One of the good things about this blogging lark is the way one can vent about all those first world problems that come upon us. A recent problem relating to hot water and cylinders has landed me with the task of finding an electrician and perhaps a plumber, to fix a problem. Plumbers and electricians are thin on the ground, or so it would seem, so to get one to respond let alone turn up is a minor miracle.

The technique of asking either of these trades to get in touch is yet another minefield. I determined to find recommendations and then text them. the composition of the text is key and I am yet to find the golden key to getting a response. Oddly I was turned down by text from one electrician who said he didn’t want to waste my time and was too busy to come and look. I was for a minute elated to have got any sort of response until it dawned that 1st world problem was till there , festering, and he’d essentially told me to eff off, politely.

I thought my text to a lady electrician might bring results. No such luck. A sullen silence, nothin, nowt, ziltch. I’d been pleased with my short friendly, not too pushy text request for help and thought perhaps this was indeed woman’s work. I didn’t say that for crying out loud, it was couched in the most gentlemanly manner. I thought I might get a ladylike reply, but got none.

I was proud of my texting compositional creation but it still had not got the response I was looking for, the holy grail of someone saying they’ll come round and take a look. Perhaps I should have been kneeling when texting. My request was almost like a polite begging letter, but no deal.

You don’t get this sort of thing with a bishop. Want one of those? Quick call and a prayer and you’ll have a crowd of mitred figures at the door. They’ll pray for you but they don’t generally get involved in fuse boxes and monkey wrenches. So it will actually be a miracle if your first world water heating problem will be sorted.

Post Script: Problem sort of resolved by the people who fitted the gizmo that’s supposed to heat the water. They say the unit is faulty, and will replace said faulty French gizmo as soon as they can get hold of another. The engineer was chatting to a French man as I left to have root canal treatment which didn’t work well either. I may have need of a bishop.