It's been a few days since I last posted, which is indicative of what's been happening, i.e. not a lot.
The central heating system packed in last Wednesday. I reported it but they couldn't get anyone out until Friday. The only real inconvenience was having to boil water for the washing up, as we have electric heaters and an electric shower, plus a gas fire in the living room.
The engineer turned up on Friday. I left him to it. After a while he said it was fixed and left. The boiler was now worse than before with strange noises emanating and the pressure gauge fluctuating wildly. I rang them back but they'd gone home. I rang on saturday morning and because I'd smelt something burning they sent the gas supply people to the house. They checked but couldn't find anything (I think it was the main circuit board burning out), but they stuck a "do not use" notice on the boiler. On Monday another engineer turned up. He'd been to the house before. (Did I tell you that this is the worse boiler we've ever known and it hasn't worked for more than six months at a time since it was installed?)
He took the unit apart, replaced all the parts that the other engineer was supposed to have replaced, renewed the pump and tested it (the other guy didn't test it but left in a hurry)
Anyway we now have central heating and hot water again, which is just as well because it's going to get cold.
Luckily all these call outs are covered by insurance. The boiler is six years old. It is a combi type and they are rubbish. Our old heater worked for twenty years without failing once. We only changed it because we had a conservatory built and the heater had to be moved. It's true that the more electronic gizmos and circuits that are used, the more likely they are to fail. We will have to change this boiler again soon and I'll have to look for something that is a little more reliable, probably German.
Other than thatI'm feeling fine. The pills for my back pain seem to have worked.
I'm going into work on Friday for an hour to see what needs attention before Christmas. Next Tuesday is chemo day.
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Dave Clemo's account of living with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. Don't forget to add your comments when you drop in.
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My recommended reading
- "The Stars my Destination" by Alfred Bester was published in 1956, so it stands as the last of the pre space-age sci-fi novels. The hero is Gully Foyle and he is a man on a mission. He is out to exact retribution to the occupants of a space liner who ignored his distress signals and left him to die in deep space. It's a brilliant epic story, and is Bester's best novel by far. Neil Gaiman writes in the forward that it stakes a claim to be the first cyberpunk novel, albeit thirty years before the genre was established. I've read it at least four times in the last forty years, and I can highly recommend it. 10/10.
- "Stand on Zanzibar" by John Brunner. First published in 1968. This is a stunning book, written in the 1960s but set at the turn of the 21st century. The title refers to the fact that if every person alive was given a space 2ft by 1ft, they would all fit on the island of Zanzibar. By the time the novel ends, they have overflowed the island and are standing in the water. It deals with the pressures of conflicting world ideologies, overpopulation, how advertising and propaganda can shape our worldview, and features a character called Chad C Mulligan, a socioligist who was so appalled at mankind that he just dropped out. But not before publishing a book called "The Hipcrime Vocab" which was duly banned by the authorities. Brunner predicts legalised recreational drug use, intelligent computers, politics by assassination, and a state of war between conflicting ideologies. And spontaneous riotings and "muckers"- people who just go beserk and run amuck, killing as many people as possible. Spooky. 10/10
- "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. First published 1957. Over 10 years in writing, this is a stunning read. Set in the near future (from a 50s viewpoint), it sets out what inevitably happens when socialism is allowed full rein. Eerily prescient. 10/10.
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