The day the music died...

Continuing from yesterday and the breakdown of our home control system (meaning no tv, radio or music!) David contacted John, the engineer, and he  said he would come out as soon as his first job of the day was complete.  Phew!

I spent a very quiet morning (so weird not to have the tv or radio on in the background) getting some chores out of the way and putting the Tesco delivery away (no missing items and no substitutes.  Yay! :-)

Had lunch then made some more watermelon and strawberry ice poles and got them into the freezer.  Left out the coconut this time.  

John arrived just as I was loading the dishwasher and set about trying to work out what was wrong with the home control system.  It didn't take him long...basically the control box is caput.  It is no more. It has ceased to be.  It is bereft of life. It is an ex-control box!  

As you can imagine this is not good news as this type of control box is no longer made and the new control boxes aren't compatible with the add ons required to work the old system.  Hmmmmm.  Thankfully John was able to take the TVs off the control system and get them working with the original remote controllers, but only one Sky box can work on that system so he's put Alan's TV onto to the Sky Box so he still has access to all his programmes / films.  He's going to see if he can buy a control box like ours online second hand, but if he's not able to source one, I think we're going to have to bite the bullet and replace the whole damn system.

John left after giving me brief instruction on how to use the old remote (I'm not stupid debatable but some of the buttons don't do what you would expect, so he wanted to make sure I could work it properly so my viewing of The Great British Bake Off (GBBO) could go ahead without issue :-)

While John was doing his thing I hid in the studio hoping to start the painting commission I have, but John was asking me questions every few minutes or wanting to update me, so I couldn't concentrate enough on a big painting.  Had to settle for another little sketchbook painting but it gave me the chance to practice colours for another painting I have planned.

As ever, when D is away I can't be bothered cooking dinner for one, so I made beans on toast.  Yum.  Afterwards had one of my watermelon and strawberry ice poles.  Definitely better without the coconut.  Have got bolognaise defrosting for dinner tomorrow as Ele coming up late afternoon and staying till Friday.  

Just watch the GBBO and now I want cake! lol Will settle for a toasted bagel and a cuppa instead.  

Heard from the golfer earlier.  He's had a good second day but it looks as though Stephen might be stealing the trophy from him.  Will need to find something to fill the gap on the bookcase!

PS Ally is here supporting Alan today.  She's not seen him for a few weeks and she is delighted at how well he is compared to when she was last here.  That's so good to know.