The bread had totally disappeared now - not cleaned up I should add, that wouldn't do, just disintegrated - but the sick still clings on, which is tenacious of it, given it is just partially digested food. You'd think food would survive longer than partially digested food, but there you go. We've all learned something.
And the general consensus from thos science spods out there is that my engineer was wrong - it is not more efficient to have your heating on all the time (though there may be some benefit in a house made from stone by keeping it constantly on a low heat), so don't take any notice of that.
But work has begun on putting in the new boiler and just about in time as the cold is really biting in my central-heating-less home. Apparently my radiators are full of nasty gunk and even the hardened proper working men who must have seen some sights were somewhat dumbfounded by the extent of the dirtiness. Hopefully when they have been cleaned my radiators will be more efficient. The men were not surprised to discover that the radiator in the cellar was not working. Is this the dullest Warming Up ever? Possibly. Do you need to know about the gunk in my heating system? No. Yet there I was being critical of the state of the streets, when all along the real cancer was running through the very heart of my home. There, rescued it.
It's intimidating having proper working men in the house, knowing that I do not measure up to them in traditional terms of masculinity and am totally incapable of making anything with my hands, except stupid collections of words on my computer. One of the engineers is a slightly scary looking bald man with tattoos and I made judgements about him and what he might think of me. I was making myself some fish for my lunch and was wondering what these real men would make of me baking cod with balsamic vinegar and pesto and sun dried tomatoes and then having it with an M and S superfood salad. I assumed they would mock me and think I was a gay and hoped they wouldn't see. But the hard-looking bald man came into the kitchen as I was taking it out of the oven and said, "Something smells good" and then went on to discuss how that was exactly the kind of meal he loved and how fish was easy to cook and tasty. If this was a light American TV drama I would say I learned an important lesson today about myself and my own preconceptions and how you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. But I have learned nothing and will continue to be judgemental of people I don't know. It wasn't so much that I was judging him anyway, more that I was judging what I guessed he would think of me.
In any case I am paying these blokes so much money that I can only imagine that they look down on me for not eating foie gras and truffles for my lunch.
It will be another couple of days before my heating system is ungunked and working again. Think of me as you sit all toasty and warm by your radiators.
The first lot of prizes went off today, after a predictably long wait at the Post Office, getting even more pissed off by the antics of the pretend Post Office staff on the TV screens. But if I mentioned your name the other day then you should be getting some stuff through this week (if the non-pretend Post Office staff don't lose or break or burn your parcels). And I did another 13 packs today. It's going to be a long, long process and I am going to have to endure those adverts a few more times. If I commit suicide in the Post Office you will know who to blame. For the moment the ads just made me feel sick, but by the weekend they will surely make me lose the will to live.
