And again

On Sunday evening, our celebrated boiler started making an unpleasant rumbling noise, and the following morning it started and stopped.  Each time we tried to start it, it made the same noise, then cut out.  The local man who did the last job arrived the following evening with an employee of the manufacturer in tow, found the fault and sorted it.  We had to pay his call-out charge, but it was scarcely more than the ‘excess’ we’d have had to pay BG, and he was here the day after we reported it cf. the month we’d have had to wait for BG.  And our local chap would have been here the evening before had it not been his birthday. BG, meanwhile, have still not replied to my two-page snottygram.  Ever the optimists, we have put all the convector heaters back in the attic.  No doubt to leave them cluttering the place up would be a better guarantor of boiler reliability, but let’s tempt fate.  Again.

BT’s bill crashed in electronically the other day, with no signs of the promised compensation for our ten-day outage over New Year.  A lengthy spell on the (currently working) telephone resulted in a credit of slightly more than our usual monthly combined bill for the land line, call package, broadband and two mobiles.  No wonder they need nagging to cough up, eh?

Not much of a gardening week, but we have got rid of a lot of the garden waste, doubling with a trip to dump some former model railway baseboards.  Learning: Sainsbury’s wheelie bin liners are not strong enough for a full load of garden waste.  Said bag burst just as we got it out of the car.  Fortunately, the tip provides a large broom with which we could remove much of the evidence.  My exercise for the week, apart from a spot of weeding.  

We have a couple of crocuses in flower, and it won’t be long before the snowdrops open.  The hyacinths we planted out a few years ago are threatening to flower, as are lots of narcissi, including some we planted last back end.  The cornus are providing welcome colour, but are starting to bud.  Once the magnolia has started to provide interest in the front garden the cornus will get their annual haircut.  The less welcome development is that the grass is growing.  A couple of dry, blowy days hence, I’ll give it a first cut.

Rather unsuccessful gadget day yesterday.  Earlier in the week our Magimix freebie arrived: a spiraliser.  How useful it will be remains to be seen.  The other freebie on offer was a bread cloche, which we’ve already tried and failed with.  Fearing that the spiraliser was likely to join the air fryer at the back of a cupboard, I deployed the former and dusted off the latter.  The consequent curly fry potatoes were something of a curate’s egg.  Or, as the Suitability for Promotion Form category 4 so often had it, shows potential, but needs further development.