(Sneaky...)

IT’S BEEN a wearisome week, this, what with the workmen knocking six bells out of the place, and the general upheaval such activity always entails.

Moreover, I’ve got it into my head that it’s been Friday for the last three days and I’ve been looking forward to the end of the week, with us, maybe, enjoying a weekend roast for Saturday.

My Good Lady disabuses me of this idea – it seems she has no roast of any sort planned for us.

Somehow the weekend is never quite the same without a nice roast chicken or a tasty bit of salt marsh lamb.

I admit I bear my disappointment with a certain amount of ill-grace – what use are Saturdays, after all, if not for a succulent roast dinner with a hearty bottle of red wine?

(I’m being sneaky here, you see; I’m hoping MGL will read this and change her mind!)

Anyhow, on a more positive note, the work is more or less completed, and yes, I must admit I’m reasonably pleased with the job they’ve done. The new boiler will take a little time to settle in, I understand, and I hope that all the excess steam from the flue doesn’t freeze if we have another hard winter this year.

But it should cost us less to run, I’m told, and the built-on insulation on the new hot water cylinder should be a lot more efficient than the old boiler with its red jacket lagging.

Best of all, though, it’s cost us not a penny piece to have done – one of the bonuses of an environmentally friendly government and our good fortune to have found our way through the maze of grants and regulations they've imposed.

In fact, the savings we’ve made and which we are going to continue to make will easily pay for the occasional roast on a Saturday…

(More Tom Sawyer-like sneakiness, you see!)