Thursday 28 September 2023
Who’d have thought it, I’m now in possession of a pair of PPE-guaranteed steel-capped Dunlop boots. Possibly overkill but I’ve had a few near misses with forks and spades recently and I don’t have ‘cheap’, non-welly footwear that I’m not too bothered about getting muddy. I also nearly bought a hi-vi wintery waterproof ‘work’ jacket. I didn’t because I’m not convinced I will be working outdoors in winter. I suspect I have grand delusions of how much I did and will do outdoors in winter in Scotland. I definitely feel ever so slightly more ready for winter this year than last year though.
Plumbers came to service our heating system on Tuesday – Chris was in Scotland to deal with that; I was in London dealing with a sprinkler service. Apparently, though we knew this already from how cold we were last winter, our boiler is inadequate and the radiators were not fitted with valves. The issue there is that the plumbers think that part of the problem is that there is sludge in the system. To clear all radiators would mean removing water from the entire system rather than doing it on a radiator by radiator basis. That would be a big and messy job. There is a lesson there about DIY plumbing and why professional plumbers should plumb houses (we didn’t do any plumbing, but the previous owners did; my plumbing skills ended with the installation of a new loo flush).
It is a frustrating fact of living (A) in the middle of nowhere and (B) where access is off a fairly narrow road, restricting vehicle-turning-room and (C) with a narrow bridge with no official weight limit over a river that couldn’t really be crossed otherwise. This makes it difficult for deliveries and massively reduces the amount of tradespeople willing to accept work. This never occurred to Chris or I before we moved in. We also had no idea how many things we might want or need that would mean this issue arose. Currently, we are poised to order a 1,300 litre water butt/tank but it weighs 30kg and we are not sure whether it will be left on a pallet by the road or delivered up to where it needs to be installed.
Meanwhile, I’m still in Lewisham thinking how easy it is to keep the flat ticking along and remembering that we needed an electrician a few months ago when the washing machine socket overheated and how quickly and easily I found one, made contact with him and, within twelve hours, had him fixing the problem. Sigh.
For breakfast this morning, I wanted to partially recreate a breakfast I enjoyed in Lanzarote (yoghurt with fruit, acai, peanut butter and chocolate granola) so I walked out to the supermarket and bought the ingredients I didn’t already had. I had a tasty breakfast and it was easy to shop for the ingredients.
