About Me

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I'm a 45 year old mother of 3 boys. I live in a beautiful old house that needs a lot of TLC with my youngest son and 2 dogs. I am working hard at keeping myself healthy and fit by working out and doing a spot of running. I'm a creative person and am passionate about keeping traditional skills alive. I cook, knit, bake, garden, preserve, read, write and am now learning to spin and quilt. Oh and I sometimes swear.....

Sunday, December 19, 2010

The Kindness of Strangers

Last night when I went to bed I just knew that I would be getting up to a major problem today.  I originally thought that I had a problem with the storage heaters in my living room and sun room.  But on waking this morning it was clear that I had no heating throughout the house and that the Aga hadn't charged overnight.

Now being a practical sorta gal I knew that it was either a job for an electrician or my electricity supplier.  I checked everything that could be checked by a lay person. For 24 years I've always been the one who sorted out most of the practical stuff so this shouldn't really have thrown me.  But it did and I'm afraid there were tears before lunchtime!

For many reasons, this week has been a tough one but it was pointed out to me rather forcefully that I'm not good at asking for help or even accepting it when it's offered.  Point noted. So I asked for help.  Thank you to everyone who gave me advice and the phone numbers of electricians they had used.  I duly phoned every one and left messages explaining my plight.  I'm still waiting for a return call from every single one!!

Thanks to Tim who lives in Ayr who thought of someone who lived in my area who had an electrical background who also happened to be a runner who might be able to help.  Enter Bob.  Bob answered my phone call immediately, took my address and said 'I'll be there shortly.'  He was here within 20 mins!  He was here for nearly 2 and a half hours!  He worked in my freezing cold garage and went in and out of the snow storm to try and get my heating operational. 

Long story short - my heating control panel is knackered.  He literally flicked a switch and it fell off in his hand!!!  But by some clever electrical magic he got 2/3 of my heating system operational.  Woohoo!! Good news is I've got some heat in the living room and one bedroom but bad news is that it's temporarily wired to the more expensive day time tariff until I get a new heating control panel.  And the Aga isn't working.  But at least we won't freeze over Christmas if I can't persuade a heating engineer to pay a visit this week.  And No1 son has a cooker in the annexe so I'll still be able to cook some turkey on Christmas Day.

But the most remarkable part of the story is that Bob lives in Blackford and was a very good friend of Dario.  He's a runner and has been on a few training runs on the WHW although he's not into all that 'daft kind of running.'  When he was leaving I asked him if he had my full address to send me a bill.  He said he was just doing a favour for a friend.

The kindness of strangers is a powerful thing.

4 comments:

Kaz said...

So glad you've got some heating - from someone who has lived in a house without central heating for 4 years now - I feel your chill - BRRRRR!

I do hope you get someone out so you have even more for Xmas. Same happened to my parents last year and a really kind electrician came out on Christmas Eve and worked for several hours to get it sorted for us. It really is heart-warming.

I HATE asking for help too and whenever I'm struggling to ask and thinking I'm being a burden etc Al says to me:"If someone asked you to do that for them, what would you say/feel?" The answer every time, of course, is: "I'd be more than happy to help them out." and he raises his eyebrows and says: "There you go then." If you need help Ali - we are not very far away.

Kaz

allybea said...

He's a wise man that hubby of yours! I'm trying v hard to accept help when offered.

As long as the power stays on I can manage. If that goes completely then it's not just turkey that'll be stuffed!

Hope you're having fun with your Norwegian instructions! xxx

John Kynaston said...

I love a happy ending!

So good to read that Bob was able to sort out a temporary solution.

Hope you can sort out the long term problem as easily.

Have a good week.

John

Anonymous said...

Aw Ali, if you'd told me your Aga still wasn't on I'd have come back and sorted that for you.

Bob xx