Gas

We were counting ourselves lucky. The train we'd got - the last one from London - was due in at 01:18am and somehow it arrived 40 minutes early - at 12:40. Because of the horrible weather, we grabbed a cab outside the station instead of walking across town to the non-hansom cab office. This meant we were pulling into our road before 1am.

1st thing we noticed was that the alarm light was flashing on the house. After our previous experiences with the burglars (Break-in-Part1, Break-in-Part2) we were a bit nervous. We looked around the outside of the house but nothing looked disturbed or tampered with. Bizarre.

Still, we were a bit nervous when we opened the door, and we opened it very carefully and cautiously.

Something *was* wrong. There was a terrible smell of gas.

Only one thought went through my mind...Don't Switch On The Lights!

Fortunately, due to the recent cold weather, the hallway in our house contained a collection of torches which we'd been taking with us in the car just in case of any snow-induced breakdown incidents.

Dan grabbed a torch and we went through the house, opening all the doors and windows to get rid of the gas.

I rang the gas emergency number 0800 111 999 which is the number for Transco/National Grid. I placed the call at 01:06am and they gave us a list of things to do - don't switch on any electrical equipment, check, open the windows & doors, check, switch off the gas at the mains...errr....what? Where is the meter? I had no idea!

It took me a few moments to remember that the meter is actually outside - no wonder I'd not seen it before!

So we managed to get the gas turned off at the mains, and then waited for the gas board man to come.

01:46 he arrived - complete with gas detector sniffer.

He moved around the house with the detector, and due to our excellent fumigation techniques of EVERY door and window open in the house, he couldn't detect any that was lingering in the building.

He then went to turn on the gas at the mains to find out where the gas was escaping from.

The smell seemed to be coming from the kitchen, so he concentrated on the boiler and the stove. Bingo! It was one of the valves on the hob which looks like it had stuck open.

"Obviously", he said, "I'm going to have to disconnect you from the mains until your hob can be replaced".

"Well, obviously", I replied. "I'm not exactly going to turn the gas back on, am I?"

"You'd be surprised what people do" he said, and off he went to cap the pipe at the meter.

So there we were, at 2am, having had all the doors and windows open in the house for an hour, sub zero temperatures outside, and no heat!

Story continues... 

Attempted Burglary.....the little buggers have been at it again!

So, after the last rather unsuccessful attempt at a break-in we have had several security measures put in place - based on the recommendations of the C.A.S.A.C group who work in association with West Yorkshire police for burglary prevention - well prevention of future crimes, after the original crime event, if you see what I mean! Anyway....so a couple of weeks ago I was at home during the day with a lovely temperature, and had been mooching around the house feeling a bit sorry for myself. When Dan came home that evening, he decided to mow the lawn, and went into our middle room to go out through the side doors.
"What have you done to the door?" he shouted through. "Nothing, I've been in bed all day".
"Why is the lock spinning round then?". Well, as soon as he said it, we both knew! The exact same door, the exact same method.....the exact same burglars?
Well it certainly looked like we'd been 'dun' again. So the police came round and took our statement, again. The next day the SOCO was the same guy as last time, and so was the CASAC guy who fixed the locks. The BEST part of the story is that, although our lovely visitors had completely removed the lock from the door, our new security mechanisms meant that they had no way of opening the door, even with no lock in it. (Read this article about locks in UPVC doors - they're wothless, basically.)
So another 2 fingers up at the burglears......ha, come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!

All packed and ready to go

Marina gets here in an hour to take us to the airport! I'm excited but
a bit fraught - when we weighed the cases I was about 2 kilos over; which meant I had to go chucking things out of my case on a 'what does it weigh' rather than a 'do I need this' basis! I've ended up chucking my trainers and my running gear. I guess the resurection of my running skills will have to wait 'till we get back. Not only that, I went to put my makeup on after my shower and realised I've missed out my makeup brush (that's OK it's gone back in) and my favourite makeup remover; not OK, it weighs too much so it's OUT! I'm sure I'll have forgotten something important. Mental list....bra that my bridesmaid dress was fitted over, bridesmaidy shoes, passport, tickets, earplugs for Dan's snoring, lipgloss, absolutlely essential eyshadows. OMG I'm sure there'll be something critical I've forgotten!
Anyway, next post will (hopefully) be from Dubai airport, we land there about 3am UK time, 6am UAE time. 3 hours stopover for a shower & freshen up, then the next leg to Sydney which gets us in to Sydney at 6am Thursday morning which, I think is about 9pm Wednesday night UK time. Cheerio!!!!!!!