An interesting (if chilly) week

We all have one. A task that really needs to be done, but somehow seems less urgent than the rest of the items on your list, so it sinks further down the list, into obscurity. To be honest, I've got many such tasks, such as "stop eating cake", "get some exercise", "clean the bathroom"...! The task that was put off until this week, and really shouldn't have been, was to service the boiler.

You just jumped to a conclusion, didn't you? Actually, it didn't break. I finally got my arse in gear and booked a service. Dodgy Geezer & son (no, that's not their trading name, and it's probably a little unfair of me) turned up as arranged on Monday afternoon and took a mere fifteen minutes to drink their coffee, take the front cover off our four year old boiler and tell me that they had switched it off and it was too dangerous to switch back on again. Not a good moment, especially with minus four degrees forecast for overnight. Dodgy (again, unfair of me, but he did have that slightly Grant Mitchell look about him) made some calls and came up with a price to fit a new one, and we spent the next couple of days getting quotes, hoping the price would come down to something a little less startling, which of course it didn't.

In the meantime, we've been living an adjusted lifestyle. We do (thank goodness!) have a wood burner in the living room, so each evening we've been huddled round a roaring fire: quite nice actually even if it is a bit of a bugger to light. [On a side note, those bags of logs you get from petrol stations are rubbish - have they never heard of seasoning logs so that they are dry enough to burn? Bah!] We've used the temperature in the kitchen as an excuse for two takeaway dinners! At the end of each evening I've had a brief foray into the kitchen to microwave a heatpad for the cat basket (for two very disgruntled moggies), then it's a mad dash up to the bedroom, hoping that the plug-in radiator has done its job.

It's been a bit like camping, only without the fresh air and baked beans, plus Baby Badger has been back in our bed as we didn't know how cold the room would get, so we've not been able to pull the covers up to our noses like we'd have liked... brrrr...!

As of 4pm this afternoon we have a new boiler, hot water and central heating. I even took my jumper off this evening. What luxury! I'm now looking forward to a lovely night's sleep (other than the inevitable night feeds), taking advantage of the space in bed without baby, all the covers... mmmm.

Oh yes, and I've made a note in my calendar to book a boiler service next March. Not going to get caught out by this one again!

Image: kongsky / FreeDigitalPhotos.net