It never rains, but it pours...

Delighted though I am to have had my electrical issues addressed, I am not yet out of the woods. I am still without heating, and for another night, I sit at my computer and shiver, clad in a fetching ensemble to insulate me against the all-pervading cold that is my house. Fully-dressed, I have had to add a thick fleecy dressing gown, pink beanie hat and woolly gloves. Yes, gloves. I can no longer feel my nose, but I can tell it's still there from the red glow reflected on my computer screen..... Sensible people would have given up and retired to bed, but I am made of sterner stuff, and I don't DO "sensible".

Next day at work (having left poor cat in conditions resembling the North Pole) I thaw gradually.

Late in the afternoon, I receive a phone call from the lovely Marcus, tame Heating Engineer to the Desperate. Would it be okay if he popped round after 6? Of COURSE it is, and at the duly appointed hour, cheerful Marcus arrives to take up the challenge of my chilly predicament.

He gamely picks up the baton passed from Sparks Junior and dives into the freezing recesses of my boiler cupboard. Like a surgeon, he exposes the coiled intestines of my archaic boiler, and works his way through numerous tests. Finally, he diagnoses a blown fuse in the timer mechanism, and faster than you can say "Thermostat", Archaic Boiler roars into life, sending me into paroxysms of delight, my poor frozen catsicle into meltdown and Marcus into a frenzy of invoice-writing. I blithely write him a cheque and send him on his weary way, whilst revelling in the luxury of feeling warm again.

Oh joy.
Oh bliss.
Oh shite.

As one crisis concludes, the powers that be have determined that I have not yet suffered enough, and another spanner is chucked into the works....

I have sprung a leak.

Not me personally I hasten to add, but the damp patch in the bathroom that I had blamed on the cat (sorry Noodles!) turns out to have come from the plumbing behind the sink, and when I check it out, I discover that the U-bend is leaking like a torpedoed submarine. I prepare to abandon ship, but decide am overreacting, and instead, stuff a towel underneath to absorb aforementioned leakage.

I retire to bed, contemplating the fact that tomorrow, I will have to add to my collection of pet tradesmen, and get the final part to the set: a plumber. Tomorrow is another day......... *sigh*