Archives: plumbing

We had another leak in a pipe above the back room – the one where we had a leak before & the insurance paid to have the room repapered. I all looked so nice, not quite so anymore. It’s not bad – it’s just not quite right anymore. Bother. Hattie (our plumber) came to fix it yesterday – which was really very good indeed as we thought she was already on holiday! It seems to be all fixed now. She came round yesterday afternoon & we left her to it while we went to pick up Jack from school – dilly-dally in the park & then we went shopping & had tea at the supermarket cafe (meeting other parents we knew there). All very convivial. All, quite importantly, out of the way – letting Hattie get on with work without having the kids (or me) peeking & poking their nose in. Still not quite sure of what she did from the description given on the invoice. Looks like a problem with the copper to lead connectors again. Yes, yes – lead – we still have some lead piping. I wish we didn’t, but it’s not like we can actually afford to have them removed. Bah.
Jude was up early this morning. Crawling round & happy. His word/noise of the moment seems to be, “Bwah”. He cawls round the floor investigating things with an accompanying “Bwah… Bwah…. Bwah”.

On the way to work… sigh.

Didn’t want to leave this morning, wanted to stay with the family… but c’est la.

Got a letter from the ‘useless plumbers‘
demanding payment for the callout that they attended late & did nothing even
tho they knew what the problem was as we told then’ again. Makes me indignant
(flambé), but it looks like we may have to pay the useless prannets. We
were not on the ball enough to take the initiative – which makes it all the more
galling. Bah.
It has been abnormally warm for the past couple of days. Been fun playing out with the kids on an evening. We were out as the sun descended yesterday & Jack & I watched stars emerging. We also say bats… Most I’ve ever seen of them. May have been just the one, as we only saw the one at a time, but it flew around a sodium street light & then flitted to one further down the backstreet. Quite exciting! I have only ever seen them flit past the window before, so sustained watching was real novelty. Could also just about hear it – a very high pitched chirrup. I suspect Jack could hear them better – but it’s pleasing to note I haven’t blasted by ears listening to loud music.

Grr – that useless plumber letter still wrangles.

hmm

Dear useless fuckwits

Thank you for your letter dated 12/10/01 regarding our non-payment of scandalously charges. We feel that such a fee is inconsistent with the services provided. As we pointed out in our previous letter dated (look up the date) we had informed you of what we perceived to problem to be & your operative still did not have the wherewithal to turn up with any parts that may be useful to correct the problem. In fact he did not turn up with much wherewithal at all; possibly still being drunk from the previous night (complaining of a hangover). He proceeded to take a dim view of everything & sawed through floorboards to get to the source of the problem, possibly due to the fact he could not think of how to lift them without causing damage. He seemed moderately surprised of the problem, even though it was what we suspected on his arrival. He informed us he had no parts for the job even though we had informed yourselves what we suspected the problem was on our initial calls & possibly to the operative himself when, after stating in all day waiting for him he called us late afternoon to inform us that he could attend possibly at 21:00 hrs – when our young children would actually be asleep. His general unpreparedness & reluctance to deal with the problem in general left us with no confidence in your services & left us with no alternative but to go without water until out usual plumber returned from holiday.

Your incompetence put us at inconvenience, which is our general grievance in your insistence that we pay. The amount you suggest is also outrageous, but as we understand that you would take remedial action & charge us even more should we decline, against our better judgement — here’s the dosh you money grabbing bastards.

Yours, with the fondest wishes that you fall of the face of the Earth,

Paul

Wankers.

After feeling well yesterday – it’s a bummer to feel like I have a phantom hangover today. Phantom as I have done nothing to earn it… sigh… Perhaps feeling fine is too much to ask at the moment.
Hattie is due to return to fix something again today! When she put the new fittings on the bath the other week the waste pipe from the bath was not flush. Noticed that there was a new stain developing on the ceiling, so had a check & discovered this (drips when the bath empties). I tried to fix – screw back on – but I was over tired at the time & just got myself in a bad mood as I could do nothing with it. Tried again a couple of days later & found that it seems the screw threads do not match up… You’d’ve thought that something as universal as screw threads on plumbing pipes would be…universal – the same… but – it seems not… sigh. Perhaps I am missing something here. Whatever, Hattie has to take some time out to look at it again.
Again, there are new stains on the ceiling of the back room… There are so many stains now, it could be mistaken as part of the decor. It does not matter! Hah! they are coming to repaper & paint it all as part of the insurance for the pipe that burst the other month. It is only a week away that they come to start work now – so I guess it’s kinda important that the ceiling actually has time to dry out now…
Jack was in a ‘tidy’ mood when got home last night. Helping & tidying. He can be very industrious when he is in one of these moods & does not like to be put off his stride. For instance I got some water for him, as the water left over from washing up had been poured away – & he was offended & threw it to the floor… I’m not really sure he knew why – it was probably more the fact that the washing up water was poured away that had riled him.
Eve was in a happy – if not slightly clumsy mood. Tired really, as she had not had her daytime nap. She got upset having fallen over badly a couple of times. She is delighting in the use of nouns – picking up on what the names of objects are quite a lot now. She also got herself a sore bum (no sitting down in the bath) by filling her nappy 3 times in @ 1 & half hrs.
Jack was on about his ‘other tod’ again as he was in the bath & going to bed. It seems his washing machine in his other house is broken – it needs some twisty dust. We had a nice discussion about who might come & fix this broken washer for him. I do not recall whether it was to be (other) Hattie or (other) Jill. Anyway – the root of the problem of getting it fixed was the availability of ‘twisty dust’. The charity shop in town did not have any, (this might be the regular source) & the other charity shop didn’t have any either. Interestingly the other charity shop seems to have it’s door on the 2nd floor – so it seems that you get into the shop via a ladder (?). Specialist shops are no good either, it seems as the just don’t have the ‘twisty’ variety of dust…
To burst a bubble here – I think the ‘twisty dust’ may be something that he associates with the Dyson vacuum cleaner we have. The vacuum spins – the washing machine spins…
Did I not mention that Jack has an ‘other tod’ ? (We live in tod – Todmorden). He also sometimes has problems with his ‘little boys’ misbehaving. Whether these are truly imaginary characters or a sort of proxy empathising with us poor parents, I’m not really sure. I don’t know if there is a boy/girl he knows called Sam Waldren, but that is the name of one of his ‘little boys’ (although he may be a she…).