Lockdown Diary - Christmas Day (Friday 25th December 2020)

Christmas Day!  Staggered start to the day - I'm up first, initially for the first carer call of the day at 7 a.m., then after exercise and showering, up to plan the order of the day and dinner timings.

I had initially intended to start cooking the turkey at around 10, with a target of 2 pm to be eating, but two out of three sons struggled to be out of bed by 11, so it wasn't started until after 11.

It's a running joke in our house that ever since I took over cooking Christmas dinner, I get very stressed during the process. This year I was determined it would be different. The late emergence of the full complement of sons threatened to derail my best intentions, but as we sat together unwrapping presents and opening cards, it began to dawn on me what was at the root of this unnecessary stress.  

Ever since my wife became unable to participate in the Christmas dinner process, I guess about five years now, I have spent my energy trying to deliver exactly what she and I would have delivered together. Same timetable. Same attention to detail.  It suddenly struck me that there is no sense in trying to do that. We don't need to eat to a timetable. The day is ours. I can't recreate something as before, because life is no longer that way and it never will be. We just have to create our own version. We'll eat when it's ready and we'll make the most of our time together. This Christmas, especially, not everyone is that lucky.  We are blessed and will make the most of the day.  After that epiphany, I had a drink and got on with things, with help from the boys.

In the end we began eating at a little after 3 p.m. - can't say exactly when - and the dinner was great, if maybe I'd made a little too much. Too many potatoes, too many parsnips. 

I was just starting to clear away when the phone rang. It was my father-in-law and stepmother-in-law.  Usual conversation with added Christmas felicitations.  As the conversation was drawing to a close, I said these words, which proved to be fateful, 'I'm just clearing up and then I plan to have a relaxing evening with the boys'. Little did I know.

Not long after that call, I was stood in the living room, talking to my sons about how we'd spend the evening, when I noticed what sounded like a rhythmic ticking sound coming from the hall. When I came out I noticed water dripping from the ceiling via the light fitting.

Action stations!

My first assumption was a problem with the water tanks in the loft, so up I went.  In the meantime my sons were in the airing cupboard which appeared to be the immediate source of the water as nothing seemed amiss in the loft.  It rapidly became clear that water was coming out of the top of the immersion tank. 

I contacted a friend who's husband runs his own gas heating and plumbing business.  Initially he wanted videos, but after some exchanges he kindly offered to come out:  his wife hadn't been drinking so she drove whilst he came with his gear.  

They are on their way.  I can't believe how lucky we are to have such great friends.  When he arrives, with mask, he quickly identifies the source of the problem, stops the flow of water, for now and manages to free up the cold water stop cock so that we can turn it on and off as necessary.  We are lucky enough to be covered by a British Gas Homecare agreement and he says we need to contact them and get in touch with the emergency cover.  After many thanks and offers of bottles of alcohol, which were politely refused, we began attempting to contact British Gas.

Contacting British Gas out of hours - despite the cover being 24/7 - is not that easy. They only have an automated answering service which you have to use ingenuity to navigate in order to speak to someone. Eventually, after 40 minutes on the phone, I got to speak to someone.

The upshot is that we will be treated as a priority case, because of my wife's need for access to hot water, and so they will get an engineer out to us tomorrow between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Right now that seems like a miracle, so I'm pleased to take it.

Up until this point things had been going swimmingly (!) but this put a dampener (!!!) on proceedings, as least as far I was concerned, even though the boys helped with everything, but once there wasn't anything else they could do to help, they got on with the serious business of Xbox games. By this time I was knackered, and could feel the Christmas spirit ebbing away.  

We watched a comedy quiz whilst we ate a light snack, which at least raised a few belly laughs, as the problem ceased to be something we could do anything about.

The last person to bed (or more precisely the last to clean their teeth) has to go downstairs and turn off the water at the mains.  By that time I will hopefully be asleep.

Started with Shygirl's latest single, which took me to Anita Baker, then Sade, until I arrived here at Soul II Soul.  This is my mantra for life: 'Keep On Movin', from 'Club Classics Volume 1' (though this is the single version)

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