All in the <head> – Ponderings and code by Drew McLellan –

The Gas Man Cometh

One of the joys of living in rented accommodation is that when things break you don’t have to pay for them to get fixed. One of the joys of owning ones own home, I gather, is that when something breaks you can make sure it gets fixed quickly and effectively.

At 8 o’clock this morning there was a rap at the door and in walks a CORGI engineer for our annual gas appliance inspection. The landlord is required to have our gas checked every twelve months, as a condition of the rent. For once – and I do believe this is the first time this has happened – the landlord sent a guy who was not only properly qualified, but also competent. Unfortunately, this backfired as he found two illegally installed appliances (cooker, boiler), one illegal pipe (gas fire removed – pipe not capped), and a gas leak. A sodding gas leak.

So naturally, he had to shut the gas off. Immediately.

In this apartment, gas is king. It runs the hot water, the central heading system, and the cooker. Sorry, I should say it ran the hot water, central heading and the cooker. Now it does nothing while we freeze our butts off waiting for the gas men to return in the morning and decimate our polished wooden floors with their greasy circular saws in the hope of finding a pipe join that’s not quite doing its job.

So this evening, in the dead of winter and with no heating, Rachel and I have been clearing furniture ready for the gas men. And tonight, while you sleep, we shall not. And we rent so stuff like this isn’t our problem – but it never works out that way.

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.