Pretty flowers: not for eating, obviously!

[I know this isn’t my usual posting time, but I’m so tired I don’t know if I’ll still be awake at the usual time this evening, so figured it’s better to post now so at least it’s out there.)

They say these things come in threes, but what “they” don’t say is that you’re not necessarily done after your three. I reckon I must be up to well over a dozen now, but still things keep coming.

Which is why early yesterday morning (was it really only yesterday? It feels like days ago) mum woke me up to tell me that the boiler that had, on Monday, been serviced and confirmed as fully operational had stopped working. I had already placed a request with the company that did the service to let them know that the boiler was leaking, so assumed someone would be out asap to fix the problem.

I will spare you all the back and forth with the company’s office staff¹, which included multiple promises that, although they were super busy, we were on their list and they would try to get someone to come out to us. As darkness fell, and we were still without heating or hot water, I placed one last call, expecting no answer as it was well past office hours, but the call went straight through to the tradesperson on duty who said “I’ll come out now”.

And so he did. After taking the boiler apart, he diagnosed the problem as being two separate components that had failed², kicked the boiler into action and showed me how to do it next time it stopped working, then headed off into the night leaving us – albeit temporarily – warm and cosy. Next Monday someone else will come out and replace the failed parts and fix the lack-of-warmth problem permanently. I hope. 🤞

With that sorted, it was of course time for the next problem to arise, which is exactly what the foul water from the sewer has done on the side path. Another tradesperson has therefore been summoned and will be with us before dark. Hopefully he will be as nice as he sounded on the phone; that we’re on his way home from a tour around the Island (he had a job in Freshwater, then one in Newport, then one in Cowes, before heading back to us in Freshwater where he started the afternoon) can only help.

In the meantime, I had to go to the Post Office, which meant a trip on the community bus. To my surprise, mum decided she wanted to come with me, so I spun it out into a proper trip out, with a bit of shopping, a saunter round the garden centre, and coffee / tea and cake in the End of the Line Cafe³. This area being what it is, we ran into several of mum’s friends who wanted to stand and chat: all very genial and community-minded, but my legs started to give out early on and, by the third time it happened, I really just wanted to escape as politely as possible.

Dinner tonight will, I strongly suspect, be a departure from the meal plan as I don’t have the strength or the wakefulness needed to make a curry, even a very simple one. It’s the same one I didn’t get to make last week: it will get made eventually! Instead I will fall back on the trusty traybake, of sausages, veg, and maybe some roast potatoes and / or garlic bread. Probably ‘and’ as, due to timing, lunch today was a slice of chocolate cake. Tasty, but not exactly filling as a meal, and mum finally conceded today that she needs to put on some weight so I’ve got some feeding up to do. The piece of homemade millionaire’s shortbread in my new bag is, however, strictly for me. Sorry, mum. 😉

1. No insult intended to office staff generally: I was one for over 20 years, after all. ↩︎
2. I asked him if the person who serviced the boiler had caused the problem or if the timing was coincidence, and he assured me that one of the broken parts was something that could fail at any time. I only realised after he left that he didn’t say anything about the other broken part. 😬 ↩︎
3. The name, if you’re wondering, comes from the building’s original role as the final station on the Newport to Freshwater railway line. Although trains haven’t run on it for a very long time, parts of the line are now footpaths which make for pleasant walks. For those who can walk, of course. Sigh. ↩︎