The gas men cometh with a digger on a wagon full of dirt to fill the holes where the rain gets in (and there has been plenty of rain today — 41.4 mm, all-time number four on the high score table). All done now; we are cooking with gas.
A1 is reading Scatter Her Ashes* by Heine Bakkeid, a grim and gloomy tale with another useless protagonist. A2 is reading A Death at Fountains Abbey by Antonia Hodgson.