Welcome to my perfumed garden

As you're drifting off to sleep. Last night for - who knows what strange, possibly cosmic reasons - my thoughts turned to a cheap little drama that used to play (constantly, it seemed) on afternoon telly back on the 70's called Doctor Simon Locke.

Why that particular piece of crud nonsense popped into my head I've no idea. I didn't care for it at the time; off school for afternoon 'prep' (ie eating toast, watching Crown Court and Houseparty) you'd switch on the telly to find bleedin Doctor Simon bloody Locke. Even as a twelve year old, I knew it was the most awful arse.

But thinking leads to Googling and there it is on imdb with some deply amusing anecdotes.
The budget was so low that the company couldn't afford trailers for the cast, who had to change clothes in the bushes.
Jack Albertson was so disgusted at the cheap, slipshod way this show was produced that he actually pulled out of it halfway into its first season, after seeing a particularly bad set of rushes. Reminded that he still had a contract, he said, "After what I just saw up there, no jury in the world would convict me." He received his release shortly thereafter.

And now I want to cue the helicopter, cue the big shiny light, cue the man on the ground, shielding his eyes, cue the shout; 'Doc-tor... Simon Locke?!'  Cue the boomy trumpet music. Funny how even bad TV memories can make you smile. (o:

I have too much time on my hands, don't I? ::exits in search of coffee and toast::

There be BIG problems.

A simple enough act, you'd think, wiring in a new wall switch using the same wiring, the same type of switch as before. You would, wouldn't you? I know we did.

A mighty struggle ensued (as described in yesterday's post) but seemed to end well and we thought the trouble was fixed, last night everything was just fine. Woke this morning to find no lights and - most mysterious of all - no immersion heater, meaning both the 5a and the 30a circuits have gone down but no fuses have blown. This is decidedly strange - even the emergency electrician (who can't fit us in till Wednesday) is having trouble getting his head around it. Mark thinks he knows what the problem is but doesn't feel confident to fix it. It means he'll have to drive back over on Wednesday  to deal with Electrician Guy and lord alone knows how much that's going to cost.

Mercifully the 15a wall circuits are fine so we have table lamps and telly and all the important things (except hot water )o:)... But... But...

::hangs head and sighs::

So then I went down to complete (what I thought were) the last tasks, fixing a sink tile (done, sans complications thank GOD!) and cleaning off the hideous mozaic behind the stove so we can put up the new tiles (when they arrive).

Cue massive problem #2. There's a big hole in the chimney behind the grotty tiles. It looks like the old cement has dried and crumbled and some stones have fallen down into the chimney. At least this goes some way to explaining why the chimney's not been drawing well lately but - has to be fixed. Mark's got the fire cement and heavy-duty filler and is slowly, layer by layer,  patching up the hole so, finger's crossed - that's a problem we knew we had, but had no real explanation for, discovered and - plz? O All the Gods show mercy  - fixed? ::hardly dares to hope::

Anyway, I'm off to put the first coat of sealant on the stone floor. Pray for me.

shamelessly filched from kseda 

No surprises, but some thought-inducing questions there.

( This is mine... )

This apparently puts me closer to Gandhi and the Dalai Lama than say, Stalin or Thatcher - which is nice to know I guess.