Prickly

Day 3 in the Big Freeze house, and Russ is still without heat or hot water.

Honestly it's like something out of Laurel and Hardy.

On Sunday morning the boiler packed up completely - the pilot light would not stay on for more than 5 seconds. Found a plumbing site online where the guys advised me it could be the thermocouple. I phoned my landlord on sunday afternoon who said he'd get the guy who last inspected it to come down the next morning (monday) to have a look. That was great, so I asked him to leave a message on my voicemail to let me know what time the guy was coming.

I went to work at 6pm.

Got home at 11:30pm - no voicemail. Was the plumber coming or not?

The following morning I called my landlord to find out if the guy was coming. No answer, left a message on his voicemail. By 10:30 he hadn't called back to I called my own plumber in to have a look - he was coming at 6:30. He was good - but diagnosed that the boiler was leaking fumes and basically the whole system needed replacing. I called my landlord to tell him this and asked if my plumber should go ahead and work on it. He said no, he wanted his own guy to do it.

I thanked the plumber for coming and apologised for wasting his time. The plumber was due to come this morning. So that's another day without heat/hot water.

Their guy came this morning at 10am. He took one look and refused to touch the boiler.

You see, under "plumber's law", the last person to touch the boiler becomes responsible for it, and seeing as my guy had a look yesterday, the second plumber apparently could not touch it (why? What would happen? Would killer rabbits descend from the heavens and take over the world??) so he make a hasty exit.

Called my landlord AGAIN and he sent out the guy who last serviced the boiler. 3 hours later a chubby plumber with an arse cleavage to rival any builder turned up. Anyway when a bloke has got such an impressive example of builder's bum/constructor's crack/labourer's line, you just got to look at it, haven't you? You can't take your eyes off it. I felt like inviting the neighbours around to have a look too - "Mrs Winton? Quick, come around and have a look at this - honestly it's like the Grand Canyon".

Anyway, arse-cleavage had a look and potched about with it and replaced the sodding thermocouple - and guess what - my boiler started working!!!

Honestly, if I was gay I would have kissed him.

My luck wasn't going to last though. Apparently the fumes from the ventilation were leaking back in to the house and it would have been illegal for him to leave with it still like that so he shut the boiler down, removed the fuse and said he'd be back tomorrow to sort out the ventilation.

So yes, ANOTHER day without any heat or hot water.

Still, at least tomorrow I'll be able to have warmth? Have a bath? Wash my dishes?

Yeah?? Yeah!!!!

No actually.

Tonight my landlord called and told me they've decided to have the boiler replaced. Which is a TWO DAY JOB.

So I have to wait until THURSDAY until I get hot water and heating.

One word:

Bugger.