The British Gas Saga.

Both my father and grandmother have maintenance contracts with British Gas to service their gas boilers, central heating systems, hot water systems and gas fires.

On Tuesday, February 1st they both had their annual service and safety inspections done and both passed without any problem. That night the gas tap on my grandmother's tap failed open, filling her house with poisonous and highly explosive natural gas. Luckily she was mentally aware enough to notice the problem and after some 3AM drama the gas supply was turned off, the windows were opened and disaster was averted. The next day another British Gas engineer turned up, replaced the faulty parts and got everything working again. Now the gas fire in question is quite old so I can't definitively say it was sabotaged but the fact it was certified as safe just 11 hours earlier doesn't look good does it.

Then on Tuesday, February 8th the boiler in my father's house stopped working meaning no hot water and no heat. A third British Gas engineer came out that same day, re-started the boiler and told my father there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. 90 minutes later it stopped working again. This meant a fourth British Gas engineer came round on Wednesday, February 9th and after he'd taken the boiler to bits and called in a fifth engineer with a replacement part he got it working again and it is still working now. The once we'd found a way to make sure the kitchen was kept nice and warm the refrigerator broke spoiling all the food and forcing us to buy a new one. So this week has mostly been taken up with grumbling and swearing.

Oh and reports that Hosni Mubarak has hired ex-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to plan his exit strategy cannot be confirmed at this time.