Chilly Wind and the Boiler Won't Work!

It's bitterly cold. There's a biting wind howling outside, and we can't get the central heating boiler to start. There's a red light blinking on the front of the confounded thing which means that we might have run out of gas on the meter, it being a meter which has to be 'topped up' using a key. But it could mean that there's insufficient pressure in the water feeding the boiler. I have to go out to the cupboard outside at the front of the house and stand on a little stool to look at the meter, taking the gas card with me (the electric meter is in the house, in the hall and uses a plastic key to top up the credit.) It's not easy, particularly when it's dark, doing this operation and you need to take a torch to be able to see the read-out on the meter as well as stretching at arms length to be able to put the card in the meter and pressing the button on the front of the meter which has to be done in order to see how much is still on the meter. You have to also remember to turn off the boiler in the kitchen because otherwise this reading won't work, and if you have been to the shop to 'top up' the card it won't work. It turns out there is about sufficient left to keep the boiler going and heating the house and water to have either a bath, a wash so I can have a shave or do the washing up. Carol is able to get the boiler to work, getting the pressure right and the thing 'firing' which takes a good 20 minutes of effort. The thing needs servicing, which has never been done in all the time we've lived here. Our beloved landlord wouldn't spend any money on this sort of thing or even having the required safety check done whicn legally he is required to ahve done anually to make sure that the boiler isn't giving off poisonous fumes. His usual answer if you mention it, the same thing when asked about having the fence repaired is that he'll 'ask a friend' to come and do it. But it would appear that he can't have many friends because we're still waiting and waiting and waiting . . . I bet he doesn't live in a cold house where the central heating doesn't always work and it should have been sorted out long before the winter sets in and we get freezing weather. I think in all honesty we'll need to do it outselves. And the gas engineer needs to be C.O.R.G.I.  registered in order to do any work to test the boiler and be able to give us a certificate. I have now learned that C.O.R.G.I was replaced by something called the Gas Safety Register which is about the same thing. Replace in 2010, apparently.

There are bits of the shed roof in the garden, blown off by the high winds. After the fence to one side of the garden was blown down last winter in the wind, it now seems we will have to contend with bits of the rickety old fence at the side of the garden beginning to be blown down. It looks like bits of roofing felt. I just hope that the rest of the house doesn't land up in a similar state with slates or bits of gutter falling off in the wind.