Sweet surprises

 Although I'm not Irish, nor do I have any Irish blood in me, (although I did go to Dublin for the weekend once) I thought I would wish you a Happy St Patrick's Day!  Bear with me, there is another Irish connection to finish this post ....

Today I was really looking forward to going into work.  Even left home early to get there as soon as I could.  Now this doesn't happen too often and it's not as if I had anything particularly exciting to do when I got there.  The big attraction was - warmth.  Warm air.  The ability to sit in a room in only one layer of clothing.  Because we certainly can't do that at home.  Yesterday I went into the utility room to find that there was a steady stream of water flowing down the side of our boiler.  Now I don't know too much about central heating equipment but the thought of water mixing with gas and electricity was enough to send me into 'headless chicken' mode.  I turned off the boiler at the controls in the kitchen and then rang the plumber.  He could come and turn off the water but didn't 'do' boilers.  I rang the guy who services the boiler.  He services them but doesn't fit them.  Husband is in the car half way to London and he never has his phone switched on in the car.  The plumber gave me a number of someone he knew who fitted boilers.  No reply.  The service guy gave me a number of someone else.  Answerphone.  I went back to the boiler, put buckets under it and turned off the gas, and turned off a switch that seemed to be connected to the electricity supply to it.  It felt safer!  I rang the answer phone again and managed to speak to someone who very kindly came round and made it all safe, drained down the system but now we are in the process of deciding what to replace it with.  My husband, being a surveyor by profession, insists on researching and investigating before making a decision which needless to say results in delays so goodness knows how long we will be without heat.  We have an immersion heater so hot water isn't a problem, and we have a gas fire we can put on in the lounge.  But it's cold.  Then I got to thinking that this is how I grew up.  My parents never had central heating - mum insisted it was 'unhealthy' and that fresh air was good for you .... brrrr...... We had a very warm kitchen as mum was a keen cook and we had an open fire in the lounge.  And a hot water bottle soon warmed up your bed!  Then I watched the news and thought that all those people in Japan would love just to have a roof over their head, lack of heating suddenly gets put into perspective.
But I got home from work tonight and it was COLD.  Cold and empty.  And then I found a package that the postman had put through the letter box -

A selection of St Patricks' Day goodies all the way from Sian! I am going to make a cup of tea and make a start on those Irish Oatmeal biscuits, that'll warm me up!