Sue

To be fair to the TV company, the deal was that they provided a designer (though he was minimally involved) and I found and paid for tradespeople. Unfortunately a person who was supposed to be just sanding my floors convinced me that they could do all the other work required as well. There were one or two hitches outside their control, but mostly it appeared that they just couldn't do the work within the required timescale, even though the TV people extended this as far as they could. Also they took on things which they apparently didn't have the skills and/or experience to do, which not only meant that they had to spend time putting right their errors (which they charged me for doing!!) but has also left me with having to arrange for other people to mend or redo things. They promised me verbally and in writing a fortnight before the "reveal day" that all the work would be completed in time, and in retrospect I have been very naive as despite all the evidence to the contrary I kept on hoping that things would somehow come right in the end. I think the culpability of the TV company is in more or less forcing me to keep this person on just so that they could complete their programme on time, even though they knew of the problems. They also persuaded me to pay them at a point when I would have just called a halt, again to keep them working on the house even though progress was painfully slow and I was stupidly paying by the hour. It will cost me well over a thousand pounds just to get the floors redone, plus wiring has been wrongly done (this person insisted on rewiring ceiling roses even though I had an electrician, saying they could do it cheaper, and in the process broke the wiring of both lights next on the circuit), newly plastered bathroom walls have apparently been undercoated without being properly sealed with PVA, as is apparent from some of the unpainted parts, apparently the living room cupboards have been built so that the doors will not fit flush, which may be why they were never fitted, and I have a very expensive and beautiful basin plus very expensive and beautiful taps, but the taps/spout are not suitable for the basin although the builder saw pix and the dimensions of everything before I bought it, so nothing has been installed. I've also got three pieces of very expensive iroko wood which are the wrong size. There's more. I can't bear to go on :-S But hey, the TV company got a good programme out of it. They subsequently offered me ?100 in an email which mostly consisted of legal stuff disclaiming any responsibility - which I thought was such an insult I haven't responded.

Penguin68 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > > Calling someone who is poorly paid 'a muppet' - > presumably wholly based on their wage rate - seems > extreme. I have, in the main, found the staff at > Dog Kennel Hill helpful (in locating or searching > for items) friendly and by no means stupid. xxxxxxx I have also found the DKH staff very helpful and friendly. They are doing a useful and important job, and just because their pay is low does not make them muppets, whatever that is supposed to imply. Says more about the person name-calling really. Wonder how s/he would have reacted in the same situation?

Yeh but I had to find and pay for the people to do the work - I kept flagging up to the telly people that there were problems but all they were really concerned about was getting an hour's programme out of it at the end of the day working to a very tight deadline - so they put pressure on me to keep on a builder who had promised the earth but bitten off more than they were capable of doing properly in the time, unfortunately (and has now disappeared despite all my efforts to contact them). And yeh the living room did look great despite the cupboards having no doors :)) but it wasn't really "me", and I still haven't got it feeling comfortable :-S And yeh at least I have a flushing loo and can have a bath, but for six months I've been living without a proper bathroom, and with a very expensive new shower which I can't use. And all the floors have got to be redone (6) Still, live and learn eh - I'm having to keep on at my day job to pay other people to get it all finished, once I summon up the energy to get yet more quotes (6)

My house and I were on "Love the Place You're In" earlier in the year - has it been repeated? Edited to say: It was sold to other channels I think so maybe they've changed the name. Don't all rush for autographs :)) What the programme doesn't show is the problems I had with the builder and the fact that despite a six week extension to the filming neither the living room nor the bathroom were finished (still aren't, I was totally traumatised, haven't been able to bring myself to sort it all, AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH).

Like I Do - Maureen Evans

My central heating thermostat/timer thingy, which has batteries in it, was going haywire when I got up this morning. If the boiler is fired electrically (showing my total lack of techy knowledge here) could an electrical fluctuation have affected the thermostat?

eater81 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > > The fact of the matter is that supermarket staff, > security guards included, are and always will be a > complete bunch of useless muppets. > Tell ya what though, if you really wanna encounter > a bunch of chumps who put even the ED Sainsbury's > staff to shame I suggest paying a visit to Brixton > Halfords. Utter morons. xxxxxxx Pots and kettles spring to mind here .......

Bellerophon Wrote: Playing Devils Whatsisname, I should imagine some of those staff attempting to destroy the crime scene knew exactly what they were doing ------------------------------------------------------- > Sue Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > That's rather a serious accusation without > > presumably any basis of evidence whatsoever? > > > > xxxxxxxxxxxxx > > Sue, do you know what a Devils Advocate is ? xxxxxxxxxx Yes, but on the basis of your wording, starting "I should imagine", it seems that you don't :-S

That's rather a serious accusation without presumably any basis of evidence whatsoever?

The End of the World - Skeeter Davis

taper Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > On > balance, your GP is probably right. xxxxxxx The same GP who appears to think that osteopaths have very little knowledge of anatomy and physiology that would be, yes? :))

Well if I hear any kind of alarm I investigate, and if nothing appears to be going on I ignore it .... But if it went on for days I would probably ring Southwark Noise Control

Sparrow hawk got a starling in my garden last year. Maybe that's why the starlings don't come any more!

If you're into folk music, come along to one of our Goose events, ask for me (Sue) and I'll introduce you to some people xxx See our website www.thegooseisout.com Next one is on Friday (8 January) , but if you prefer smaller gatherings, the Friday after (15 January). PS Met my partner at a party in my late fifties :-$ Never too late :-$

You Make me Feel Like Dancing - Leo Sayer and The Muppets :))

YAY! I've only ever seen one tree creeper and it was on the trunk of a tree outside my window when I lived on a farm in Herefordshire. Would love to see another one!

reetpetite Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > > The expiry date is on your bus pass so no need to > remember .There is a list in the post office as to > when you can apply. xxxxxxx No, apparently they are changing the system. See here Mine expires at the end of March, but I have to renew it at the start of February, and it will then last for five years. See the link above.

Bus driver not letting me back onto N68 at Camberwell Green at 3.30am to retrieve my treasured 40-year-old hand crocheted shawl which I had left upstairs and realised immediately I got off that I had left it on the bus. I explained the situation and he still refused. Bastard. I have the bus number etc but he refused to give me his name. Somehow doubt I'll ever get the shawl back. Not a good start to the New Year. I had a very cold walk home (6)

Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash

I have loads of sparrows in my tiny garden. They come to the fatballs and the peanut feeder. I've counted over twelve at a time. Re China, when I was in Burma I was once offered a skewer of meat by a street seller, and about to accept when I noticed that each piece of "meat" on the stick had a beak and legs .... also went somewhere they had a dish with sparrow's blood on the menu. But Tarot, surely quails are much bigger than sparrows? Edited to add: My sparrows aren't silent, they are extremely noisy, they sit in the shrubs and chatter continuously.

Have you rung the water people? No problems here.

dazeykat Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Sue, I hadn't seen any since my childhood in > Sussex - maybe the extra cold weather we had drove > them to visit London. There is a large group of > them, mainly Redwings I think, spending a lot of > time sitting in the tree at the end of my garden. > Hope you see them while they'r here! xxxxxx So do I, all I have is loads of sparrows plus tits, blackbirds and a robin. Even the starlings haven't been around this year :-S I think redwings eat berries? so maybe the few pyracantha berries I have left after the blackbirds aren't enough for them! The fox is still sometimes sleeping in the garden, but the other one seems to have disappeared.

sack donger Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Don't see this one working I'm afraid, unless it > is REALLY good! As far as I know all of the LL > curry houses have more than enough veggie dishes > to keep even the most ardent meat dodger happy. > xxxxxx South Indian veggie cooking is nothing like the bog standard veggie dishes you get in the Indian restaurants round here (except Ganapati) so I think it will do extremely well if that's what it's going to be. I'll certainly go and I'm not a veggie.

How did the owner come to lose it?

No they don't (ie panic and panicked are not the same word and therefore break the rules) but it's always happening on this thread :) You are My Sunshine - The Pine Ridge Boys