Meeting the locals

I worked from new home today (trying to pretend that there isn’t chaos in two places that need sorting).
The novelty of heating has been nice and I contacted the previous owner to find out if there is some trick I can’t work out to get the cooker hob working. He popped round but was none the wiser and gave me the number of the previous tenant who has moved to Kendal. He couldn’t help either so I’m wondering if the power cuts caused it but it was nice to chat to the guy anyway ... he was the postie for the area and clearly loved it here. He told me about topping up the boiler ... this is an alien world for me as someone who has only ever had just a fire.