Hmmm. So it appears the universe didn’t get my memo about the planned weekend off to relax… at 3am this morning I was on the phone to the emergency plumber as our hot water system was gushing litres of hot water down the drain and steam was pouring off the unit. The really depressing thing is that a faint noise had been bothering me for hours, which turned out to have been the sound of water gurgling down our outside drain. Wish I’d investigated that sooner! Thought it was my computer humming (one of the fans is pretty noisy). So, it turns out that the whole system is apparently probably dead. If we’re really lucky, perhaps just some valves and suchlike. But probably the whole sheebang. I wonder if it’s responsible for our inexplicably increasing gas bills?

So, I was trundling round the property in the dark in my dressing gown, getting snagged on rose bushes and strange spiky plants the previous owner for some incomprehensible reason of his own had decided to plant all around the hot water system and the electricity meter box. Maybe he really disliked the meter man? My little torch running low on batteries, and the helpful plumber – who didn’t even sound sleepy, giving me instructions on how to shut down the system and close off our water. There are various taps attached to the heater and none of them are moving a micron for me. In the end I pulled the front off the whole unit and turned it down so low it turned off. We are now without hot water until we get a plumber out here – going to making calls first thing on Monday.

And my car isn’t drivable until the heating hoses have been replaced and the alternator fixed. The van is even more expensive, the head needs to be taken off and seals replaced and piston checked for corrosion and possibly replaced.

Weeks like this really make you rethink career decisions like “I’m going to be an artist”!

So, what have I done to manage the situation so far? I have walked to our nearest shops with my trolley and bought food for the week, and hauled it all uphill back home. My cunning plan is that whatever other money I spend repairing things, we have stuff to eat, cat food, and plenty of toilet paper. Much else in life can be temporarily lived without – even hot showers, but it helps to be stocked up on the essentials! Otherwise by day four, you and the pets start eyeing each other in a calculating kind of way…