Does it ever stop? We’re retired so the only admin in my life is managing the house. It never ends.

Sometimes though it feels more never-ending than others.

This started with an oven breakdown. Closely followed by a safety scare. And you might think that a visit from the electrician, a new fuse box and a safety check from UK Physical Network, the guys in charge of the electricity supply infrastructure in the UK would be enough.

But from the very start, I knew this would not end with a new fuse box, or even a new system head, apparently the connection between your domestic supply and the broader network. The minute the issue was raised, living in my 1908 house, it was obviously going to be a fundamental problem with my electricity supply. Ho hum.

The guys arrived to dig up my electricity connection, unannounced sometime before eight o’clock in the morning. They stuck a card through the door with a number to ring except it wasn’t their number. There are three separate divisions and for whatever reason the number they gave me was for the souther division. A very nice man on the other end of the call gave me the number for the eastern and the London division.

I live in London so surely I should ring the London number. Alas, no. Third time lucky and the Eastern Division managed to find my reference number. They would call the team and see if they could come back to work on the supply, probably tomorrow. And no, since it was recorded as emergency safety work, they couldn’t give me a time.

An hour later, a team wracked up with a mini digger. Work commenced. One six foot hole at the bottom of the driveway, closing down half of the road and fencing off two house widths of the road and the guys decided the problem wasn’t down there. They headed off for lunch.

Back an hour or two later and another six foot hole, they stopped for supper. After an hour or so, they tested the connection right next to the house, and they decided that the problem wasn’t there either. Another team would likely be required.

Before leaving though, he decided to test the reading at the new service head. The acceptable limit would be 0.8 (ohms?) The reading was 0.13. He took it again, and then again. He switched the meter off and on again, The reading stayed low at 0.13. Right then. All done.

They left. Two six foot holes left behind. It took another day or so for another entirely unannounced team to arrive to almost completely fill both holes, and another day for the guys with concrete to completely fill the holes.

Two days later people arrived to remove the barricades around the holes. Another day later and someone arrived to power wash the driveway.

I have had a seemingly never-ending collection men arrive to dig holes and fill them, all very efficient individually and all extremely polite.

It should feel like success.

Except the car has started to whine when it starts up, and all of the new small city cars seem to be electric. There’s a government deal offering £3500 off a new electric car so we took a look at the well-reviewed Hyundai Inster. I have a test drive on Sunday, an electric charger due to be delivered and an electrician supposed to tell me when he can come to fit it to my lovely new fuse box.

Delivery times for these new cars are 3-6 months.

I feel as if I’m on some kind of domestic upgrade treadmill and all I want to do is get off.

When does it ever end?