Emma's starting to get a bit stressed about the progress of the new kitchen... she hasn't said anything... and I know she's carrying extra wait, but there's a lot of huffing and blinding going on. Being green (... or tight) is quite a bitch sometimes. I'm trying to re-use as much plastic and copper piping as possible - hence lots of careful cutting, working out, re-cutting, trips back&-forth to get different connectors/adaptors/stoppers/valves etc etc.
It seems that 40mm pipe can sometimes be 38mm pipe and sometimes 42mm ..but seldom does it actually measure 40mm. It all depends where you buy your pipe from. And if you happen to stumble upon www.diy-not.com looking for advice, you'll find lots of hardcore DIYers swapping hate stories about how and why a certain "hardware" store is not "the real deal" at all. Hmmm - very sinister - then again, they're quite a helpful bunch - replying to my somewhat bashful queries about basic plumbing & electrical techniques that any self-respecting man about the house should already know.
Anyways, I started this post to have a bitch about stupid imperial measurements... I'm sorry Victor papanek, I know it's all very romantic to measure everything based on whether or not you can carry it from one village to another... or whether you can stick your thumb in it or whatever - but Victor, how's that going to help me when all I want to do is stick two bits of plastic pipe together? I thought that the UK government started the official switch over to metric back in the 70's, but the other day I found out that it was more like 100 years ago. FK me, hardcore plumbers are old!
On top of everything else, I fiddled with the old boiler... I didn't mean to, honest! Anyways, after 18 years I guess it's time it was replaced. Plus it makes sense to do it at the same time as getting the water-meter fitted. The governemnt's finally made condensing boilers mandatory and we managed to get a discount through our local EEAC (see www.est.co.uk). It was installed quite professionally except that the dude didn't bother to insulate the hot water pipes... another job for me then! The neighbours are complaining about the mist from the flue - claiming that it spoils the view from their kitchen window. Now I know how windfarm owners feel! Speaking of which, Ecotricity is proving that green doesn't necessarily mean nice. They've been targeting shareholders of rival renewable energy customers, providing us with a complimentary copy of The Ecologist - which just happens to have an article touting them as the greenest, keenest supplier of the lot. I thought their (Ecotricity's) remarks about Good Energy were pretty unjustified (and no that's not just because I happen to be a shareholder) but then again - a little healthy competition never did anyone any real harm. 
Anyways, back to the water meter - I find it quite bizarre that water isn't usually metered in Britain (well at least in highly urbanised areas) so I decided to be pro-active and get one installed. It's small, free & usually pretty straightforward - although Thames Water needed a lot of chasing and everyone I spoke to tried to fob me off to someone else - OK, so it's only straightforward in theory, but at least we don't have to subsidise the watering of our neighbours' plants anymore!
