Under Pressure.

Just in the nick of time.

There are certain things that are a mystery to me and one of them tends to be the mechanics of our pellet oven system. The few easy clues that even a novice like me could decipher were instantly dramatized into my own little tragedy and caused me a sleepless night. Dripping radiators aren't the way to go. There is colder than cold weather predicted for this weekend and I already imagined the three of us shivering through it.

I phoned our plumber yesterday and told him the whole spiel of woes but he told me that he wouldn't be able to help me in the near future as he had stopped work and when I suggested another local plumber, he agreed.

Plumbers do more than fix broken toilets and showers...they are the magicians who keep our heaters alive and well. This time of the year they are inundated with last minute requests and when I contacted him I expected to be put on a waiting list. Rightly so. Oh, I was so thrilled when he popped in this afternoon.

He is a true professional and had our leaky radiators fixed in a jiffy. When I hesitantly mentioned that we might need a new one because it was leaking, he shook his head and laughed...all it needed was a new valve and he replaced it there and then. A shot of water into the heating pipes and all was well. For him it was a storm in a tea cup and for us it was almost the end of a warm winter...

Oh, I almost forgot. He was most impressed that I had turned off the tap for the washing machine. One learns from mistakes and years ago the pipe leading into the back of our washing machine burst in our flat on the eighth floor. As luck would have it we couldn't find the main water switch and seeing almost a foot of water on the floor and mum nearly pinned against the wall by the deluge of high pressure water, was and is motivation enough to turn the tap off each and every time after a load of laundry.

Biggi