Hoping that calamities come in threes…

I was feeling quite pleased with myself for unblocking the kitchen drain, so all was well for our quiet Darby & Darby Christmas Day.  The chicken was excellent, and the stuffing balls I’d knocked together were a tasty accompaniment.  I woke on Boxing Day morning to the welcome sound of our temperamental boiler firing up.  When I began to feel chilly a bit later, there was the familiar fault signal on the boiler.  We’ve usually managed to re-ignite it, but not this time, so we are now in our fifth day without central heating.  The gas company, to which we pay a service charge of the wrong side of £20/mth, cannot come before the already scheduled 4 Jan visit, though we’ve asked to be put on the list for a visit if a cancellation crops up.  Martyn, meanwhile, has blown his winter fuel payment, appropriately enough, on a couple of convector heaters.  We already had a couple: one ex-Lagrasse and one, at least sixty years old, that we got from ‘Auntie’ Phyllis when she had night storage heaters installed back in the fifties or sixties.  And we have a powerful immersion heater.  And it’s exceptionally mild.

I’d to call the gas people from my mobile phone because - yes - the land line has also gone on the fritz.  The voice channel has been very crackly for months, and every time it rains, the broadband service quality takes a nose dive.  Fortunately, we still have intermittent broadband service, and we’re due a visit from BT in the next hour (I was up and dressed in the middle of the night since they’d said they’d come between 08:00 and 13:00.  Snarl.) 

[Later: having had no word from BT, we eventually rattled their cage - the first call dropped out.  The helpful Indian chap who answered the next one told me that the fault is at the cabinet down the road, and they’ve given themselves until midnight on 5 Jan to fix it.  Meanwhile they have at least diverted incoming calls to my mobile.  And sent a triumphant message saying that our complaint has been closed….]

Expect an explosion in infection rates in early January: government has taken no action to limit New Year festivities, unlike the devolved administrations elsewhere in the UK.  Johnson is utterly paralysed by his lunatic right wing.  He has relaxed isolation rules such that people who have been in contact with someone infected can come out of isolation provided they provide six days’ worth of negative tests.  And has government arranged a sufficient supply of test kits?  Has it heck as like!

We were out to lunch with friends yesterday: just five of us, and we’d all tested negative beforehand.  And a very pleasant lunch too, with old friends and their son.  A delicious vegetable soup, followed by a spectacular  platter of home-made tapas.  We were due to see the new year in with friends in Gillingham, but various (other) health reasons have led to that being called off.  So, it’s back to Darby & Darby again for new year.