It's Getting Colder

(Sunday) It rained early this morning. so there was no question of me taking Alfie for his walk across Eaglestone Park, even though he kept staring at me when I was eating my breakfast as I watched BBC Breakfast at around 7.30. For a start, Alfie doesn't like getting wet, so there was no point in us both getting deluged. If you open the patio door to let him out into the garden, if it's raining, he won't go out unless he absolutely has to, he will poke his head out and decide that he won't bother, thank you very much.

I was determined to go to Shenley Christian Fellowship this morning. I needed to return, three weeks after my heart attack. Obviously I didn't want a repetition of that Sunday morning.

It's been raining most of the morning, but by the time I got to the hospital the sun was shining.

On arriving back home after visiting Carol, I found the house somewhat cold so I put my fleece on, the first time this autumn.

(Monday) As I've said in the last bit, it is considerably colder. Alfie was quite insistent that he was going to get his routine morning's walk across Eaglestone Park. I took it slowly, but I was fine, considering things. I put my red Regatta fleece on and we went out, with a weak sun shining, but there was a definite nip in the air as we walked down the path and into the open space where I usually let Alfie off. No chance that anyone will be allowed to sleep, with Alfie yapping and barking madly. We cut across the park, not going the full circuit. I rested briefly on one of the pieces of outdoor gym machinery, and texted Carol on my mobile, just to give a brief word or two about Alfie's walk with me. Not so much a walk for Alfie, as he runs madly about, but always comes back when I call him. He still must wonder where Carol is at the moment. He must have wondered where on earth I was when I was whisked off to the John Radcliffe in Oxford three weeks ago.

I got back to the house and suddenly found that it was really cold. I think it will be necessary to put on the central heating for the first time this autumn when I get back from the hospital late when I've seen Carol.

Later on Monday. It's quite sunny and pleasant now. The weather at this time of the year can be really strange. It may be cold one moment and then warm and sunny the next, although even with the sun out it can be deceptive, seeming warm but underlying it can be quite chilly.

Getting Much Colder

It's certainly beginning to feel a good deal colder. There's a keen wind which is quite chilly on the skin. I'm putting the central heating on, but it's not exactly the most efficient system. Our beloved landlord put in a new boiler last year, which is good at heating the water for what ever purpose, such as washing-up, having a bath or even to have a shave, but as regards heating the house, it seems to not be up to much. I think perhaps the radiators need bleeding or something as there might be an air pocket somewhere in the system. It just doesn't seem  very warm. Outside there's a definite nip in the air. Oh well, we are into November now and the nights close in around 4-4.30p.m. so it's not surprising. 

The shops are beginning to stock up with Christmas stuff. I expect we'll have the John Lewis Christmas television commercial out any day now. It will be given stiff competition from the likes of Debenhams, Next, Sainsbury's, and all the rest, but theirs will no doubt top them all. It apparently has a budget of £7 million, amazing when you think about it. Although that isn't just for the commercial. It will be all the associated material that they put with it, such as window dressing and general store design and merchandising and no doubt there will be toys as there was last year with the 'Buster' commercial. We got Alfie one of the noisy ball toys, which he loves. It has a 'Buster' face and when you either bounce it or hit it, the thing makes a doggy sort of noise. Carol did some desperate surgery on one of the 'Comic Relief' laughing toys which he loves. She undid one of them and did a sort of heart transplant on another one so it still works, but as you can't replace them, as they're no longer sold, it was the only alternative. The original one must be 4-5 years old now, and they haven't bought out new ones, apart from the 'Dinosaur' toy which growls or roars, supposedly like a dinosaur, but that was several years ago. We bought two of the 'Buster' toys and keep one in reserve so Alfie has always got one to play with, but when we let him have any of these toys he isn't allowed to have it to play with for too long, basically because of the howling noise he makes, and also, because it's got small parts inside, we don't want him chewing it to the point where it comes apart and the electrical components become exposed and are a risk to him swallowing them.

Boiler Woes Continue

We had hoped that by now we would have managed to contact our beloved landlord and got him to make some sort of decision about the repair of our central heating boiler. We had a phone number, which we were given by him when we transferred to renting the house directly from the landlord and away from the rental agency, but on attempting to ring the number we found that it was no longer working. After a few more attempts it would appear that he has a new number, much as we got a new telephone number when we went over to Sky from TalkTalk a couple of years ago. You would imagine that we would have been informed of the new number but obviously, they never thought it important enough to give us this new number. So we are still stuck without knowing what to do regarding the boiler, but still have an engineer coming on Friday morning. Then Carol discovered a business card from the plumber who she got through the Academy when we had to get the leak repaired (due to the landlord fouling up the installation of the washing machine, which is recalled in an earlier blog so need not be repeated here.) It would appear that this plumber will not look at the boiler without the landlord's permission, which means we are no further forward with this situation. As a result, of all this we are continuing to have no hot water for washing up, or baths etc etc., unless we boil kettles and saucepans and the house is freezing cold, although we have a very small electric fan heater for use in the lounge. We will have to see what the new week brings as regards resolving this situation.

Boiler Breakdown

It's a cold and frosty morning. The boiler decided to play up first thing. It had a red light flashing on it's front, which usually indicates that the gas has run out. We have a pre-payment meter, meaning we have to 'top-up' using  a card for gas and a key for electricity and buying credit for them at either the local shop in Eaglestone or the shop at Garraways in Coffee Hall. I usually do this at the beginning of each month. I had to go out to the bin cupboard, climb on the step-stool and use a small torch we have to see how much credit is on the meter. The card has to be put in the slot on the meter which you have to stretch your arm inside the cupboard as the meter is put in perhaps the most awkward place. It showed up on the digital read-out that it had well over £40 so it wasn't that which was the problem. We tried the boiler again but it steadfastly refused to start. So, we had the prospect of no hot water for baths and washing-up as well as no heat in the house as the central heating system works from the boiler. If it needed repairing we would need an engineer to look at it, which would mean if we went through our landlord it wasn't likely to be fixed any time soon. As we were promised by the landlord that we would have our fence repaired, and still nothing on that (very nearly six months have passed since we signed the tendency agreement with the landlord and moving away from the rental agency.) So, what to do? Ring round to find an engineer who might be able to fix the boiler ourselves or go through our landlord? Fortunately the thing seems to have sorted it self out and is now working. So, I've been able to do the washing-up from last night and the house is relatively warm again. With my heart condition I cannot afford to get too cold. We presume that the boiler needs to be at the correct water pressure to work and this cold snap as interfered with this water pressure.