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The temperature continued to drop, but luckily the engineer rang to say he’s be here in the morning. When he turned up the news didn’t look good. He had all the parts necessary to fix the boiler, but because of the way it had been installed he couldn’t do the repair without taking the whole thing apart and draining the system. Which would take two hours. And he couldn’t stay that long as he had another appointment. I had a sore throat from the coldness of the night and Ernie had slept really badly. I felt like crying. But I didn’t cry. I just whined at him and hoped that would work.
But fair play to Vailllant. Even though the job was taking longer because of the way the boiler had been installed, the guy’s boss made the call that he could stay and save us from a weekend of misery. I would have done anything for Adam, the man who had rescued us from potential illness and death, but he didn’t seem keen. Especially when I repeated “anything†in a suggestive way. He told me to bleed the radiators (I am not sure if that was to help with the problem or because that’s what he wanted in return) and it took ages. The radiators were full of air. I enjoyed the game of cat and mouse between the release of fizzing cold air and unpleasant black water. We’ve all been there. I managed to do all the radiators without damaging the carpets or unscrewing too far and being flooded.
Even so it took an awful long time for the temperature of the house to rise from the 12 degrees that it had got down to. We went out to a cold playground and then on to a family supermarket shop and the house was still cold when we got back in. But my thermostat app kept showing the temperature rising by 0.1 degree every quarter of an hour. It was good to know things were heading back in the right direction, however slowly.
My daughter managed to sneak a large Milky Bar into our trolley without me noticing until I got to the checkout. I assumed my wife had put it in there, but just thought I’d check. And the subterfuge was discovered. Unless I had done it without noticing. Or maybe Ernie had. I reckon it was Phoebe though. I have been known to steal the occasional sweet myself and so I let Phoebe have that one. Though I might actually eat the Milky Bar. Even though I don’t really like it. It takes a thief to steal from a thief.
By the time we were home the thermostat was up to 15 degrees, but the boiler was still working and there was hot water for the kids’ baths. I hadn’t showered yet, so I decided to share a bath with my daughter. But I hadn’t factored in that she doesn’t like her baths to be anything more than the lukest of lukewarm. I might as well not have bothered to have the boiler fixed. I was freezing and didn’t last more than two minutes. My daughter screamed “too hot†if I even attempted to put any extra warm water in.
No one appreciates what I do for this family.
