Where the Tubblet wants a kitten and I break things
The Tubblet has started a one girl campaign for a kitten. (Previous pet suggestions include polar bears and penguins!) She wants to hug him, pet him, carry him around and … We’ve tried to put her off the idea by explaining that kittens are A Lot Of Work but she said that would be fine. (Think we can guess who would be doing the Lots of Work). We also mentioned about toilet training said kitten and the Tubblet said the kitten could go in her potty. (Better than mummy’s slippers!) Mr T and I, big meanies that we are, do not want a kitten. We said no. (If that doesn’t make her drop it - and I somehow suspect that it won’t - we’re going to tell her that the church said no as well).
To really learn about a house, you need to live there for a bit. So far I’ve learnt that an airing cupboard is a wonderful thing, as is a Lazy Susan in the kitchen for shoving all your crockery on. I really like our Big Fridge but have developed a hate-hate relationship with our electric oven. Our bedroom window has a Niagara Falls concession each morning.
But the true source of mystery and wonder is our central heating system. It’s different - more modern and with lots of features - than anything either of us has used before. Although the instruction booklet is written in English, the way the words have been combined together make no sense!
Mr T took ownership of it to prevent over-use. He adjusted the temperature using the controls on the boiler - just like you did on our old one. This worked fine until the pilot light on the boiler went out. And on our old one, no pilot light meant the whole thing was completely buggered. Mr T goes out for a parish visit and I called Ray The Property Deacon.
Ray sent our next door neighbour, David, round as he has the same boiler. We fiddled around a bit with the boiler and found the reset button. With the help of the useless instructions, we worked out that you need to turn the system to max and hit the reset button a few times. We tried this and the system juddered back into life. The pilot light is on! David went home, Job Done.
About half an hour later, the system went off again. So I had a go. The plastic bit inside the boiler’s temperature knob snapped. It’s still possible to adjust the temperature by twisting the metal bit but you can’t see what you’ve adjusted it too. (A look inside at the bit that fitted over the metal revealed that someone had broken it before, I’d just finished what they’d started. Knowing my luck, it’ll cost a packet to replace or be discontinued). I tried, and failed, to superglue it together. I may have sworn. Alot. I made more calls to Ray The Property Deacon. And tried not to panic. (A few days roughing it is fine for me and Mr T, but less fine for the Tubblet as she's ill at the moment).
Ray the Property Deacon very kindly agreed to come round and have a look at the boiler. After examining it, he shook his head. He thought it might be the thermo-coupling. He switched on the immersion heater for us so at least there was hot water. Ray said he'd call Andy Who Services The Heating in the morning. Before leaving, Ray also called Richard Who Knows About the Heating System.
[ETA: Mr T phoned to say he was on his way back from his visit and ask how things are. I explained that the knob came off in my hand. (Sorry, couldn't resist the opportunity for a really bad pun!) This may have involved some more swearing. He suggested praying over it. I wondered if the swearage along with the instructions to "Work you stupid ..." actually counted. Having decided it didn't, I gave it a proper go. And then wandered off to the fridge to see if there was any wine left. For medicinal purposes of course. Breaking stuff can be extremely stressful. Particularly when it's not your own].
Richard also very kindly popped round. By this time, Mr T is back. He explained that he’s been adjusting the system via the boiler to save money on the heating. Richard pointed out the thermostat in the front room - which is what you’re meant to use - as fiddling with the boiler makes no difference to the overall temperature. All ajudsting the boiler does is change the boiler.
He also explained that as our boiler is very modern, it’s got a temperature gauge inside. Once the system reaches the temperature on the thermostat, it turns itself off and only fires up again when the temperature drops. (I can’t remember for the life of me if someone told us how the system worked when we first moved in. They may, but as the journey from Old Place to New Place took five hours instead of the usual hour and a bit, they could have told us lots of Very Important Things that we've completely forgotten about. The journey took so long as a Fathers 4 Justice protest that blocked our usual route. There are about two other routes. We took the second, which was jammed with V Festival traffic. The removal men took the third route, which was fine. Ray and David had to open up and tell them where to dump stuff. By the time we got there, the removal men had long gone. We ended up sending the thank you letter and tip through the post. Hope they got it. And TBH, all I wanted to know about the new house by then was where the toilet was!).
Mr T and I stand there like a pair of numptys. Richard and Ray were very nice about it. Very nice considering they’ve both had wasted journies and a ruined evening due to User Error. The church grapevine being what it is, everyone is going to know about this on Sunday!