Saturday, 8 May 2010

Saturday 8 May

How late did fellow Brits stay up, hoping for a Portillo moment? We made it until midnight, by which point it was starting to become clear that nothing was going to be clear. As remains the case, thirty-some hours later. To me, the current scrabbling around for alliances or coalitions looks rather undignified, but I guess it could bring a blend of continental intrigue and pragmatism to the UK political scene. Since a lot of the founders of the Liberal Democrats were refugees from the right wing of the Labour Party, and since the Labour Party has now veered a long way to the right, that would point to a more logical and potentially more constructive alliance than one between the Lib Dems and the Tories. Whatever we get, I don't see a new parliament lasting anything like a full term of office.

We didn't stir far from home yesterday - perhaps because, having turned in late and awakened very early, energy levels were a bit on the low side. The post brought five hand-cancelled letters that I'd posted to myself on behalf of Phil the philatelist in Costa Rica. He likes to have a mint set and a used set of new UK stamp issues, so had asked me to get the local post office to frank them by hand, this evidently adding to their value. I took another walk to the Post Office yesterday, therefore, to send them off to Phil under the last two of the new-issue stamps. The counter clerk is getting quite good at placing her stamp elegantly over the corners of the stamps!

Item N°6 in the post was a stack of plastic sheeting for Martyn's modelling. Upstairs in Eggwilikon, he has built a new set of sidings for his vast array of rolling stock, and since our improbable miniature canton of the Swiss Confederation has now almost run out of loft space, he is building the airport on top of the storage sidings. Like you do. It now takes his TGV a minute and a half to get all the way round the layout at full tilt.

Item N°7 was a washing machine part. Having once again come down earlier in the week to find the kitchen floor awash, we did some slightly more scientific diagnosis. The drum of the machine was slowly filling up with water between washes, and eventually overflowing. We emptied the machine and shut off the supply to the cold water side, guessing that if the machine still filled up, the hot water valve was leaking - unless, of course, it's some esoteric problem with clockworks or electronics. Well, the drum seems to have remained dry for a few days, so I've replaced the cold water valve, and all appears to be well. Cost: £19.55, about a quarter of an hour comparing the prices of parts, postage and packing on the internet and maybe a total of half an hour hauling the machine out, fiddling with its innards and cleaning the floor underneath. Modestly pleased with self for saving the call-out, labour charges and parts mark-up that we'd have had to cough up for Getting Someone In.

No such cheap solution, alas, for the problems with the heating. A while back, the central heating stopped responding to the controls, staying on at full tilt until we shut down the whole system, hot water included. The eponymous and excellent Mr Waterman came round and poked and prodded, guessing that the problem was some dirt in the motorised valve that directs hot water to the tank or the heating system, according to demand. Well, he must have kicked it in the right place, because things returned to normal. For a while. The day after I paid his bill, it started its old tricks again. Only now it doesn't seem to be heating the water properly, as one discovered with surprise on availing oneself of the bidet... Not a DIY job, so unfortunately it's back to GSI.

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