Is nature trolling us?

The weather gods are mocking us again. A splendid Saturday that should be spent enjoying the great outdoors. Instead, we need to zombie dodge our way around a guilty walk in the normally quiet local woods and be home inside the hour to help prevent the spread of the contagion known as COVID19. I'd prefer to use another term for it right now, but young eyes might read this blog so I shall refrain (rhymes with 'smother plucker'). 

So here is a picture of some blossom as provided by the troll known as Spring.

Sakura Troll by Spring

Yesterday morning's drama was that our boiler broke down. The shower felt a bit tepid,  and naturally enough, when I descended to the kitchen to take a look, the boiler was flashing a "get an engineer in" code (L/F) and refusing to ignite, Naturally, I tried "rebooting" it a couple of times, but no avail. No doubt it was blocked with sludge again as happens every year or so. So, I scrambled to get an appointment from our service provider to get it fixed. "Due to COVID19, computer says not until the middle of next month". Er, great! Fortunately, after a phone call, I eventually managed to get an appointment for Monday. This was possible due to my existing medical condition as I am apparently on some priority list. Small mercies eh? Luckily, we have an immersion heater for backup hot water, so the crisis was not that bad, but what if that breaks?! Ok, breathe. My propensity to catastrophise is at least unaffected by the current situation.

As I stepped out of the shower this morning (Saturday), the phone was ringing. Expecting some marketing or scam call, imagine my delight to be talking to a gas engineer who said they had an appointment today! Huzzah! So after morning coffee and a slice of yesterday's pizza, I cleaned up the area around the boiler; disinfecting everything and awaited the engineer. 

He showed up as promised, though not before the postman delivered a package containing two glass jars of Easter eggs, one of which had sadly broken, resulting in me hollering for help in a shoeless state with shattered glass from the upended parcel scattered around me like wedding confetti. Duly rescued by wife and child, the mini eggs themselves were salvaged and set aside to form part of the hunt next Easter weekend.

Anyway, as expected, the boiler was full of sludge which the engineer efficiently and cheerfully cleaned. He was a pleasant chap, who lives just a mile or so up the road. At a respectable safe distance, we had a good chat. It was nice to talk to someone else for a change (other than via video conferencing). After he left, I disinfected everything that he had touched or may have touched on his way in/out and where he was working. Then I prepared lunch of chicken sandwich, chips and coleslaw which Nozomi, TomokI and I enjoyed eating at the garden table. (Our own little pub garden for the duration). 

After lunch, Tomoki and I spent some time cleaning our shoes outside. He needs yet another pair as the sole is pulling away on one of them. Kids and shoes! They are barely 2 months old. He selected some new walking boots online after we finished the cleanup.  Hopefully, they will be delivered soon. Home deliveries (groceries notwithstanding) have so far been pretty good.

After shoe cleaning and a spot of gardening,  it was a walk in the woods for me and Poppy (our little dog), a nap for Nozomi, and Minecraft for Tomo.

Eep! Too many people. I had to duck and dive into many a bush and it was quite fraught in one or two pinch points as I scrambled to maintain at least 5m distance from other people. The woods are usually fairly quiet, but people are desperate to get out I guess, and it was a little too busy for my liking. A somewhat stressful walk all-in-all, made slightly more bearable by the excellent BBC podcast about the Apollo 13 incident 50 years ago.

Time for a beer.