My landlady had claimed the plumber would be around at 2pm today to look at the problem with the shower leaking slightly into the next room. My landlady doesn’t have a great record with any kind of tradesman. While they seem to mostly know what they’re talking about when they turn up, most of them don’t turn up.

So you can imagine my surprise when just before 2pm, there was a knock at the door. Shock and surprise quickly faded when I realised it was the landlady herself, come to check if I was home. My being home wasn’t the risky part of the scenario of course. I am always here at the appointed time, so I can tell her later that her tradesman wasn’t.

She went down to wait in her car. Half an hour later, the guy still hadn’t shown up, and she came in to use my phone to call him. As is typical of the people she gets to do work for her, he was off somewhere with little or no intention of turning up to the appointment. Kidnapped by aliens, just discovered he had 24 hours to live, or just couldn’t be bothered. I know where my money would be. She had a whinge at him, then went off muttering about unreliable workmen.

It’s been like this for years, and she hasn’t quite twigged yet that all the ones she gets are unreliable because she pays them a pittance. I bet someone else offered him (pittance times two) to work somewhere else, and he did that instead.

But I’ll give her points for dragging someone along pronto when there’s an actual urgent need.

Well I’ve had a busy first week of the year. I was sick as a dog on New Years Eve and didn’t go out anywhere. So we spent the evening watching videos, then later I found myself tossing and turning in bed wondering if I would get hot enough to steam the sheets with my forehead.

St Kilda Botanical Gardens - Adrian and Susannah tie the knot

After recovering by Tuesday morning I worked most of the rest of the week, but also spent some time on Thursday night with Iris at Southland, trying to find a suitable wedding present for my sister. After some discussion, we settled on a food processor, and then, along with another couple facing precisely the same dilemma, tried to work out a compromise between the ugly but known-to-be-very-reliable brand (Braun) versus the others, which were more aesthetically pleasing but did not have the same reputation for reliability. Eventually a compromise was reached and we lugged the processor, a stunningly beautiful yet apparently reliable Moulinex, back to the car.

And finally on Saturday my sister Susannah did indeed get hitched to Adrian, in a lovely ceremony in the St Kilda Botanical Gardens. Despite some anticipation following earlier speculation on behalf of my sister, I did not wear a taffeta dress, but if people were disappointed, they didn’t show it.