Hello my faithful and loyal readers. I have not been with you for the past week as life has been a bit fraught. Mainly domestic issues. This is going to be a pretty boring post with a bit of a rant thrown in so I will not be offended if you decide you really don't want to know. I would not blame you.
The good part of the week was that the London Mozart Players came to Colchester. Now we do not get musicians of that calibre visiting very often, if ever, so no way was I going to miss out. So I attended their concert and oh so lovely to hear live music. Overture to Mendelssohn Midsummer Night's Dream for starters and then a complete contrast as we had the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Orchestra by Britten. I am not a huge Britten fan but my ex, who is a trained singer, knows this piece and sang it so I knew it well and it was such a treat to hear it again. Evening ended with Mozart Jupiter symphony which was sheer joy and then as a final treat an encore, the nocturne from A Midsummer's Night's Dream.
Well after that it was downhill all the way. I have been having issues with an electrical water heater which keeps cutting out and, as it was under warranty, called the company, Ariston. After being cut off EIGHT times, deliberately I might add, from their so called customer services help line, and getting no response to my emails, I went on Trustpilot and left a vicious review. And got a response. Wot a Surprise.
In the meantime I had an electrician come round to check it out and he blithely informed me that it had been installed incorrectly. Not by the company but by somebody I used for decorating and plumbing work etc. It seems the wrong cable was used and it needed to be on a separate circuit. So I had that done. Electrician then nearly passed out when he saw my fuse box (about twenty years old) which had corroded and was dangerous so that is now being replaced tomorrow. The expense made my eyes water.
And then on Friday morning I had a shower. When I turned round to walk out of the shower I found the floor totally flooded as none of the water had gone down the drainer. So every towel I possessed was put on the floor to soak it up. I pulled out the filter tried to clear it no luck. My neighbour knows a good plumber so he arranged for him to come round the next day.
Worse was to follow. Without going into too much detail, I used the loo and all the waste erupted into my shower. Plumber said I needed to get a specialist firm out so on the phone to Dynorod who were brilliant and sent somebody round later on that day. We have problems with our drains in these flats but this was the first time this had happened to me. When we saw what was blocking the drains, well I am not going to explain but it was REVOLTING. An hour later after drilling, rod pulling and jet spraying it was all gone. He then noticed my kitchen sink was emptying out slowly, it always has, and he investigated and pulled out sheets, literally sheets, of black lime scale that had built up over the years.
Because this has happened before in the flats I am able to claim back the bill from our management company, but I felt totally drained (forgive the pun) by the whole experience. I find as I get older that events like this knock me for six and I felt quite shaky throughout it all. The young guy who dealt with it was simply wonderful (so I am now going to go on Trustpilot and say so, fair is fair) an my neighbours also looked after me.
So a really mixed week and I have spent most of the last two days lolling around, drinking tea and binging on light romantic novels as my mind is unable to cope with anything else at the moment.
I will be back with another From my Shelves soon.
Promise.
