General Chat

I've lived in this house for nigh on 30 years.
In that time, the Council have insisted that I've had at least 3 changes of electricity meter, 5 different gas boilers - and the gas meter has never been changed :-S

I went to take a meter reading this evening, and upon opening the door to the meter - smelled gas.
I went out half an hour later - opened the door - gas again.
Ummed and awwed for about half an hour, (I have a very sensitive sense of smell) and decided even with my sense of smell - it was a strong smell - to call the Emergency Gas number.
Lovely man came out within half an hour.
He was here for an hour.
The gas meter was definitely spewing out gas,but so old, it had totally seized up -, he had to put in a new one.
I just find it amazing that the electricity meter - that couldn't kill, was changed whenever a new model came out, yet the gas meter - that can kill if it's not 'up to spec' wasn't changed in all these years. :-|

The Gasman Cometh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyeMFSzPgGc


Obviously, your day was better, Maggie :-D :-D

I love that song!


:-D :-D :-D

I enjoy all of their work, Sylvia :-D

:-D :-D :-D :-D

Oh, Allan, that song sounds like the Council sub-contractors who came round in 2017 when I had a leak in either my gas boiler or immersion heater.
It didn't start well, when the bloke on the end of the phone informed me that both couldn't be in the same cupboard, and just got worse.
Being a 'woooman', of course, I wouldn't know what I was looking at.
I thought the floorboards needed lifting to 'pinpoint' where the leak was.
He decided (from his office) that it was the boiler.

3 different gas boilermen came to 'fix' my boiler - to no avail.
By the time they'd finished 'fixing' the boiler, the water was gushing down the wall.
After 3 weeks, I phoned the Council's 'out of hours' team.
Bloke came, lifted the floorboards - it was the immersion heater.
Differently skilled men came out.
They had to order a new tank, that would take a week to arrive - despite the local 'Screwfix' having one available.
Electrician had to come out as the water was now coming through the light fitting.
Ceiling paper fell off, followed by the plaster.
Eventually, after 6 weeks and a lot of wasted water (which I was paying for), the leak was stopped. An architect came around to assess the damage and suggested a humidifier was needed to dry out the walls.
I looked up humidifiers. The smallest one would have blocked access to the front door (fire hazard), and left me about 6 inches to get from the stairs through to the lounge.
My bathroom is downstairs. No way would I have wanted an obstacle course between me and the loo at 4am!
I waited for it to dry.
Electrician came back and fixed the light - unfortunately so low, the front door hit the bulb. He had to come back again.
Plasterers came and re-plastered, a few weeks later the painters came - and just painted where damaged had been caused, leaving me with a paint tideline on the stairs.
As for my carpet - I was told to claim on my house insurance - so my premiums could rise because of their incompetence :-|
I put some bits of wood under it and dried it out.
This whole farce took 5 months.

Fortunately, the Gas man wasn't a Council sub-contractor :-D :-D :-D

Allan ...............

so do I!

We occasionally hear some of them, including The Gasman Cometh, on radio here.


I also love Gerard Hoffnung ........... we occasionally get The Bricklayer's Song, again on radio.


Have you ever heard of Blaster Bates??? He was a demolition expert, learnt his trade in WW2, and worked in Cheshire in the 1950s and 60s. He got onto the after-dinner speaker trail because his stories/monologues were so funny. OH's mother sent us at least 2 of his LPs back in the early 70s. They're hilarious!

One monologue is called The Shower of S**t over Cheshire", based on what happened when a farmer wanted him to clean up his septic tank .........

here's a version of it ...

https://monologues.co.uk/Sketches/Shower_of_Shit.htm


Maggie .......... that certainly does sound like the Gasman!!!

Thanks, Sylvia. :-D

I do know Blaster Bate's works. I had a cassette of them once but alas long ago chewed up in a player. :-(

Thank goodness for YouTube :-D :-D

The 'Naming Of Knicker Brook' was another of his ;-)

Sylvia, Many Many years ago, on a thread, I mentioned blaster bates, and the "genes police" descended upon me, like an avalanche, citing the urban dictionary(and other dubious sites) because in my ramblings, i mentioned a northern phrase....(give it a gentle" t*****h) with a hammer....meaning tap it with a 14lb sledgehammer......and I was almost threatened with expulsion.......fortunately, many of those contributors seem not to be with us any more....but beware!!!

I liked the tales of him moving from job to job on a bus.. laden with dynamite... until he acquired a motorbike...

We still have his LPs that m-i-l sent ........... no cassette tapes to get chewed up.

and yes, the naming of that brook :-)


Bob ......... it seems I'm living dangerously tonight!!

Allan, I had that damned song going around in my head all day!! :-P :-P :-P

:-D :-D :-D