Domestic irritation.

It's not been the best week at the knitter's house. The boiler stopped producing hot water to order about three weeks ago and on Tuesday I finally got round to getting a heating engineer out. He's been really good in the past so I trusted his opinion when he informed me that he couldn't get the required part (I already knew that the boiler was obsolete) and that we'd need to get a new boiler (£1100 + VAT for supply and installation). We bit the bullet and ordered the boiler and that was that. Then last night, there was hot water... lots of hot water... whenever we wanted it...

It seems that in the process of taking the boiler to bits and putting it back together, the problem was fixed. This morning, the resident radiologist phoned the engineer to explain and cancel the new boiler. The engineer is of the opinion that the boiler will fail again within the week and that we should just replace it but I can't bring myself to spend almost £1300 on a maybe. If it does fail then we're no worse off, but maybe, just maybe it won't and the problem was a loose wire and not the sensor itself. Being a scientist, I rarely make an important decision without the evidence I need to justify it and I hate the impotent feeling I get when something goes wrong with the house - I don't have the necessary expertise to evaluate the situation and the person who does has a financial interest in the decision you make (in this case at least £500 for a few hours work).

In the midst of all this, there has been knitting. I've used up the first ball of yarn on the Tendrils wrap and have a very satisfactory 13" of fabric to show for it. I then stuck to my resolution and cast on for the right front of Betty. I'm now up to the bust increases but I'm afraid that a few more inches of grey fabric didn't inspire me to get the camera out. If I get this piece finished over the weekend, I'm planning to seam the sides and shoulders so there may be a more interesting photo next week. (Fingers crossed that it fits!).

I have a four day weekend this weekend due to a couple of re-arranged bank holidays. The RR and I are planning to paint our living room and maybe get some other DIY tasks done (reseal the bath, fix the carpet on the stairs and the floor in the vestibule etc). It will be good to cross some of the 'to dos' of my list.

Finally, because it's a fairly unpleasent wet and very windy day in Glasgow today, a cheerful picture to cheer me up - I love it when the clematis flowers, it means that summer is almost here.