Comments: Quotable quotes

And imagine what they are saying about you ... !

Posted by Debster on 2 December, 2020 at 9:33 AM

We are so nice to them (happy workmen = good standard of work), that they probably weren't saying anything. And if they were, luckily for them it wasn't within my eagle-eared hearing.

It seems like, up here, they are rarely given teas and coffees or cold drinks, let alone biscuits or soup at lunchtimes.

I thought the tiler - the only one who has always turned up when or before he said and done a really excellent job, despite a very odd shaped room, doesn't smoke, isn't on his phone half the time, and actually says 'thank you' when given a drink (rather than, "Yeah luv, put it over there will yer?")- had let us down yesterday. He'd said he'd be here by noon. The mid-day news started on the radio. "He's not here, even he's let us down now!" I mock-wailed to Mr BW, then noticed, looking out of the window, that he was already in the drive.

I can't wait for the day when we have no further need for workmen. For this phase, it will be quite soon. Thankfully.

Posted by Blue Witch on 2 December, 2020 at 9:47 AM

I don't often think of eagles in terms of their ears!

Posted by Tim W on 2 December, 2020 at 3:56 PM

How is the vinca? Do you need any more?

Posted by Debster on 3 December, 2020 at 12:04 AM

I do hope Gem4 didn't get the business. (And that you told her/them exactly why)

Posted by Lyle on 3 December, 2020 at 8:19 AM

From greenhouse base builders:

Gem 5: Are you sure they have given you the right specification for the greenhouse base foundations as this drawing appears to be for a house?

(75 cm deep foundations to withstand the 60mph prevailing wind on the ridge, structurally guaranteed for 30 years)

Posted by Mr BW on 3 December, 2020 at 8:25 AM

Debster: strangely, and spookily, I answered that question two days ago :) The postman might deliver you the answer soon! And yes please, a padded bag of them would be great, at some point when conditions are better for planting. I think that planting in the dormant season when it is wetter might work better. I didn't care for the ones around the perimenter by the dry stone walls, or around the septic tank base, in the hot dry summer, and they are no more. There may be some in the 'hedge/verge' down the drive still - I haven't seen them, but I haven't checked closely.

Posted by Blue Witch on 3 December, 2020 at 8:42 AM

Lyle - long story about Gem 4 woman!

But... she served her purpose, but is now redundant for the next phase of the kitchen (a year or so down the line), as we have discovered who she (as an independent local company) sources from (another small localish company).

Usually she wouldn't have got the business, but she had the bespoke, good quality wood, product we wanted, at the off-the-shelf price we wanted (although she did try to fleece us, she failed, and accepted reasonably gracefully, that she had failed).

Before she went independent and moved up here from Surrey, she used to work for Moben Kitchens (part of the Dolphin Bathroom/Moben Kitchen enterprise, now defunct), if that means anything to you.

We enjoyed playing her though, and were delighted to find that she drives the (local) manufacturers as mad as she drove us. Thing was - she had absolutely no idea how inappropriate her dippiness and thoughtless comments were. Imagine a Sloane-ish Ranger now in her late 60s, and you'll have the full picture.

Posted by Blue Witch on 3 December, 2020 at 8:54 AM

Moben does mean something, oddly. (Way *way* back in the day I worked for Ram kitchens for a while as a showroom manager, so I'm fairly familiar with a number of kitchen brands, sadly enough)

I'm still never sure whether I prefer the people who are consciously offensive or unconsciously. At least the conciously nasty ones know what they're doing, whereas the unconscious ones... it's "just" their personality/subconscious made public. Both grim, though.

Posted by Lyle on 3 December, 2020 at 9:16 AM

We too live in an old house, BW. Sadly, there will never come a time when you aren't at some point in need of workmen.

Posted by Tim W on 3 December, 2020 at 10:31 AM

Tim - Mr BW has a plethora of skills, and can tackle all but major plastering, major plumbing and major building works. Thankfully. His skills have saved us tens of thousands of pounds over the years, particularly recently.

I think what annoys us most about workmen is that they don't all do things properly. If we employ a specific trade to do a specific job, I don't think it is unreasonable to expect them to turn up when they say, to be able to do the work properly, better, and faster, than Mr BW could.

Until just recently, we hadn't needed a single workman at Coven Sud since 2006 (when we put on an upstairs extension).

If we had been living there full time, we probably wouldn't have needed an electrician to find a fault (eventually located to an old downlighter transformer) that was shorting out the lighting/alarm system and worrying our house-sitter. As it was, Mr BW made an emergency dash down south a few weeks back, and couldn't easily find the fault with the tools he had left down there, so had to find an electrician. Luckily he struck lucky and the bloke was the sort of great workman that is sadly hard to find up here.

Posted by Blue Witch on 3 December, 2020 at 12:09 PM

"Luckily he struck lucky"?!? Call yerself a pedant, BW? That's a disgrace :-P

Posted by Lyle on 3 December, 2020 at 5:55 PM

It's a clever dual use of the same word in one sentence Lyle. Or an example of what Workman-Induced Stress does to you... it rivals PTSD in severity, really.

Posted by Blue Witch on 3 December, 2020 at 6:10 PM