Oh great. A miserable start to the day with a typical grey rainy day. Better still, the Job Centre have decided to put me on yet another course to fill my increasingly busy schedule, and guess what? Someone forgot I was already on a course elsewhere. Now I must attend two courses this week and if I fail to attend "it may affect your benefits".

As it happens I met a guy from Eritrea of all places. He came here to earn a living and avoid the troubles in his home country. It's been two years since he's seen his wife and family. A little reminder that, even though it's raining out there, maybe things ain't so bad.

Or Are They?

A new course today? Well I definitely need to make sure I don't look like I've been dragged off a scrapheap even though it feels that way sometimes. So I ran the bath. That's a bit of a luxury these days given the price of gas. Not to worry, this is going to feel soooo good...

Cold! What the..? My boiler isn't working. Why is my boiler not working? Sher-rail Holmes immediately went downstairs and deduced from the available evidence that the gas had been turned off by some idiot in the night.

Thanks for that. The gas company assures me the supply is still valid. The letting agent assures me they'll inform the maintenance people. Back to my primitive manual methods of wiping dirt off then. I can just imagine a Roman smirking at my barbarous lifestyle!