Thursday, June 06, 2013
My late night and early morning.
Thursday began and I was out drinking tea with a neighbour! After midnight!
This had not been on my agenda.
I was on the point of going up to bed, when the door bell rang.
"Now who can that be at gone 11 0'clock at night?"
It had to be trouble.
Our elderly neighbour Rose was at the door. Rose is over 80; she is becoming a bit frail but she still has all her wits about her and leads a full and busy life.
But she was very bothered because an alarm was beeping loudly in her house.
Through her contacts with Age Concern....yes, that's right 84 year old Rose goes to help the old folks once a week.......where was !? Yes, through Age Concern she had been supplied with a carbon monoxide detector.
And there is was, in her kitchen, beep, beep beeping.
Carbon Monoxide has no smell.....so what should I do?
I was actually pretty sure it was the gadget at fault - not her gas supply.
But what do I know?
I went though any booklets she had about her gas and the detector. There was no way to open the detector.
Beep, beep, beep!
We found a leaflet with an emergency number.....a gas supply emergency. Basically I just wanted information. What we got was a gas engineer.
Once you have phoned that emergency number somebody has to attend.
He agreed that, as far as he could tell, there was nothing wrong with her gas boiler. Therefore in all probability it was the detector at fault.
I suggested it was a battery problem......like with smoke alarms sometimes.
But how to get into the thing?
He got a little screw driver and opened it up. Bah! The battery was soldered in.....we couldn't just remove it.
He handed the detector back to us and offered to put the screws back in or he could leave it there like that.....he left something unspoken hanging in the air.
It was not his place to fiddle with it any further.......but I could.
Discussion with Rose, who didn't want the thing beeping all night long, led me to destroy the detector.
A pair of scissors was all it needed to snip one of the wires.
Silence!
And a very late bedtime.
And the alarm went off early this morning so that we could be away to Ford in good time.
In the event I went to Ford alone.
Bill, who had already been in bed when Rose came round for help, had not actually got up.....but he just felt too tired.
He wants sleep and sleep and sleep.
These last couple of weeks have been good for me because I have been driving the car. When we go out together he would never think of handing the steering wheel to me - but I have been out a few times on my own.
Today's drive was the longest I have done for ages.
It was a beautiful morning and I enjoyed the drive. I have always enjoyed driving.
The car boot sale was huge.....bigger than any Thursday sale that I have seen.
I wandered round a couple of times and have filled my trolley with all sorts of odds and ends.
Quite a lot of books.....including this lot.
None have a date of printing in...but some have the date on which they were given as a present.
I should say most are first editions.
All about 1920.
Very attractive and very popular with collectors.
I decided that I would enjoy a treat on the way home.
I stopped in Amberley at the tea rooms for a large mug of tea and a slice of gluten free lemon shortbread.
I sat out in the warm sunshine in their garden, reading my new Cecilia Ahern novel.....which I had bought for 30p at Ford.
It felt quite delightful and self indulgent.
I haven't really done enough since then.
The table is still covered with my purchases.
Rose came round and told me of the visit of more gas engineers this morning.
Tomorrow we intend to go to The South of England Show. We last went 5 years ago.
This had not been on my agenda.
I was on the point of going up to bed, when the door bell rang.
"Now who can that be at gone 11 0'clock at night?"
It had to be trouble.
Our elderly neighbour Rose was at the door. Rose is over 80; she is becoming a bit frail but she still has all her wits about her and leads a full and busy life.
But she was very bothered because an alarm was beeping loudly in her house.
Through her contacts with Age Concern....yes, that's right 84 year old Rose goes to help the old folks once a week.......where was !? Yes, through Age Concern she had been supplied with a carbon monoxide detector.
And there is was, in her kitchen, beep, beep beeping.
Carbon Monoxide has no smell.....so what should I do?
I was actually pretty sure it was the gadget at fault - not her gas supply.
But what do I know?
I went though any booklets she had about her gas and the detector. There was no way to open the detector.
Beep, beep, beep!
We found a leaflet with an emergency number.....a gas supply emergency. Basically I just wanted information. What we got was a gas engineer.
Once you have phoned that emergency number somebody has to attend.
He agreed that, as far as he could tell, there was nothing wrong with her gas boiler. Therefore in all probability it was the detector at fault.
I suggested it was a battery problem......like with smoke alarms sometimes.
But how to get into the thing?
He got a little screw driver and opened it up. Bah! The battery was soldered in.....we couldn't just remove it.
He handed the detector back to us and offered to put the screws back in or he could leave it there like that.....he left something unspoken hanging in the air.
It was not his place to fiddle with it any further.......but I could.
Discussion with Rose, who didn't want the thing beeping all night long, led me to destroy the detector.
A pair of scissors was all it needed to snip one of the wires.
Silence!
And a very late bedtime.
And the alarm went off early this morning so that we could be away to Ford in good time.
In the event I went to Ford alone.
Bill, who had already been in bed when Rose came round for help, had not actually got up.....but he just felt too tired.
He wants sleep and sleep and sleep.
These last couple of weeks have been good for me because I have been driving the car. When we go out together he would never think of handing the steering wheel to me - but I have been out a few times on my own.
Today's drive was the longest I have done for ages.
It was a beautiful morning and I enjoyed the drive. I have always enjoyed driving.
The car boot sale was huge.....bigger than any Thursday sale that I have seen.
I wandered round a couple of times and have filled my trolley with all sorts of odds and ends.
Quite a lot of books.....including this lot.
None have a date of printing in...but some have the date on which they were given as a present.
I should say most are first editions.
All about 1920.
Very attractive and very popular with collectors.
I decided that I would enjoy a treat on the way home.
I stopped in Amberley at the tea rooms for a large mug of tea and a slice of gluten free lemon shortbread.
I sat out in the warm sunshine in their garden, reading my new Cecilia Ahern novel.....which I had bought for 30p at Ford.
It felt quite delightful and self indulgent.
I haven't really done enough since then.
The table is still covered with my purchases.
Rose came round and told me of the visit of more gas engineers this morning.
Tomorrow we intend to go to The South of England Show. We last went 5 years ago.
