In answer to the question what has occupied Tashy this last month, the answer is simple. Hot water. At the beginning of the month I ran an early morning bath and went to climb into it only to discover it was a cold bath. The immersion heater had been playing up a few times but, so I was told and shown, it only needed a press on the re-set button. Not this time. Oh no.

To cut a long story short on every weekday barring two since March 4th until March 31st I have had a workman in my house. First they fitted a new immersion but that only worked briefly. They came back and re-set but that only worked briefly. work. Then they came back again because whatever they had done had created a airlock and I had no water out of any hot tap at all, unless I turned the cold tap in the bath and then water flowed out of both basin and bath hot taps. However it was not hot water. Oh no.

When trying to solve the water flow problem, the guy managed to flood my kitchen, break the flushing system on the toilet and then say he would be back the next day and never turn up. Oh yes.

He was sacked and the boss turned up, mended the toilet, looked at the problem and announced I would need a new tank. All of this, of course, had to be approved by my landlady who agreed to it all but didn't wish to get involved in dealing with the company doing it, leaving it all to me. After the tank was fitted, a new smaller one as the old one was about 60 years old and they didn't make them that big any more, it developed a leak at the top. Oh no.

The guys made several visits to try and cure it, well about five actually, but finally decided they would have to drain the tank partially and fit a new connection. This was done on March 31st and at the last look, just now, I have no leak. However the pressure of water coming out of the hot bath tap is, for some reason no one understands, pretty poor and running a bath now takes three times as long. I did ask about this and was told it might be cured if they fitted new taps to the bath but they'd have to drain the tank again to do this. NO, NO, NO and OH NO. Flanders and Swann had already come to mind.

I also discovered that the old tank had two immersions, one on Economy 7 rate and one on normal rates. Needless to say the one on Economy 7 had clogged up years ago and I had been using prime rate for eleven years. The electrician reckoned this had cost me at least 10 pound a week or about five and a half thousand pounds since I moved in. Oh yes.

So, workwise, I have done very little. I did my yearly accounts as required by law and the usual updates to my site. I opened a PicFair account to see if anyone wanted to buy any of my photos and finished off choosing the songs for the Tashy Hears update due just after Easter. Next month we press on but I might have some very big news for you at the end of it. WATCH THIS SPACE.