The old boiler

...is not that old actually. The first money we spent on the house when we moved in (October 2006) went on a new boiler. Three years is not old, particularly for such a high-spec and well renowned boiler.

Last night, it developed a fault.

The last hour of TV viewing had become increasingly uncomfortable even though we'd had the fire on, but I'd put it down to the extreme weather. Forecasts predicted it would be even colder in parts overnight than yesterday, with some areas dropping to -20° - same as the South Pole - and that fire always was more decorative than practical.

But when we walked into the hall and discovered the temperature had fallen two degrees below the supposed minimum, we knew something was up, and the flashing blue light on the front of the boiler (and the flashing error code beneath the cover) confirmed that this almost-brand-new boiler had chosen the coldest period in 50 years in which to turn up its toes. Great.

I'd been holding off booking a service expecting our heating engineer to be snowed under (haha!) with emergency calls, but it looks like we'll be another to add to his list now.