Day 3

This getting up early lark is beginning to get to me. We are now on the third day of the installation of our new boiler and I have been having to get up early so as to be ready for the installer to arrive. Goodness knows how I managed to get up even earlier for all those years that I was working in London. I always thought that one needed less sleep as one got older but it seems to be the reverse for me. With luck and a following wind - as they say, whoever they are - I will be able to reset the alarm clock tonight.

I have been astounded at the complexity of what I expected to be a fairly simple job, albeit one that is far beyond my capabilities. I envisaged that it would involve unshipping a few pipes before removing the old boiler, then put the new boiler in place and join up the pipes again. But no, it has been necessary to block up one hole through the outside wall and drill another one through in a different place, and install about three miles of copper pipe in the kitchen, in the airing cupboard and under the landing. Later today an electrician is due to arrive and I am told he will need to lift the landing floorboards again as well as work in the airing cupboard and the kitchen.

There are two things to be thankful for. First, we have an immersion heater so we have not been without hot water for the last two and a bit days. Secondly, the weather has been warm. If the job had been done a few weeks ago we would have frozen with only a small electric fan heater for warmth. And there has been that gaping hole in the kitchen wall as well, a hole the size of about half a dozen bricks. I might have implied that this hole was blocked up right away after the old boiler had been removed, but no, we are waiting for a bricklayer to come and fit in some new bricks. Fortunately, the hole is near the top of the wall or Fern, our dog, might have managed to wriggle through it during the night.

It will be a good job done - when it is done.