For several years now I’ve been getting a weekly or fortnightly grocery delivery from Morrisons. It’s been extremely convenient, though I have wondered how on Earth they make it profitable. While I’ve been in Coronavirus quarantine for the past few weeks, the online shopping and delivery has been an absolute lifeline. However, the whole country […]
My washing machine started making ominous noises last week on the spin cycle. It really sounded quite unwell. But given that the U.K. public is not allowed to have house calls at the moment, I didn’t see how I’d be able to get it fixed. I was just hoping that it would hang on in […]
I was in the kitchen yesterday, playing on my iPad, as you do, when I got called away by something needing my attention. So I put my iPad down on the nearest flat surface, which happened to be the ceramic hob. Which was off, and had been for several hours since breakfast. When I came […]
It’s only about eight weeks since I last had Martin the Mouse-Killer around to do his stuff. But the weather has been so wet recently that the mice have taken refuge in my loft yet again. They’ve been holding evening cocktail parties above my chair in the living room, followed by all-night roller-discos directly above […]
I originally called in the plumbers way back in May. And as of last Friday they finally left. The leak behind the bath must have been going on for many years. It took nine weeks with a dehumidifier just to dry out the bathroom so that work could commence repairing it – the first five […]
This morning I had the gardener and a team of plumbers working on the house and garden. Which led to a new record for the number of vehicles squeezed onto my drive – two cars and three vans. And of course you could be sure that whichever vehicle was the most blocked in belonged to […]
The plumbers are back to deal with the fallout from the leak in the main bathroom. It would appear that the leak has probably been going on for years – there was a veritable swimming pool of water sitting underneath the floorboards, and I’ve had to have a dehumidifier working 24/7 for several weeks to […]
My cottage certainly seems to be a regular source of employment for the local tradesmen. This week I’ve got Rob, my long-standing decorator, here for his annual week as “artist in residence”. Unfortunately, this year my list of things I want to have done exceeds both my budget and the length of time I’ve hired […]
It’s definite – there has been a significant leak in the so-called “family bathroom”, probably ongoing for over a year. The water seems to have penetrated behind the tiles from the shower, and run down the wall behind the bath, soaking the floorboards underneath. The plumbers have been back, removed the bath, and stripped the […]
The shower isn’t the only electrical problem I’ve been having this week. I got home from work on Wednesday to find that the internet was down. That usually means a call to my ISP, waiting on hold for half an hour, and then asking them to reset the target SNR on my phone line. But […]
