Turns out Jules and I are both thinking fondly of home. Maybe it has something to do with the fun-filled Weekend of the Tradesman we've just lived through.
On Wednesday, after a 4-hour wait to get the keys from the letting agents (they thought the landlord had the keys, he thought they had them - it turned out they were in the door of the flat!) we went to look at our new abode, noted the lack of a queensize bed, a couch and a decent chest of drawers and then decided we were too tired to move in that day. So we went back to Kirst's and rang up about the phone, electricity and gas. The electricity and gas were both on pre-pay meters so they agreed to send a card for the gas meter and booked a slot for an engineer to come and change it for a conventional meter. (The electricity meter was already booked to be changed today.)
So Thursday we moved in and bought a pile of essentials at Argos. Noticed the gas meter was saying it had a credit of 5 pounds but couldn't get the boiler to go. So no showers on Friday morning - at least, Jules leapt in and yelped a bit although I couldn't face it - but then, hurrah! the gas card arrived. Stuck it in the meter...no result. Rang the letting agents (who were all apologetic) and the gas company, who promised to send an engineer within the next four hours. So we waited at home from 3 pm till 8 pm... no engineer. Rang the gas company again and they said "Oh, they're very busy in that area today but they're definitely coming tonight." At 9.30 I sent Jules out to forage for food (which is not difficult with Kilburn High Road just there) but there was no sign of the gas man by 11.30 so we gave up and went to bed. Rang them again the next day and they had no record of the call-out but "re-raised" it so there we were, stuck in the house on Saturday as well.
Eventually, the gas man arrived at the same time as the Telewest guy who was setting up the broadband and phone-line. Naturally, the gas meter was in the same cupboard as the cable points!
Anyway, the gas man stuck a special card in the meter and five seconds later there was a wooshing noise and we had gas! He said he'd done six jobs like that already that day - apparently the meter switches off if you don't use it for a while.
Damn, that first hot shower was good!
The Telewest guy discovered that the builders hadn't actually done the phone cabling at all - they'd obviously run out of time and just stuck the plastic box on the wall with a loose loop of phone cable in behind it, not attached to anything. So he was here for a while!
We went to Gourmet Burger Kitchen on Saturday night as we'd wanted to go the night before when we couldn't cook but then we were stuck at home waiting for the gas man. Very nice it was too, even better than Burger Wisconsin if that's not hugely disloyal to like the knock-off better than the original.
This morning, Jules went off to work with a brand-new goatee. I can just imagine the HR person's reaction: He's even hairier than he was at the interview!
I waited at home for the electricity man, who did come, then took one look at the meter, sucked in his breath and said: "This has been tampered with." No kidding - it was hanging loose, attached to the wall by only one cable! Still he managed to fix it which left me waiting for the couch - another no-show.
Interestingly, around lunchtime I was sure I heard a horse clopping down the street, so I went to the front window and yes, one large brown horse complete with policewoman. Sometimes England is just so cool.
1 comment:
You think things are tough - I'm trying to connect two heat pumps at school and the problems it's creating are unbelieveably expensive. We need to upgrade the power supply to 3 phase - doesn't sound too difficult but oh dear, we need a new transformer and that can take up to 2 months. Not only that but the pole isn't strong enough to take the weight of a bigger transformer so that means you guessed it - a new pole! In this day of user pays, it looks like we'll have no change from $30 000 by the time we pay for the pumps, pole, transformer, linesmen, electrician and so the list grows! And it's raining not snowing and it's warm rain so what little snow the fields had is rapidly melting away!
It's not looking good for the holidays!
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