Friday 13th

Friday 13th and not only has the boiler gone on strike again not 12 hours after it was supposedly fixed yesterday, but the shelf in the bookcase has fallen foul of cultural overload. Both events have put a strain on the atmosphere in the Dower House.

On a positive note, the temperature outside is a balmy 19°, so there is no danger of hypothermia, and the errant shelf has been levelled with a judicious arrangement of support from the books underneath.

Even more positively for me, with His Lordship a prisoner to the vagaries of visiting tradesmen, I was free to meet up with blipper Poppy and Mike from Orkney who are on a short visit to Edinburgh. Mike did well to sit through the ladies' wide ranging chat; His Lordship would do well to take a few notes on how to achieve this level of acceptance.

I am home again as I write this and there is a continuing non appearance of the boilerman. What on earth happens to people who work? Do they have to take 3 days off work every time their boiler goes on the blink? Unacceptable.

PS The boilerman has been and delivered his verdict- the circuit board is caput and there is not another one in stock until Monday at the earliest. We have no heating until then and friends coming for a meal tomorrow evening.
Friday 13th? Definitely!