The revenge of the BCSFH

'Shirley' from EastEnders bears more than a passing resemblance to the BCSFH, in appearance as well as manner and attitude, except that BCSFH is harder.

I thought there must be something in the air because she smiled at me on Monday and I even came back to my desk and said, 'Something's up. She smiled at me!' And I was right. The following day she set me up for a prize fall. I guess I'm just too straightforward and honest and I don't see the devious, twisted, malicious plots she hatches until I'm up to my neck in sh*t.

After a horrible night of anxiety and anger dreams, and palpitations, I finally persuaded myself to come to work and face the inevitable music. My boss poured oil on troubled waters and had a word - again - with BCSFH's boss, and that will be that. For now.

Broke but warm(er)

I had a quote for a new boiler that was £1,300 cheaper than British Gas and, although the engineer didn't offer the 'easy' payment terms that BG did, I had some promotional credit card cheques through the post a couple of days before the work was done. The rate was 5.9% for the life of the balance, so that's a lot cheaper than the credit option with BG would have been. So, all in all, I'm broke (as usual) but shouldn't be broke for as long now as I would have been with British Gas, if that all makes sense!

Of course, nothing goes totally smoothly, does it? The previous owners of the house installed a cheapie central heating system with small bore pipes. That's why they'd cut the flow of water to the bedroom radiator - because if the upstairs rads are on, it's harder for the water to be pumped downstairs, so I can either have warm upstairs and tepid downstairs, or vice versa, or I can have medium everywhere. I'm still playing with the thermostat valves to see what works best, but in the meantime I'm grateful for the warmer spell that has hit!

I'm putting my faith in the future and I'm going to have the new suite as well. What the hell, if I'm going to die young of heart disease I want to enjoy myself and have nice things around me! To make room for the new suite (which is a lot bigger than the old one) I'm having to have a major clear-out, and I hate throwing things away. I did take my tropical fish and my solitary goldfish back to the pet shop, and they took them in (a bit like an orphanage for pets!) so the two tanks are now in the garage, awaiting thorough cleaning before being put on Ebay. That's given a lot more space so I'm slowly getting there!

Once the lounge is totally presentable and the new suite has arrived, I'll post a picture!