Boiler Problems

My boiler broke down on Saturday, plunging my family into something of a crisis mode as we scrambled to borrow heaters from family and friends to see us through the inevitable couple of days it would take to fix it.

When the engineer did arrive he spent twenty minutes prodding and poking and eventually turned to me with a shaking head and said, “your floobyorgflunker’s not powering your grazbuxflexer which means your brumunkit isn’t firing. I’ll need to order a part.”It seems nobody fixes anything that uses electricity anymore; they simply change parts like a giant lego set. So for the last couple of days the kids have shared a bedroom with one of the two oil-filled radiators we sourced while Anne and I have had an equally quiet electrical radiator in our bedroom. On Sunday we all spent the day in the living room together, everybody bringing a heater with them (and two jumpers each). I have learned that my children value being warm more than the solitude that comes with playing computer games. Also, that my 13-year-old house is actually really well insulated and heat takes time to dissipate, making me think I could reduce my winter bills with some clever use of the timer on the boiler – when it’s eventually fixed. the Christmas lights switch on without hearing anything of Andy Murray’s match at the O2 arena which started while I was out.

We all sat down to watch it while it was recording (I love technology) and were mesmerised by Andy’s performance. We’re all running out of different ways to say how good he is and how much of an ambassador he is for the sport and a credit to his hometown of Dunblane. Surely that knighthood is in the bag come the New Year Honours List.