however . . . on a lighter note . . .

i have just discovered that one of my favourite tv programmes is back soon . . .

ladette to lady!!

i probably watch about 30 hours tv per year - not a huge fan!! - but i find this compulsive viewing!! - very entertaining!

Where is the 'care' in British Gas Home Care??

this 'service' costs me over £200 a year - and this is how useful it is:

sunday:

around 18.00 hours:

boiler started to clank and then the lights started to flash and then there was no hot water and no heating

around 20.30 hours:

phoned homecare and they said the earliest they could get an engineer out was 'between 8 and 1 on Tuesday'

monday:

no hot water, no central heating

tuesday:

engineer arrived around 10.00 - fixed the pump - boiler working again

wednesday:

lucia was here and also stella and the pies.

around 14.00 hours: more boiler clanking and flashing lights - no more heating, no more hot water. phoned home care and said this was priority because i had small children staying with me in the house, youngest of whom, cpie, is 22 months. said they could get an engineer out 'tomorrow between 8 and 6.'

thursday:

16.00 hours and no engineer in sight. phoned home care and asked if one was coming - yes definintely.

17.00 hours and still no engineer - phoned again, asked what was happening and was told they would email the engineer and get back to me

17.20 still no engineer and no phone call. phoned again just as the van drew up on the driveway

engineer came in, looked at the boiler and said the pump was broken (i personally think the other chap just bodged it), he would get a new part and would be back in the morning at 11.00.

17.45 home care phoned to check if engineer had been

another night with no central heating and no hot water.

today:

11.00 engineer arrived, fixed the boiler and left by mid-day.

between sunday at 6.00 p.m and today at mid-day (114 hours) my house had neither hot water nor heating for a total of 86 hours

the engineer (who had to bear the brunt of my anger - although i told him several times that i did realise it wasn't his fault) had only been told about the job 30 minutes before he arrived!! yet homecare had known about it for 27 hours by then. arriving so late in the day, he was unable to get a part before morning. this 'service' is quite obviously a complete shambles!!

i think the administrative team (if there is one) should get themselves organised - get some people with brains on the job is my advice

swings and roundabouts . . .

the weekend has had its 'ups' . . . but also a decided 'down'

HIGHS:

I am lucky that I have a good number of really great friends - but of course over the years there are some who, for whatever reason, stand out. My friend B is one of them. For one year we shared a truly grotty flat with 3 other girls. This flat was the top floor of a large but very run-down house near Sefton Park, Liverpool - and I'm not saying the Landlord was exactly criminal but he was certainly more than a little bit shady!! Then, as now - well probably more then than now - I was up for any mischief going . . . and B and I certainly got up to our fair share - including one memorable and hilarious History field trip to London. (B and I both did History as a 'Main'.) This included us gaining unlawful entry to the Houses of Parliament - mainly due to B telling the policeman who challenged us that we were 'expected'!! About 20 years ago B and family moved to the Antipodes and I lost contact. I bet you can all guess where this is leading . . . . . Good Old Facebook!!! YAY!! This weekend I heard from her again - they are back in England and not really terribly far from here. The last time I saw here she was expecting their first baby - and now he is almost 30!! We have a lot of catching up to do . . . and I am very excited!!!

My second high is having Kathy and Tony drop in for a bite to eat on their way back home from visiting Claire. It is always lovely to see them and hear their news. Exciting times for them as they have 2 grandchildren expected this year. Unfortunately, however, while they were here . . .

My LOW occurred:

I had just turned the tap on when the boiler gave an almighty clunk!! crash!! bang!! Then 2 of its red lights started flashing and the gas flame symbol thing went out too. The upshot is that the darned thing is broken, I called the Home Care people and an engineer is coming out Tuesday morning. In the meantime . . . no heating and no hot water other than what I can boil up in the kettle. I love the snow and the cold weather . . . but just for now I'm hoping we have at least 36 hours of warmish temperatures!!

a smile a day . . .

here's what made me smile today:
from 'My Little Book of Crap Advice':

Ten Top Reasons to Procrastinate
1.


hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

nicked from cat's blog . . . .

this seemed like a good idea . . . though a little after new year . . .

2007 - MOST MEMORABLE

FILM: The Queen - about the only new release I saw

BOOK: Conrad's 'The Rover' - 'O' level text I revisited after 40-odd years - recommended!!

MEAL: New Year's Dinner - 2 halves really: the one which ended in 2007 at Judy and John's and the one which started at mine in 2007 and ended in 2008

HOLIDAY: Northumberland - visiting Barter Books and walking along the coast to Dunster Castle on the same day - fantastic!!

WEEKEND: Sheffield at Easter . . . and going to the top of Win Hill

DAY: the wedding - of course!!!!!!!

MOMENT: seeing Lucia-Rose for the first time

twelfth night

it has been a busy week-end!

saturday:

eric, janey and lizzie arrived early afternoon and eric did some extraordinarily useful jobs for me: mended my bath and outside pipe and (even more importantly) mended jpie's chair-he-ever-had. then we just did the usual: sat around drinking coffee and/or wine

in the evening it was our 2nd annual visit to the panto at the palace along with kpie, jpie, rich and most of rich's family (they took up almost the whole of the front 2 rows!!) . amazing fun - what can i say? we all enjoyed it tremendously! then back here ordering a chinese en route and we all ate far too much and drank more wine - lovely!!

sunday:

latish breakfast and then j e and l pushed off for maud's.

stella rich and the pies came around 3.00 and then frankie alex and lucia a bit later. we had tea out in the conservatory (hoorah!!) and then (at last) opened our christmas presents. stella had lucia, cpie and jpie as the 3 wise men and kpie as the camel with little l riding astride - they all lined up in the hall and then processed into the sitting room - hahaha they are very funny

after they left i took down the crimble decs and tree decs and took the tree outside. it always seems so sad when it all has go. i always leave the crib up until about february as the wise men only come today and it seems a shame to pack away so soon! this year, however, i have left quite a few other things out on the basis that they were only up for the wedding anyway

so . . . christmas over for another year . . . 2008 looks like being an eventful year: ruda with s,r,k,j and c (and possibly f, a and lucia too) in april, mary and kevin's wedding in may, the counting in june, possible trip to stoff in the summer, o and g trying to move down here, i may do another solo hols - possibly yorkshire this time - and quite a lot of my targets to be achieved too . . .

back to work

nothing much to report about that . . . except that . . . people were enthusing about some tv prog called 'how to look good naked'. i turned on to watch . . . and just about managed ten minutes and had to turn it off again. i have rarely seen such a load of old drivel in my life. if it hadn't been so cold i would have gone out to the shed, got my tin of yellow paint and watched it dry!! far more interesting!!

2008 . . . and no resolutions

i have only just remembered one is supposed to make them . . . never mind . . .

last night was the Annual New Year's Eve Dinner - and it was at my house - yay! i am really getting into 'party-hosting' mode!

eric and janey were here around mid-day and we had heaps of fun getting ready - eric made funny hats and a 'menu' like a sort of 'cheapo' (!! imagine!!) mcdonalds

janey had brought beouf bourguignon and also made mashed tates (and did most of the veg cooking too), denny and john brought the starter (fish) and jane and dave and john and jude brought the puds (trifle, pineapple and a chocolate torte) - yumm mcscrumm to all. i didn't really do an awful lot it seems - just the nigella express chicken and the cheese and biscuits. but it all went very well, we seemed to laugh a lot and the atmosphere was lovely. we sang auld lang syne at midnight and then went back into the conservatory to finish our cheese course and 'passed the port' - great company and a great start to 2008!!

then today we had the Annual New Year's Day Walk and Pub Lunch. Same 'suspects' as at the dinner plus Cat and David and Freddie (except they weren't allowed to stay because the pub 'doesn't have a licence for under 14s unless accompanied by an adult and eating a meal') - ya boo to the Essex Arms for a rotten attitude!!. matt and helen, chris and zoe and ali and sam also pitched up.

Frankie phoned when i had been back home for a while - they are visiting stella et al - to let me know the web-site for the wedding pics. so had a quick shufti at them and then did some ou work - which i have been sadly neglecting what with all the wedding palaver. also spoke to stella who has booked their ruda van - so booked mine too - yay!! - north devon here we come - wheee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!