The return of Dopey Dwarf

At last!!! Our central heating system has arrived!!! After a 3-month wait, Dopey Dwarf finally knocked on our door with our new boiler and state of the art gas heater. He's done everything in his power to stall delivery as much as possible. Probably hoping that in the mean time we'd be freezing cold in our house.

- "Oh, you want that boiler?"

or

- "Sorry, but I'll be away on holiday then."

or

- "I've just called the factory, but they can't deliver until October." (this he said in September, meaning that he failed to order it in July)

Tough luck for him, but we're already feeling the benefits of the materials we've chosen for the restoration right now, such as a sub-floor in terracotta. Even at night the house still seems to keep a pleasant temperature. These materials were much more expensive than ordinary plaster or concrete. But we're already certain that we'll win this investment back in no time.

But then Dopey suddenly said:

- "But... you are living here?"

As if he didn't know that. Or perhaps it was his twin brother who installed the temporary gas heater about a month ago.

- "Yes, of course. Why do you ask?"

- "You realise that you'll be without hot water for at least three days, don't you?"

I was shocked by this announcement but didn't twitch the smallest of my facial muscles. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction. I replied:

- "Well, that's allright. We're already used to camping here anyway."

And I left him to it. His assistant later assured me that we'd have hot water again by Friday afternoon. Certainly before the weekend. So that's ok by us. If Dopey believes that he can lower our spirit with such childish trivialities, he's sadly mistaking. We'll see who'll be the last to laugh. When he'll have to wait a couple of months for his money, or something.

- "Oh, you want that money?"

or

- "Sorry, but we were away on holiday so didn't make it to the bank."

or

- "We've just called our Belgian bank in order to transfer the funds to Italy. But they won't be able to do it until next year." :-)