A bit of a bummer

Up early this morning - early for me, that is - as we are having a new boiler installed. When the current central heating/hot water boiler was serviced towards the end of last year, Matt announced that we had a carbon monoxide leak. Fortunately, he was able to seal it, but I made a quick trip to B & Q and bought a CO detector, something I had been meaning to fit for years. We have been aware for some time that the boiler was nearing the end of its life - after all, it was installed in 1980 - but this was the last straw for She Who Must Be Obeyed. Matt said that it would need to be his father who quoted for fitting a new boiler and we asked him to arrange a visit asap. Despite several phone calls chasing this up, we never did get a quote from Matt's father and I eventually called two other companies. The second quote came in just two days before we left for France and I put it to one side to deal with on our return. Both companies had assured me that we would qualify for a Government grant of £400 under the boiler scrappage scheme which had been introduced as part of the Government's drive to reduce CO2 emissions and they both indicated that there seemed to be plenty of money left in the kitty.

It was two days after our return that I went to the appropriate web site to stake a claim for my £400 - only to find that the scheme had been withdrawn on the afternoon of the day before we came back to England. So I shall be £400 worse off, although as I never had the money in the first place I can't claim to have lost it. It's a bit of a bummer all the same.