Having big problems with the internet right now. Can’t get anything to stay still for 10 seconds! Anything I try to look at jumps and flashes and goes black then white, then parts come back and the rest is black… or white. Then the page splits into two, and I get this happening all the time! No idea what's going on. My AVG says everything on the computer is OK, and this is definitely just internet!
Anyway, do you remember the saga about the fire in my living room? When I got it moved into the new living room last spring, something seemed to go wrong. I kept smelling gas after the fire had been on, and the Transco people came along, pronounced it dangerous and turned it off. The plumber couldn't detect any loss of pressure from the gas meter, so switched it back on, but I still got the gas smell so the Transco lot turned it off again. The plumber was mystified and said the only thing he could think it might be was the control that you switch the fire off and on with. If I was to get a new control, he would come and exchange it! I got the new control - at great and shocking expense - and contacted the plumber. Yes he would come such and such a day - but he didn't. I contacted him again. Many apologies. He was really busy but he would call when he could come. He didn't. Many messages were left on his answerphone, which were ignored....
As summer went on and I wasn't needing the fire I kind of forgot about it, so when recently I realised it wasn't summer any more I contacted the plumber again and as before, left messages on his answerphone to phone me, which he didn't. Finally I did get him on his phone. Was I THAT cold? he asked me when I said I needed the fire fixed, like…. now! Was I what? That isn't really the point. but yes, I'm cold! So he agreed to come on Monday a week ago! On Monday morning I was up early and ready! The phone rang! It was the plumber's wife! The plumber had a flu bug and was off work! He'd phone me when he got back to work, to rearrange a date. At that point considerable tacks were spat!
I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. She hadn't said he had full-blown flu, so I reckoned he'd be back to work this week! If he hadn't phoned by the weekend, I would get someone else - despite the fact that I felt I shouldn't have to pay for the job to be done as it was the move that presumably caused the problem. By yesterday morning there had been no phone call, so I gave his mobile a call. The answerphone clicked on. I didn't even bother leaving a message this time. Instead I phoned a plumber recommended by a friend. It was his wife who answered, so I told the story. She'd get him to phone in the evening! No sooner had I put the phone down when it rang again. Guess who? The original plumber! Must have listened to the last number to call him and phoned it!!! Well, I told him I had had to get someone else. I had waited too long - and yes, I was FROZEN. He was full of apologies, and excuses, but accepted that I was getting someone else. Should have done it ages ago!
Then of course I started to think, what if the other guy can't do it! These gas fires that look like wood or coal burners can be a bit of a problem for some fitters. Oh well. Hopefully he could do something, and would soon. I had started writing this story when the phone rang! The new plumber! Told him the story - and he's coming at 9.00 tomorrow morning, and you know what? I think he will! Watch this space!
Of course I am full of the cold now, coughing and sneezing and snuffling! I have the heating on, and my fleecy jacket on, zipped up to the neck, and I'm just thinking about having a hot toddy before I go to bed!
The other problems? The TV aerial was blown down by the gales in the last few days, and landed on my neighbours' roof. They were giving me grief about it! I was supposed to have the aerial men here yesterday morning so when I realised I had a committee meeting to go to I phoned the TV shop and left a message to say I'd be out! He doesn't listen to his messages when he comes in to work, he told me later. The guys had been round to my house, and had complained because I wasn't in! Well, it was arranged that they’d come this morning, and they did! One of them climbed onto the roof to retrieve the aerial, fixed it back up on its bracket at the side of the chimney pot and then came in to check the reception was OK!
Well, hadn’t the TV itself decided not to work some time ago too. I thought it might have been a fuse problem, but it wasn’t. Anyway it didn’t bother me much as I don’t watch much TV at all and I hadn’t missed it! Well, the TV man pressed a button at the side of the screen that I didn’t even realise was there, and the darned thing burst into life!!!! Don’t you just feel such an idiot!!! So I can watch TV again – not that I really want to, but I suppose it’s nice I can watch if I do want to!
Oh and the microwave oven has died, or at least is throwing a sickie! I'll have to see if it's just a fuse thing. Just as well I bought all these fuses a little while ago!
OK! Enough! One nice thing! My little ladybird which has been missing since the day she flew-jumped backwards off the table, showed up briefly tonight! Actually I'm not even convinced it's the same one! Can you believe that!!! Different character! Not as gallus! Must be a group of them hibernating, and they send out one at a time to scout around!
Yes, I’m mad! I know, but it’s not contagious!
Talk again soon.
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