We have a winnahhhh!

I’ve just got back from the White Horse pub quiz.

My team, Queen Victoria’s Truncheon, didn’t win the jackpot round (which has a prize of £1000 at the moment) but we did come very close to winning £500. On the final round we got the question right but only chose the £50 option in the end. However, we decided to gamble and won, so we had £100 to share, which meant £20 each. Not bad, eh?

As no-one won the jackpot round this week it goes on ’til next week.

New boiler day… maybe.

Well, I got up at 6:30am, showered and got the house ready for the installers, who arrived at about 8:30am.

After much time on the phone to British Gas the installers informed me that the parts were never actually ordered, which is why they didn’t turn up on Saturday. They’re currently sitting outside my hous ein thier vans waiting to be told if there’s a boiler in the area availble for them to pck up and install. Seeing as it’s been over a hour since the last update it’s not looking good.

Update: 11:50am: Well, work’s started. One of the vans went off and has now returned with parts, the system’s been drained and the old boiler is a pile of mangled metal on the front grass.

Update: 5:34pm: The installers left about three quarters of an hour ago and… I HAVE A WORKING BOILER!!! Woohoo! Well, I didn’t think that was going to happen at lunchtime. Even the installers were pleased about how well it went after they actually got the parts. The builder who came to fill the old flue hole has done a very nice job as well.

Delivery fun.

Well, this morning I’ve been told to expect the delivery of all the stuff required to replace my boiler on Monday. Knowing this I got up before the time that I was told the delivery window started.

I’ve managed to do the two jobs I could do while waiting, the washing up and washed my car but now I just have to sit and wait… and wait. There’s less than an hour of the morning left and there’s still no sign. I wasn’t really told when the delivery window would end so do I sit like a lemon, caged in my house with no provisions (as I can’t get to the supermarket) until it goes dark tonight?

Update: 14:22: Still no sign.
Update: 16:27: Nope, still not here and I’m starving since I’ve no food in the house for lunch.
Update: The delivery never did turn up in the end so at 6pm I drove down to Sainsbury’s and the seige was finally lifted.

Inappropriate Ice Cream Van Tunes.

This evening as I was cycling home I passed an ice cream van which was playing its merry tune. This all sounds very normal until you realise what the tune was…

“Rain drops keep falling on my head.”

Hmm.. somehow this is not the first tune you’d associate with ice cream. Maybe the vendor was thinking of the architypal british summer weather at the seaside?

That got me wondering about other inappropriate tunes for ice cream vans.. any ideas?

“It might as well rain until September” maybe? Or, “It’s raining in my heart.”

I’m sure, dear reader, that you can think of better ones.

Back home again

Well, that’s another Easter break over.

The trip home was without incident other than the fog+drizzle in Cornwall, horse boxes and slow traffic on the A roads up to Truro and the rain just before Exeter, and this on a day where most of the UK was basking in sunshine. Indeed, by the time I got home the sun was shining and the temperature was up to 25C! Crazy for mid April.

The car is definitely running in now as I got ~38mpg out of it on the journey. I have discovered that GM have cut even more costs as turning the air conditioning off doesn’t actually save petrol. On the old 9-3 the aircon pump was disconnected when the “ECON” button was pressed so it didn’t cause drag on the engine and hence increased the fuel efficiency.

Easter-07: Day 15

Unlike the rest of the country, the weather here today was dull, grey, cloudy and generally wet. A stream of rain cloud came out of France and spoilt the day.

Anyway, overall we completed the paperwork for my Dad to take my old car and transfered his insurance over and he took it for its first drive. 🙂

Other happenings, a trip to Tesco’s (woo!) and to fill up my car with petrol, diagnose and fix the problem my parents were having with their VCR and show my Dad how to use OpenOffice.org 2.2 Impress to generate an advert for the Cavalier.

I’m now mostly packed and ready for the journey back to Oxford tomorrow, the third trip along those roads in four days.

Easter-07: Days 13 & 14

Well, the ferrying mission went as planned. Drove to my house in my Dad’s car yesterday without incident, got the old car washed at Tesco’s (as all the other car washes were closed) and showed off my new HiFi to my Dad in the evening.

Today we drove back down in convoy and, despite it being Friday the 13th there were no problems. 🙂 I even managed to get 43.8mpg out of the old girl, probably helped by the heavy traffic reducing the speed for most of the M5 down to about 60mph.

As for the cold, it’s still being annoying. It’s now getting down to my chest and into my sinuses. Still, it shouldn’t last too much longer.

Easter-07: Day 12

The cold really attacked overnight last night leaving me dozing for most of it with intermittent choking events so I was rather tired on top of the lack of energy instilled by the cold itself. Thankfully, by tonight it’s moved into the nose so i should get a better sleep.

Due to the lack of energy I didn’t do a great deal today. A bit more playing Oolite, a trip with my parents to ASDA in Penryn and resting on my bed was all that I could manage.

Tomorrow we travel up in my Dad’s current car (which is my old, old car, the green Cavalier) to Oxford so that we can on Friday ferry my old car down here as my Dad’s bought it off me. It’s unlikely, therefore, that I’ll be updating this journal tomorrow evening as all my laptops will still be down here in Cornwall.