Thursday 21 January 2021

Warm again!

 Thanks all for sympathies after my last moany  self pitying post! 

The boiler man came, laughed and said it did well then - he was the same miracle worker who came out in March to fix it. Anyway it’s working but it is costing us a fortune really in monthly insurance payments. So 

We went ahead and booked a covid safe quote for a new boiler! Holy radiators, new boilers are expensive! Don’t you just love it when the salesman says “It’ll pay for itself” !!! 

Well if that were true I would have let my old boiler go years ago because new ones pay for themselves! I understand the science behind that phrase but I’m not as green as I’m cabbage looking ( another daft phrase hahaha ) and took the one holy thermostat British Gas quote as a benchmark and accepted all his earnest upselling of filters and powerflushes with a nod and a smile and I’d almost say that I’d been mansplained to too - now that is a phrase I cannot stand . In old fashioned times we’d simply say he was patronising! Anyway 

We’ve looked at Boxt and will also ask a local before we decide. I will say for British Gas though, the repair guy gave us his family and friends discount which at 25% gave us £1000 off what it would have been!! 

I worked in school yesterday morning and it was a joy to do playground duty with the Y1/2 bubble. Six little characters who say the funniest things that make me laugh out loud. Of course, you’d think I share one with you now! But I can’t recall the exact thing- sorry!! Then I worked from home in the afternoon. After work, I asked Alexa to play three good singalong tunes whilst I cleaned the kitchen. Mr 23 had had to sort her out because she’s been sulking after we put Siri in the living room! I say ‘we’ - I of course mean my ‘in house’ tech guy! I now don’t even have to lift a finger to switch my big light on or off. AND I can have whatever colour I like! 





Here are some I just did now! Hey Siri make the lights yellow, blue, green and I tried turquoise off the cuff and SHE DID IT!!! I can also have her turn them up or down! She can also do daylight settings! It does help to warm the room up having her set the lights orange! Now if Siri could tell Alexa in  the kitchen to make me a cup of tea I’m sorted. 


Anyway my songs of choice for my Kitchen Kareoke 

1. Video killed the Radiostar - sink, pots done

2. California dreaming - dried up, dishwasher on, sides wiped 

And for the finale.....I brought out the big guns ..whilst I made a brew for me and the HG. We even sang to each other a bit because that’s how romantic we are haha 

3. Always - by Bon Jovi


Eeeh a good sing song is good for the soul. Yesterday was the first real time in the whole of the lockdown pandemic thingy is where I felt real resentment at not being able to just go out somewhere. Anyway my KK soon helped get rid of the doldrums. 

Tea was sausage mash n beans for the menfolks and I had a vegetable stir fry. Tonight I am making a full on chicken dinner with carrots, cavelo nero and roast  potatoes.

TV chatter

 I’m just finishing refreshing my memory with The Bay series one with my morning coffee as the next series has just started. I’ve the Pembroke Murders stacked up to watch and Finding Alice got off to a good start. I’m loving the new quiz show Lingo if I can catch it. Also I admit to taping the masked singer so I can whizz through all the filler bits. For what it’s worth, if anyone is watching, I think Hotdog is Sheridan Smith and she’ll win it! Dancing on Ice gets taped for the same reason - fast forwarding through the adverts. It’s a rare find for us to find something that we all enjoy and so at the moment we are liking Taskmaster - new to us so plenty of episodes to go at - just easy daftness to watch!  Bulletproof is a crime fighting show set in London, a bit far fetched but good all the same - I discovered it after seeing its creator on Graham Norton. Something else we found is Superstore - the US version of Trollied - even though google reckons it isn’t. It so is. I watched the Inauguration of Joe Biden. Lady Gaga was fabulous I thought. JLo was as good and Garth Brooks who did Amazing Grace had amazing legs! The young poet was spellbinding ( but I thought a little long ) and the whole thing was history right in my living room. Dr Jill looked gorgeous and I totally coveted the Vice President’s leather gloves. 

I’ve just finished my Audible Christmas treat to myself and well! Called  


read by Victoria Cohen-Mitchell - there I was, absentmindedly peeling my potatoes, listening and grinning as I’d worked out the ending mid book - it suddenly got a bit steamy!! And I’m not talking about my kettle

Coming to the boil

And not switching off!! I was blushing to the roots of my hair as the characters got a little less socially distanced than we are used to!! I am such a Victorian Prude!! I cannot believe she read it out loud hahaha I wouldn’t have been able to. Don’t get me wrong, it was not even as strong as a Jackie Collins but I was still reverted back to my inner 10 year old schoolboy! 

I’ve still got some Alan Partridge podcasts to listen to which have me laughing out loud but think I’m going to listen to The Friday Knitting Club next. 

Storm Christoph is doing it’s worst outside - thankfully only a bit windy and rainy cold here. The TV news is showing me flooding and snow elsewhere. 

Finished my jigsaw- I am so rock and roll. 


Not knitted anything for a while. I’ve a jumper I started for Bluebell. Might pick it up again later. It’s the ‘doing the tax return’ time of year and I need to get it done and out the way then I can get my sewing machine out again and maybe pick up the knitting needles. 
In the garden, the spring bulbs are starting to show. I long for warmer times where I can just shove my feet in my flip flops and I don’t have to hunt for a pair of socks! 

Stay safe everyone 
Lots of love from 

Rachel*working from home today = emails in pjs with a Bluebell on my knee* Radiostar xxx



6 comments:

  1. Wow, and breath, busy times for you. We had a new boiler last year and pipes flushed, we do get loads of silt in our system, so we paid and had a filter put in the water feed just below the boiler, now hubby cleans it our himself, best thing ever!! worth every penny. Alexa rules in our sitting/dining room and our bedroom, she is very useful, but we did not get coloured light, humm light envy. I thought Finding Alice started off good, loved The Pembroke murders, he's so easy on the eye. I thought sausage was Billy Piper.

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    1. Yes Sausage not hotdog. Billie Piper is a good shout. I also think Badger is Bill Bailey!

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    2. Good call on badger, I've ordered coloured bulbs!!!

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  2. Our quote for our boiler by B Gas was nearly £2,000 more than our local plumber. This was a couple of years ago but I doubt if it has changed. Good luck.

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  3. I'm glad you've warmed up a bit now, although I'm sure even just the quote for the new boiler would have given you a hot flush. And you always have Bluebell to keep you cosy.
    This week is also the first time I've felt the lockdown is beginning to get me. All I seem to do is work, eat and sleep. Not to mention home learning which has not been going well the last few days. Maybe I should treat myself to a steamy book like yours ;)

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  4. I feel your pain. Our gas furnace had to be replaced. $8,500 because of the size of the house it had to heat. Our son's furnace died just before his wedding. Guess what our wedding present was? Yes, a new furnace, he has a smaller house and it ONLY cost $5,000. It had to be done, it died in March and was -20

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