Happy Birthday Emily 31.01.08

It was Emily's birthday today and for the first time ever we have not been able to see her on her birthday. She will be back from university tomorrow, so she will just extend her birthday a bit. She wanted money rather than a present but we also bought her some speakers for watching films on her laptop. I added a silly little present to make her laugh, a talking Clanger - she loves the clangers and the noise they make always makes her laugh. Two of her flatmates are not English and she found it very difficult to explain to them what the Clangers were!

The plumber came to replace the hot water cylinder today. I hate having jobs like that done because it causes so much chaos. Nothing in our household seems to be simple or uneventful and this was no exception. We had a flood in the kitchen and the new cylinder leaked quite badly so the man had to come back, but finally we have hot water again - bliss!!

It was so windy that our recycling boxes (and contents) mad a bid for freedom and had to be weighted down, and the fence down the right hand side of the back garden decided it would prefer to swap sides and it now looks more like decking than fencing. I am fed up with that fence, I think we would be better off with a wall but I expect that will be expensive.

One of Those Days 25.01.08

Thursday was one of those days. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before but our hot water failed a couple of weeks ago, the central heating still works but it is so frustrating not having hot water. We still have a working shower so we don't smell, well not unless Robbie has been over enthusiastic with the aftershave again - that can be a breath taking experience! Anyway I am grateful that we have a working shower, but I miss my bath, there is nothing quite like a leisurely Sunday morning listening to The Archers in the bath - with two cups of tea, of course! Having been messed around by the first couple of plumbers we contacted, we finally had an appointment for someone to come and fix the problem yesterday. I had spent the whole day planning a long hot bath that evening, but when I arrived home at about 6.15 I could tell by Robbie's face that it was bad news. Still no hot water! Apparently the plumber thinks we need a new cylinder and it can't be fitted until next week. I'm not convinced that he is correct, so I intend to check that out first but whatever the outcome we are facing another weekend without hot water. Our boiler is only 4 years old, so I am unimpressed to say the least! Oh well, I expect we will sort it out eventually.