I hope nobody minds but as this is my blog I think I should be allowed to hijack it with an off topic post if I want to!
I am running the London Marathon in April. If you would like to sponsor me (all donations to Asthma UK) I could really do with the support. You can get to my donations page by clicking here or by using the widget on the right hand side of this blog.
Thank you.
Mark (aka APD)
As mentioned before, Mrs APD was round at the house yesterday giving it a quick clean before the viewings started. She heard a knock at the door and went to investigate. It was a representative from a rival estate agent who clearly wanted to sell the house. I had assumed that this type of door stepping had long since stopped but it appears it is still alive and well in this part of the country. He appeared very keen to gain entry and has such phrases as:-
"We sold one over the road for more money recently"
We have loads of buyers that would want this"
Can I just take a look inside?"
Would you like us to sell it for you?" and so on .... you get the idea.
Anyway the line that re-enforced his credentials and reminds us all why estate agents are not universally popular was "Are you the cleaner?". Mrs APD is not one to take offence but enjoyed the retorting "No I'm the owner" before closing the door.
No victoria sponge for him.
My daughters have now been round to the house and have announced that we are still the owners of a "Horrible House". Unfortunately they believe that this is the one we live in now rather than the one we are trying to sell.
I don't think they wanted to leave. Got to say, they have a point!
The famous Flanders and Swann song starts
"Twas on a Monday morning the gas man came to call.
The gas tap wouldn't turn - I wasn't getting gas at all."
If I am permitted some poetic licence to change the second line to "The gas tap would turn but I wasn't getting gas at all" it gives me a perfect link to our weekend trials and tribulations in relation to what should be a very simple challenge. Getting gas to the house.
On Sunday morning – unannounced and with no fanfare, our Corgi plumber arrived to so some work. He took a risk as there is never usually anybody around on Sunday but fortunately the builder was there and so he could get on. Everything was connected and the time came to switch the gas on and fire up the system. On went the tap and out didn't come the gas!
I got a telephone call saying "could I telephone British Gas and get them to reconnect the supply". Obviously they don't answer the telephone on Sundays so at 8:00am this morning I got through to be told that I would have to phone the emergency number that you would usually use for a gas leak.
I did that and in fairness they came out pretty quickly and diagnosed the fault. It appears that that when the gas main was relied a few month ago they sort of ……...... forgot our house and didn't put a connection to it. This is despite the fact that the house has a gas meter, an account an account number and so on. It did make me wonder quite what our Corgi guy was up to three months ago when he came round to cap the gas! You might have thought he would have noticed that nothing was coming out.
At the point of writing this we are now waiting for someone to come round and re-connect us. I have no idea what that will entail.
All of this reminded me of the classic Flanders and Swann song mentioned above.
If you have never head the song before the words are listed below and a really funny lego animation is on You Tube here.
The Gas Man Cometh – Flanders and Swann
Just before Christmas I received a present addressed as follows:-
To
APD
From
PPD
Like a good boy I didn't open my present until Christmas day and found a copy of........ NHBC Standards 2007.
Now far be it from me to show anything other than gratitude for a present but I have noticed that the 2008 regulations have already been published so my enthusiasm for this gift remains muted. I was reminded of another present given to me many many years ago by somebody (you know who you are) of 100 gross of out of date condoms. That is 14,400 condoms!
I must get some new friends.
PPD by the way stands for Professional Property Developer. I bet he has the 2008 standards!
Well well, you couldn't make it up.
Less than a week since a thread on this blog mentions The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin the BBC announce a plan to remake the series with Martin Clunes and others. They must have been reading this blog.
Now the likes of Tim who claims to be too young to remember the original will be able to enjoy it for the first time.
I was originally going to make this post last night but was delayed by a dead badger on the line at Berrylands.
