Friday, December 05, 2008

As I write this...

As I write this, I am waiting for the men to come to install my new hot water heater. They should be here any minute now. I heard a van pull up, but since then all has been silence. I think a hot water heater is called a boiler in England and I am not sure what it is called in the States, but it is the thing that gives me hot water throughout the apartment, including the radiators for the central heating, so getting a new one is a big deal. I hope this one is even more efficient than the old one, so more cost effective and ecologically sound.

I forgot to tell you about the great cardigan that I bought on Wednesday afternoon at a textiles shop. It is black with a big collar and two big buttons and it is almost as long as my skirt. I got it for 10 Euros and, although I did not want to spend any money on myself this month, I could not resist getting it at that price. It looks very classy and more expensive and it is very warm.

I also had to get a present for my sister whose birthday it is tomorrow. I got her a pretty necklace with beads that shimmer in any kind of light and look like crystals. They are threaded with very thin wire and seem to float in the air and there are three strings of them at unequal lengths. My sister loves necklaces as much as I do, so I know she will be happy with this one.

Well, the men with the boiler are here now and they've started the job. I am curious as to how long it will take them too install it. This is the first time in my life that I've ever gotten a new boiler, so it's quite an event. The cats and the Überhund are quite curious as well.

I'll try and not be too distracted by all of this and get on with writing.

Yesterday wasn't a very eventful day, it being Thursday and so far a day off for me, although it may not be much longer. I have an appointment next week with someone to see if I can fill up either my Thursday or my Friday mornings with a useful activity. It will be in the same building where I have my creative and ergo therapies now, but in a different kind of program and a special request needed to be made for it. It is possible that I will do another creative class on Thursdays, but anything is possible. We'll see. I am glad that I'm getting the opportunity.

I swept the apartment with a broom, because I didn't want to be bothered by the noise of the vacuum cleaner, but now, of course, I still have to vacuum the furniture, there's no way around it. The Überhund is shedding much less, but there still is an amazing amount of hair after a few days that all hides under the furniture. It is very satisfactory to sweep it all up into the dustpan.

The Überhund is having a wonderful time. Full of interest he is watching the men at work and commenting on their every move and when they go out to their van, he trots along behind them to see what they do there. He is so alert and in between this, he comes back to me and lies at my feet as if to reassure himself that everything is okay. The cats are climbing over the boxes and the equipment and are very curious. We don't often have such entertainment here.

At the end of the afternoon yesterday, I fell asleep on the sofa and was out cold for a while until the phone rang. It was someone who wanted to know if I wanted a subscription to a newspaper and I would, except that it is so expensive and I really can't afford it. If I could only get the Saturday newspaper, I would do that and I have to look into the possibility of getting that kind of subscription for my favorite newspaper, which was, believe it or not, originally a Christian newspaper, but it is a very informative one with excellent opinion pages and very interesting articles. I miss reading it.

The google reader keeps me updated on the blogs I read, but lately I have decided that I read too many and I have eliminated a few of them. There were just too many I was trying to keep track off and, although they all had their appeal, some of them had to go. Some were new to me and I had to make the decision if I wanted to invest my energy into really getting to know them better or to stop reading them. If they were more than fascinating, I kept them. It is really bad if you don't get around to reading your very favorites, you can't have that. I really do have my favorites, but I'm not going to tell you here who those are. That's for you to figure out.

All of the shops are open one night a week until 9 PM once a week on Thursdays. I purposely forget that this is so, because it is very tempting to go downtown then and walk through the festively decorated streets and sit in a café and watch all the people go by and maybe pop into a store and buy something very appealing. The café terraces are even pleasant to sit on, if you keep your coat on, because they are heated by space heaters that are quite efficient.

You can bet that it is very busy downtown now, because there is Winter Wonderland on the big square with an ice skating rink and the Christmas market with many stalls. Since I am not in that kind of mood, I try to ignore that bit of it and only incidentally try to catch glimpses of the festivities, which, I admit, is difficult.

I suppose that this weekend, I should write some Christmas cards and get in the mood a little bit. I am feeling some resistance, but I suppose it must be done. This will be the first time that I'll sign the cards with my maiden name. I have never done so before and it will be quite an experience. Some people I will have to inform and I will have to add a little note.

The guys that are installing the boiler are quite funny. They want to know everything about me and the animals, so in between all the activities, they are getting to hear my life story and are entertained. They also saw my young, divorced neighbor and wanted to know all about her, so I told them what I could. They are hoping to install a new boiler there soon.

Well, everything must come to an end and so must this. It has become a rambling sort of thing, but that's okay.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Ciao...

9 comments:

lebanesa said...

sounds like fun.
I hope they clear up nicely after themselves - it is a good time to have the work done, you will be all cosy and warm for the really cold weather.
Keep well
xxx

Bev said...

I get those sort of phone calls, usually from The Daily Telegraph. Even if this was a very cheap subscription, I just wouldn't get it, because it annoys me. The Guardian also annoys me. I only buy The Times in tabloid form because it is sort of classless.

My husband fitted our boiler and radiators, because he is quite good like that. It was only a lot later that I found out you have to be a Corgi registered fitter do this so I actually got a Corgi registered fitter come round and check it out to see if it was safe. And it was spot on, fortunately.

This was when Eleanor was just a few weeks old and we had just moved here because he wanted to get the house warm for her. It was warm, but he is sa bit of a skinflint so it went off at 8.30 in the morning and came on at 4 pm so freezing during the day! However, we wrapped up warmly and fortunately we live in a terrace house and the people next door kept their heating on all the time so that helped LOL

If we have any workmen round we have to put Scamp in an upstairs room or he will ATTACK......LOL

Maggie May said...

Yes we call them boilers in England. Can't manage without them.
Glad the Uberhund enjoyed the workmen & took an interest in it all.
Hope the men appreciated the animals. Ince when I had cats, the man who came to service the boiler got a terrible attack of hayfever as he was very allergic to them. felt awful!

VioletSky said...

We call them 'hot water heaters' in Canada, though I think everyone would know what was meant by a 'boiler' (especially as the room it is in, in apartment or office buildings is called a 'boiler room'). We are a strange mix over here!

I remember when I lived in Holland how hard it was to get used to stores closing so early - most stores are open until 9pm here except for smaller independent stores. But I do wish we had more patios with space heaters - don't know why we don't.

Breakfast in California said...

They're hot water heaters out here too. We get a plumber to do it, now, because they are so cumbersome.

If you go past the Winter Wonderland, could you take a photo? I'd love to see what it looks like.

Cold here and I'm still on east coast time, so I woke up at 4. Your new sweater sounds cozy and warm.

Miss you.

Breakfast in California said...

Bev, I had to Google "Corgi registered fitters" to see what you meant. Funny that the UK calls unlicensed fitters "cowboys." Totally different meaning here, of course.

Bev said...

Breakfast in California, in theory it is extremely dangerous to get unqualified people to put in your boiler and radiators. I let him do this in all ignorance, and when I found about this, about five years later, I used to look at the boiler all the time to see if it showed any signs of impending explosion....

However, the irony is that when I did get a qualified bloke round to check it out he was the one who ripped me off by saying there was something wrong with a harmless valve outside the house and asked for £10 cash in hand to do some imaginary mending.lol He must have thought I looked like one who was easily duped.

Not to be recommended, but my husband is a highly qualified engineer, and as I write this the radiators are warming up nicely... lol

Bev said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
among found objects said...

Though I dont know you in person (face to face) I just know that you have a heart and soul of gold. Thank you for your comment.