Fire and Ice

On Sunday our boiler managed to catch fire. Don't worry it wasn't a serious fire- just big enough to put our boiler out of commission once again. It was three long cold days, without heat or hot water, before we heard back from our 'too busy' landlord. The weather lately has been alternating between cold, wet days and cold, wet, and windy days. The temperatures seem to be hovering in the 40's and we are lucky if it get any brighter outside than dim mucky grey.

For three days our only sources of heat were each other, a small convection heater, the hot water bottle and the electric mattress pad, Ross and I thankfully bought on Saturday. The dishes piled up in the kitchen, waiting to be washed, and each day our wood floors got colder and colder. Our poor cilantro plant isn't hardy enough to deal with the cold and is looking pretty sad.

Finally some one came out and got the boiler working again. He also confirmed our worst fears- the boiler is corroded inside and needs to be replaced completely. The repairman guessed the boiler only has another 1-2 months left before it is completely useless. The worst news- He told our landlord all this months ago when he was called out for the first of 4 repairs on the boiler. She doesn't want to spend the money on a new boiler.

The whole situation leaves us in a tough place. We don't really want to move, but we are tired of fighting with a cheap and unresponsive landlord. We originally planned to stay put for another year, and had even started the process of writing up a new lease, but now it looks like it may be time to move on. Thankfully we haven't signed the new lease yet.

Unfortunately, there is nothing available in our price range in the neighborhood we currently live in. Over the coming weeks we are going to keep our eye out and in the meantime pray our boiler holds on a bit longer.

On a lighter note, preparations for our Thanksgiving feast (to be held on Dec. 5) are well under way. Two other Americans from our church are helping me split the cooking load. I am in charge of the turkey, however, and am finding that to be a whole new challenge in Scotland. For 12 of us, we will need at least a 15lb turkey, which isn't huge, but the ovens here are like 1/2 the size of the one's I'm used to. I am actually going to have to measure my oven and the turkeys before I buy one!

I also ran into a bit of a wall trying to find a folding table and chairs, which is apparently a foreign idea here. Sometimes I don't understand this country.