Back to London after a long time away

Wow it's been a busy week to say the least. Or, as an ex-colleague of mine used to charmingly say, "I haven't had time to fart."

It all started off with an email. But before I go into that, let me tell you about my house in London. A year and a half ago, I was forced into renting out my pride and joy; a Victorian house in London that I had spent a number of years renovating. At the time I was starting up a new business in Oxford (where I was living in a rented house), and couldn't afford the luxury of paying the mortgage in London, just to have it stand empty most of the time.

As if renting out my house to strangers wasn't bad enough, I had also just finished turning the back garden into a Mediterranean oasis, meaning that I wouldn't be able to enjoy it. Double doh!

So, back to the email. It was from the tenants of my house, telling me that the washing machine was leaking and asking if I could send someone out to fix it. At that point, I could have done one of two things; and the first was to call an Appliance Engineer in the London area. Unfortunately I chose the second option, namely I would try and fix it myself, with the help of Steve.

My reasoning went along the lines of; "I'm an Aerospace Engineer for chrissake, I make aircraft fly, surely I can't be beaten by white spinny thing that fills with water and sloshes around a bit."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Steve, "we don't really know anything about washing machines."

"Show the spirit of a lion, man!" I replied.

"Err, ok" he replied with uncertainty.

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The next day we set off on the hour long drive to London, and it was with a degree of trepidation. I hadn't seen my beloved house for over a year and a half, and all kinds of images of it being trashed were filling my head.

Once we arrived, I put the key in the lock, took a deep breath, and opened the front door. I surveyed the scene. Instead of the house being in tatters, quite the opposite was true; everything was immaculate. The relief caused a big grin to spread across my face. It was like I should be paying those guys to live there, not the other way round [note to self: need to hoover house when I get back to Oxford].

 Pic.No.1. The outside of my lovely London Victorian townhouse

Once inside, there was no time to lose..... we had to do the repairs and get back to Oxford in time to pick up Izzy.

"Right, let's get to work," I said. "You do those other little jobs that the tenants mentioned, and I'll recreate the leak from the washing machine so we can locate the cause of the problem."

For two, yes TWO hours, I put on drain cycle, after spin cycle after rinse cycle. And could I make the thing leak? Nope. I had failed at the first hurdle. Not only that, but do you know how boring it is watching a washing machine go round and round and round. Let me tell you, it's as mind numbing as a dinner date with Paris Hilton.

In the end, I had to concede defeat.

"I'm gonna have to call out an Engineer," I said to Steve.

"We didn't get very far," he replied.

"No need to be negative," I responded.

"Sorry," he winced.

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After an hour long journey to London, and two hours watching a washing machine cycle, we finally got back in the car and headed home.

But before I go, I thought you might like to see some photographs of the Mediterranean garden that I designed. 

 Pic.No.2. The view from the patio door

 Pic.No.3. My water feature made from a huge block of natural slate

 Pic.No.4. The view of the house from the end of the garden

It made me a bit sad that I never have the chance to enjoy it. Hey ho! who knows what the future brings.

Having said that, one thing about the future is certain, it won't be long before I am back in London with a qualified Engineer, trying to fix that bloody washing machine.