A long cold wait

It’s such a relief. We have heat!

On Sunday evening, when I was hanging the last of my washing on the airer in the laundry room, the central heating boiler made an awful racket as it shook itself demonically. I rang the heating engineer to tell him the situation was now urgent. All I got was his answering service yet again.

An hour later the cold began to set in. The central heating had packed up. The Fox rang round other heating engineers. The earliest he could organise was for Wednesday morning. We would have to wait to then.

On Monday morning the first thing I did was try our usual man again & explained that the heating had given up & the house was getting very very cold. The temperature that morning started at -8ºC & didn’t look likely to warm up very rapidly. I was delighted when the engineer rang back around 8.30am to say he would be here later that morning. He hadn't received any of the previous messages the Fox & I had left in previous weeks. I settled down to wait.

By late morning he had arrived & started to take the boiler apart. First he discovered the pump wasn’t working. He rang his supplier. They had one in so off he went, returned & installed that. Still the boiler wouldn’t work. He continued along the system & found a switch wasn’t working. He tried his supplier. They didn’t have one in but could get one for the next day. He ordered it. As there was nothing more he could do, the engineer went off, having switched on the immersion heater so we could at least have hot water. He would ring as soon as the part arrived & be back.

We popped out to the golf club for a sit in the warmth as much as anything else. Then home for a bit of a zizz under the duvet. Next was the question of food. I contemplated cooking – at least the heat from the cooking might help warm up the house a bit – but by this time we had discovered the immersion heater wasn’t working either so there was no chance of hot water for washing up afterwards. I felt the chicken I had got out of the freezer that morning – still frozen solid, impossible to separate the thighs – that says something about how cold the house was! Also the idea of sitting, relaxed in warmth appealed so we set off down to our local village pub.   

Once home we lit the gas fire in the lounge & barely ventured out of that one room. The bed sheets were absolutely freezing as I clambered into bed. One good thing about my disability is that my knees become massively inflamed by the evening & soon it was roasty toasty in bed.

Tuesday saw me once more waiting. Linda, our home help arrived. She had to resort to boiling kettles of water to get some hot water to clean the bathroom & kitchen. She left at about noon. Shortly after the engineer rang up. The part still hadn’t arrived so he was going to do his next job which would take a while. He couldn’t get to us until nearer 4pm. We decided we should have time for a quick pop out to get the food shop done. We then lit the gas fire & waited. Eventually the phone went. He had the part but he’d found complications with his present job so would be late. We suggested he might as well come the next day.

Once more we ate out. This time we went to Ricky’s, our favourite Cantonese restaurant. I just had to have the Hot & Sour Soup to thaw me out. The Fox was content with his usual Chicken & Sweetcorn Soup. The Fox then enjoyed a Scallop & Prawn Bird’s Nest while I had Ginger & Pineapple Duck. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal.

We had another evening huddled in front of the gas fire.

Wednesday saw me up early once more. I admit though, the room was so cold I was reluctant to emerge from bed to get dressed in that cold. The engineer arrived promptly before 9am. By 11am the switch was installed. The old switch had corroded & was full of gunk. Clearly previous engineers hadn’t bothered to clean out the filters & this was the result. It didn’t entirely surprise us. We changed engineer this year as we suspected the previous one had been a bit slapdash after our problems with the boiler last year.

We left the heating on all day yesterday to ensure the house was heated through & we had plenty of water. The sheer joy of not shivering away all day. It was a real pleasure to cook a meal at home once more

Somehow it seems harder to cope with these problems. We’ve become softer with the joy of central heating & having a constantly warm home. We are very lucky to be in a position to be able to afford to run it for our comfort, & have it repaired when necessary. The Fox particularly missed not having a wash in hot water when he got up. I just missed feeling warm, except at night. When I told Linda that in my childhood, before my parents had central heating installed, we just had one coal fire in the lounge & a range in the breakfast room, and that was it,  she couldn’t believe it. A fire only went on in the bedrooms if you were sick. Ice on bedroom windows were the norm & hot water bottles were a delight. But that was normal for any house in the 1950s. Even when we lived in Arnside, until we moved here in 2000, we still only heated the lounge & had an electric heater in the bathroom for when you had a bath in winter. No we’re very grateful to be living in today’s world, where there is central heating & warmth throughout the house. At the moment we’re really relishing it & appreciating our good fortune.