Machines just annoy me

Our Boilerman came and fixed the boiler yesterday afternoon. It was fine when he left - had gone off and on a couple of times just how it should - no problems. Today it's gone wrong again and won't fire. Grhhh!! Having been perfectly reliable for 7 years it is now playing up and costing money. It's a pretty simple basic boiler with very little that can actually go wrong with it but it seems as though everything is going wrong at the moment.

Am I the only one who gets really rattled by such things happening? I find it just very uncomfortable and unsettling. I don't even like people coming for routine servicing and it feels as though they are invading my personal space. Next Tuesday the alarm is having its routine service and I shall go out because I need to go into Boston anyway to start doing Christmas shopping so that will be a good excuse. Let's hope by then we've got the boiler sorted as well though I know Boilerman is very busy at the moment.

All quiet on the domestic front

The boiler is fixed now - fingers crossed - it was just an issue of timing as it wasn't firing up quick enough after the fan comes on. Naturally we both keep listening to make sure it's all right but that will wear off in a couple of days.

For some reason I was thinking this morning about a particularly useless comment a manager once put on my annual report - 'Jill should learn to see herself as others see her.' There wasn't anything to qualify this statement or any particular incident highlighted and when I challenged it I was told that if I didn't know then no one could tell me. Right so you're saying I have faults but you're not prepared to tell me what they are so that I can put them right? Well yes. In which case it's a good thing I've been moved onto another job then isn't it?

If I could see myself as others see me I'd be probably the only person in the world who can. You can usually see what effect your words and actions have on other people but to perceive yourself completely from everyone else's point of view is virtually impossible. I was always being told in my last but one job that I was too unselfish and always went out of the way to help colleagues to the detriment of my own interests at times. Not sure that's how I see myself and certainly I'm regarded as slightly selfish at home - which I don't accept because the comment is usually made when I won't immediately do what I've been asked to do!! Bit like a man's definition of a lesbian being anyone who won't go to bed with him! The truth as ever is somewhere in the middle probably.

I prefer to remember that not all criticism is valid and you accept it or not as you choose.

Now the boiler is playing up . . .

Having had the boiler serviced the other day it is now cutting out every few hours. I am plagued with domestic machines going wrong! Boiler man is coming out tomorrow to fix it. As we only need it for hot water at present and there is an electric back up with our large box of tricks in the 'airing cupboard' also known as a Boilermate, it's not really a problem but it needs fixing.