I'm bad at making phone calls

Phew! What a week I'm having.

As well as being super busy in my day job, my little flat has also decided it wants some attention and the boiler has stopped working.

Last night I got home to a freezing house and no hot water and glumly I wondered how much it was going to cost me to get the boiler up and running again.

And then I remember that through my contents insurance with Endsleigh, I get home emergency cover.

So happy was I about this that it bolstered my confidence to to try phoning the emergency peeps.

Hmmmm… it did not go well. The lady was either Welsh or Irish – I have no clue which one – and I could barely understand anything she said.

Our 15-minute long conversation went something like this:

Her: Plu plu blah blah plu plu?

Me: you need my postcode?

Her: no, plu plu blah plah plu bla...

Me: My policy number?

Her: No-oooooooah, plu blah.

Yes, despite my attempts at conveying that she need to slow her speech down, this car crash of a conversation continued until I eventually discovered she couldn't find me on the system.

So I rang Endsleigh, my insurance company who are in the Wild West rem… Country, and luckily, I grew up hearing this accent so it's easier for me to decipher.

This phone call went better. The lady at the other end was more responsive to my announcement of my hearing loss and connected me through to the Welsh place telling them I should be on their system and they should help me.

Luckily I got a man. He was marginally more intelligible... marginally.

The first thing he said was: All we need is proof that the boilers been serviced in the last year and we will get an engineer out right away...

And just like that, I'd become a small-print victim.

I know, I know, it's logical that you should get a yearly service for your boiler, but to be honest, I had shoved this task in the 'phone calls I'd like someone else to make' pile and forgotten all about it.

So last night – from my air bed in the living room (long story) and under a mountain of blankets – I pinged an email to a local plumbing company asking them to come out today. I have no idea if they respond to emails, so that phone call I'd been putting off will probably have to be made anyway. And that home emergency premium I've been paying for the last three years on my insurance... well given the fact my little flat's latest hobby seems to be breaking, I'm sure I'll get to use it at some point in the future.

Happy Thursday peeps. That's right, almost the weekend.

DG x