I guess you will all be relieved to know that my central heating is now working again. On Monday morning at about 9am it just stopped. I tried all the usual buttons but nothing happened. I rang my plumber. His son came this morning. The problem was a valve in the boiler which has a small aperture through which water passes - it was clogged, so he fitted a new one!
And the radiators are now pumping out the heat.
I worked in the office yesterday and today with a fan heater blowing up my trouser legs. I took to my bed at nine last evening with a hot water bottle, which I replenished at about 3am. Socks was upset - for his usual spot on the landing over a hot water pipe was cold, so he cuddled up to me. It is not until the heating goes off that you realise just how cold a house can be. It brought back memories of my childhood in a very similar house to the one I now own - about a mile away in Newbury Park. There we had a thermostat to heat the bath water - for Friday Night was Bath Night with Lifeboy Soap! An electric fire in the dining room and a gas fire in the lounge (only entered on high days and holidays!) were the only heat. The bathroom was like a fridge. But we survived. Having spent 24 hours without heating, I wonder how we did so.
