to the installation of a landline, in a circa 1980s kind of way, ie as the only phone available in a house.
I felt incredibly deflated this morning. We have found a plumber who can “probably” come tomorrow and who seems mildly optimistic it’s ‘only’ a seal or connection-related issue.
As for BT, the engineer said the cable from BT is very old so it’s a bit of a party line (I can only just remember the odd phone call when I was a child when you could hear someone else’s conversation) and, as there is an electric fence nearby (neighbour’s horses), there is a click every three seconds. But none of that matters as we don’t have a phone we can use anyway.
I did, however, put eucalyptus, (dyed) gypsophila, chrysanthemum and freesia into a large vase next to the fireplace to distract my attention from the stress of all things fire-related and to remind me of a lovely morning with a friend a few days earlier at New Covent Garden Flower Market. Sigh.
Tonight’s shower, hmm. We do have an outdoor shower which has hot water …