Oh! We’ve been cold this week! Not that the temperature has been particularly biting. Rather, because we’ve been without any heating for most of the week. We’re just beginning to thaw out.
The UK has been battered by not one, but two named storms this week. First came Isha with 90 mph winds and lashings of rain. Then, after a brief respite, Jocelyn arrived with similarly high winds and even more rain. Lots of flooding in places, lots of trees down and sadly some fatalities with flying debris and cars crashing into fallen trees. It’s a good thing this climate change stuff is just nonsense – think of the state we’d be in if it was real!
Our central heating saga has finally been resolved. As I wrote last time, the heating went off last Saturday morning. Our Home “Emergency” insurance agreed to cover and fix the issue but they couldn’t get anyone to us until Monday, sometime between 9.00 am and 5.00 pm. In the meantime, I climbed up into the loft to where I thought the problem might be and, lo and behold, there it was. The central heating pump and a bunch of other gubbins is located in the loft and the joint above the pump was leaking, quite profusely. This was dripping down onto the pump and, when the central heating tried to fire up, once the pump tried to start up, not surprisingly, it tripped the electrics. So, at least I had more information to give the engineer whenever he/she arrived.
Monday at about 5.30 pm a young lad finally arrived, clambered up into the loft and confirmed my diagnosis. He tried to replace the leaking joint but found that it had been tightened to infinity and beyond, presumably to stop it leaking on some previous occasion. He also presumed that the pump was fried and would need replacing so off he went, leaving us in the same state we were in. Not his fault, of course, but very disappointing nevertheless.
Tuesday morning I rang the insurers to find out what was going on and after a fairly fruitless discussion we agreed, much to my surprise, that I could arrange for our usual, local plumbers to fix everything and send them the bill. An engineer arrived on Tuesday afternoon and, once again, confirmed my diagnosis. Sadly, he did not have a spare pump in his van and one would need to be ordered. Friday morning, a pair of lads arrived clutching the replacement pump and joints and by about noon we were up and running again. Almost a full week of no heating but thankfully the temperatures were not as Arctic as they had been the week before and, with the plethora of electric fan heaters our boys lent us, we survived comfortably enough. It will be interesting to see what our electricity bill for this month comes to!
We had an exceedingly pleasant evening Wednesday, out to dinner with Adam, Ava and the girls at La Terraza Tapas Bar in Northampton. We’ve been there a couple of times with them and it has never let us down. It’s a small place which looks very unassuming but the food is terrific. I’m sure you all know the deal about Tapas – you order little plates to share and almost always end up over-ordering as everything sounds delicious. We definitely over-ordered on this occasion but somehow managed to get through it all. Much to my disappointment, we discovered that both Jessie and Julieta like calamari! Who would have thought?
YCNMIU
This week’s You Could Not Make It Up is the news that “Lord” David Frost has been appointed to a key parliamentary committee on the climate crisis. He’s a climate change denier and, in a debate in the House of Lords last year, he stated that rising global temperatures due to the climate crisis were “likely to be beneficial” in the UK, because it would mean fewer people would die from cold temperatures. He also happens to be a trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which opposes a number of net zero environmental policies and which is funded by wealthy Tory donors.
Frost, you may remember, was the chief negotiator of the extraordinarily awful Brexit agreement with the EU. At the time, of course, he and Boris hailed the agreement as a great success, everything we could have hoped for and firmly allowing the UK to “take back control.” Once the shit hit the fan, though, especially with regard to Northern Ireland but also with the fishing industry and anyone importing from or exporting to the EU being screwed, Frost claimed that the agreement was absolute rubbish. What idiot could have possibly been responsible for such a debacle? Imagine his fury when he found out it was him. Yes, these people walk amongst us.
You really could not make this stuff up.
Email bug update
Several loyal readers have corresponded with their experience of the link in their email notice of new posts to the MPP not working properly. Ms Playchute first alerted me to this issue and several others also brought it to our attention. I sent an email around explaining the issue and how to get around it. Instead of clicking on the link “Continue reading” you can click the date of the post at the top of the email. Or, you can just have the MPP bookmarked so that you can go straight to it on a Sunday morning/evening (whenever your copy normally arrives).
I’ve done a bit of investigating and it is reassuring to know that the problem is mentioned widely on WordPress forums and it seems that a particular widely-used plugin has broken the email notification, presumably with a recent update. Sadly, I can’t do anything about it and we’ll just have to wait until it is fixed.
And finally, many of you will know that the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has staked his reputation on a pledge to Stop The Boats. Because, obviously, the loony right of the Tory party wants to convince every gullible citizen that the problems the UK is facing are the result of allowing too many foreigners into the UK and not, in any sense, the result of having 14 years of incompetent and corrupt Tory rule. (An aside: it’s intriguing to me to note that those on the loony right wing of the Tory party clamoring most vigorously for a clampdown on immigration are often second generation immigrants themselves. I guess it’s about pulling up the ladder behind them).
His plan is to send refugees who cross the channel in small boats to Rwanda for processing. If their claim is successful, they will be allowed to stay in Rwanda but not come back to the UK. Ever. If their claim is unsuccessful, they will be either returned to their country of origin or somewhere else. Who knows?
The threat of being flown to Rwanda is supposed to act as a deterrent to those fleeing war zones and/or persecution. Apparently, this will stop the boats instantly! Of course, it’s bollocks and is intended solely to provide some red meat to throw to the racists and loonier elements on the right wing of the Conservative Party.
All of that is to provide some context to a poem I ran across on Facebook.
Look from a different angle
I live in the land of Angles
Of Saxons
Of Jutes
Of Celts
Of Romans
Of Normans
Of ScandinaviansI live in the land that was
Shaped by thousands of generations of
Fortune hunters
Treasure seekers
Wanderers and sailors
Conquerors and settlers
Warriors and lovers
Chancers and traders
Looking for a better lifeIn waves and on waves
Paula Cleary
They came and they came
And we are the product of them all
Yet we have the nerve
and the ignorance
and memory loss
which makes a few of us spew hatred towards
‘People in boats’
That they are somehow different from the people
Who shaped and made our isle
We. Are. All. Descended. from. people. in. boats.
Too true!
We had a Movie/Date Night last night – we went to see The Holdovers at the cinema in Banbury. I’ll give you a full review next time (assuming I remember).
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, keep exercising, be good, be careful, and keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg