Cold

Tomorrow will mark one week without central heating and hot water, and I am cold!

Our cottage is fuelled by two different energy sources, electric and gas. But the gas is from a tank down the bottom of the garden, which we have to keep topped up!

This isn't new to us as such, our house in Wigginton was partially oil fuelled so we are used to keeping a tank topped up.

However, when we moved in to the cottage, there wasn't a lot of gas in the tank. Andy immediately started the process of finding out how it all works - and it's a little different to the oil system. We are free to research gas suppliers and choose the deal that suits us best. You have to commit to a two year contract, and a fixed price per litre for a designated period, and then an agreed percentage increase after the fixed price period has expired. I think. It's a bit complicated! Anyway, a company called Calorgas 'owns' the tank in our garden, but their prices were high and customer service seemed debatable (Andy was right with that assumption), so we chose another supplier, Avantigas, and started the process. Avantigas had to send a chap round to assess the tank, then he submits paperwork to apply to Calorgas to transfer the ownership of the tank. In the meantime, through conversations with Calorgas, some muppet has misheard Andy's surname, and they insist on addressing him as Mr Stranger (you couldn't write it)

As a consequence, it has taken weeks and weeks to get the transfer process working. And last Friday morning the gas ran out.

So the gas fuels our central heating and hot water, and also the gas hob and the Aga in the kitchen.

We are extremely fortunate that there is one electric shower in the cottage as that is the only hot water we have. Also blessed to have two open fires downstairs (we've been through a lot of logs this week!) and an electric oven and electric slow cooker!

It's a bit first world problems I know. My lovely Andy has been a total hero trying to sort this out, and making up a million fires!

When the gas ran out, since Calorgas hadn't yet transferred owbership of the tank, we were told that they were obliged to make an emergency delivery of gas to us. Andy requested and paid for this, and despite telling him that a delivery would be made within five days, they literally just didn't bother to schedule it. It's pretty poor (to be fair, we used slightly more colourful language than that) - they aren't to know we've got the shower and fires, we could be seriously struggling here! Now we've been told we are officially an Avantigas customer and are waiting, still, for a gas delivery. And the cretins at Calorgas owe Andy a refund. My little slow cooker has been worth it's weight in gold!

AND I've had an infection all week, not the week to be poorly.

Rant over, I feel better for getting that off my chest ;)

In other news, we've loved decorating the cottage for Christmas - I'll take some pics soon and share the Christmas joy :)

And still super excited for our posh Christmas do at the Eden Project tomorrow - woo hoo.

Plus I've just applied for a proper job - application forms are SUCH a pleasure aren't they??

Big love xx

Looks so cosy, but trust me this cottage is freezing!!