Fan

The only 'hot' water we've had since we got back on Friday morning has been from the cold water tank, warmed by sun under the roof slates. I left a message for the man who last serviced our boiler in, ahem, 2001 and he phoned last night to arrange to look at it at 8am this morning. He arrived at 7.50. No tutting or finger-wagging at our neglect of the boiler. He took it apart and showed us this, the fan, which had packed up. He talked us through the pros and cons of paying to replace this part versus paying to replace the whole 24-year-old boiler, and yes, if we wanted it, he had a replacement fan on his van. We decided we wanted it and yes, he could fit it straight away.

Yes, of course he's thinking of retiring.