a man who can eventually

The other week James noticed some damp patches on our lounge ceiling so he went upstairs to see where they were coming from...

...he then came back downstairs to say that there was a pipe leak in our airing cupboard :o(

As we have a homecare agreement with British Gas James called them out and because of having Evie we got an emergency appointment.

The bloke turned up and looked in our airing cupboard and said that he didnt have the valves that he would need but would be back on Wednesday and would do the boiler service too.

So on Wednesday I made sure that I got dressed when I got up (we didnt want to frighten the poor bloke with me still being in my dressing gown or anything ;o)) and did Evies bath quickly (she wasnt too happy about that I can tell you).

The bloke then turned up just as we were coming downstairs (so I was glad that we were ready) so I left him to do his stuff while me and Evie played in the lounge...

...about 5 minutes later he tells me that he cant get up into the loft on account of there being so much stuff up there (hee hee it was 50% that and 50% him being overweight) and that we would have to clear a path to the tank for him and that he would be back next Wednesday at roughly the same time.

He then did our boiler service which was all fine and dandy ;o)

James cleared a path in our loft so he could get through next time.

So the next Wednesday came and again I got dressed early and Evie had a quick bath and again she  wasnt happy about it...

...the time that the engineer was supposed to turn up came and went and there was no sign of him at all.

Then it got to Evies lunchtime (so I thought of Murphys Law and that he would more than likely turn up now) but there was still no sight of him.

I eventually called them to find out when he would turn up to be told that they had called me 10 minutes earlier to say that the engineer has been busy and that the appointment would now be in the afternoon!

Why they didnt bother to leave an ansafone message I dont know so not trusting them I rang 1471 and sure enough they did call!

Then an hour later they called back to say that they would have to reschedule the appointment for yesterday morning.

So yesterday I got dressed early again and there was no having to do the quick bath either as we dont do the bath on Tuesdays.

Like last Wednesday the bloke still hadnt turned up by lunchtime so I e-mailed James (as he said that he would chase them up if I needed him to) and told him that if they didnt turn up today then I wouldnt waste another day waiting for them and he would have to get him Dad to come around.

James then came back to me and said that we were the next call and we should get a call in the next 45 minutes...

...an hour later still no sign of anyone.

So James called them back and they said that they couldnt get hold of the engineer and they would call him back.

I then get a phone call saying that the engineer would be with me in 20 minutes.

And yes he did turn up and our leak is now sorted.

He then said that we have a really old boiler (we have been in the house from new for 18 years) and that they dont make parts for it anymore and that they may not be able to fix it next time, and has arranged for someone to give us a no obligation estimate for a new one.

I know that its going to be expensive as the bloke said that British Gas are giving £450 off at the moment!