Procession

Aaaaagh! I was really looking forward to reclaiming the house today, being able to do exactly what I want when I want - little things like leaving the house to go to the shops, for example. I have, however, been thwarted and must endure at least one more afternoon in. Let me explain...

Between Christmas and New Year, we had some work done on the kitchen roof and then, just after New Year, we had the shed roof taken off and replaced. We were then away for a few days in Iceland and, pretty much as soon as we got back, we embarked on having the loft boarded (to provide extra storage) and a new loft hatch and ladder fitted (to allow us to access the new storage space). This work started on Monday and was due to be finished this morning. Unfortunately, there were two wrinkles introduced along the way. Firstly, the house being old and, over the years, subject to work by DIY-ers with varying levels of skill as well as the individual quirks of countless professional tradesmen, every job undertaken is never - NEVER - going to be straightforward. This led to the new loft having to be slightly off the ideal line which left a bit of ceiling that needed replastering and, therefore, another man to come and do that. Secondly, the toilet flush valve broke in the middle of all this, so I had to get someone out to fix that.

Finally, we reach Thursday and John (the loft boarder/loft hatch man - great work, would definitely recommend) is about to finish: just two hours work to complete the job! He has also contacted a plasterer, Tim, who is coming to tidy up that piece ceiling (good work by him too - again, recommended), so everything should be done and dusted by about 11.30. True to their word, they are finished by 11.30 and have left the landing clean and tidy. Right, now I can get down to the important things in life like bottling my pickled red cabbage. Before I begin, I notice that it is quite chilly (still plenty of snow on the ground Under the Dome in Rammy!) and go to check on the boiler that is prone to failing to start on some mornings. Upon opening the door to the boiler cupboard, I can see that water is leaking from the base of the boiler, the boiler that is right above the corner of the living room where the TV, DVD player, Sky box etc. all live! So, mains water off, phone British Gas and wait for the engineer...

So far, my retirement has yielded precious little time for solitary contemplation. Instead, I have brewed a lot of tea and coffee and I have spent a lot of time opening the front door to people who have come to do this or are just going to fix that. They have all been very nice, very efficient and got the jobs done but I really hope this afternoon's engineer might be the last for a while. Perhaps I can just about make out the tail of the procession...

Edit: No such luck! The boiler is very, very poorly so a return by the engineer tomorrow has had to be booked. The end of that procession was, like the end of Page 3, just a piece of wishful thinking.