Broken Boiler

*sadface* This is the second time this week. The first time, it was making this horrific scraping noise so we switched it off til the landlord sent out an engineer. He showed me his Gas Safe UK card, which was all fine so I let him in. He took the cover off and had a look around. Ah, a blocked siphon, nothing to worry about then. He drained the built up water and cleared out the siphon (that's a tiny funnel to you and me). I was shocked by the sheer amount of rubbish that came out of it! (all in the sink, covering the dishes that were waiting to be washed by newly heated water...)


Anyway, he put it all back together, switched the boiler on and hey presto! The F L status had vanished, instead there was a reassuring little 'c' in its place, and we had hot water! Straight away, I started to reheat the house, a couple of degrees at a time due to the fragility of my poor rats, who at this point were on heat pads and extra toilet paper bedding. We thought we'd be fine for the rest of the winter now....but are we that lucky? Nah.

The boiler started making the scraping noises again today, not only that, but the hot water has just cut out completely. I've had to reset the thing 3-4 times and it still doesn't work! The house temp is dropping rapidly and I've had to send a slightly more desperate sounding email to my landlord's go-between.

Students, in this situation, either buy an electric heater if you can (there's ones that cost only a penny per hour to run in electrical terms) or go to friends, or home to your parents if you can.

Christmas is coming!

Most students at this time of year are really scraping the bottom of their bank accounts, it's only a month til new payments arrive but the most expensive holiday of the year is coming up!

I've come up with a couple of pretty simple ideas that I'll be implementing this Christmas myself, to see if I can cover everyone(who's important)'s presents.

- Take full advantage of penny auctions on eBay : I've already bagged a couple of pretty presents for family members, for a fraction of the price!

- Get creative! Craft little presents for friends and family. If you don't do clay modelling, knit something (very much appreciated in this weather!) or paint, create a very personalised Christmas card to make it extra special.

- Get the oven gloves on, and make some festive treats! This year I'm going to be using the fantastic recipes created on this site: http://allrecipes.co.uk/ to make Peppermint Creams, Fudges and Gingerbreads for my family (and myself!) and present them in cute little organza bags that you can buy very cheaply from eBay or craft shops!

It doesn't have to cost very much, and you can manage to include all the important people on your Christmas list. Will post about my attempts at baking when I get started (with pics!) so watch this space!

By the way, I've been looking at my stats and have noticed a teeny tiny trickle of traffic.....HI!!!! *waves* If you're reading this, please leave me a comment with a message saying..well, anything! If there's any topics you'd like me to write about, or if you want to see more rat related articles, just let me know!

Updates...

Well life has been pretty uneventful the past few months. I have gained some sort of employment with a newly set up website called Cardsmonster.com. I designed their mascot and am working on their home brand of greetings cards.

My poor old manrat, Hugo has developed a tumour on his hip, meaning he's needing some extra TLC and close watching. I gave his colony a bath last night, to great success I think :) I might have to bathe my oldies more often!

I'll try to update with something more interesting and coherent over Christmas...I want to make tiny Santa hats for my boys!