the adlards

Well then. The decking man didn’t start yesterday because he couldn’t arrange a skip. He said it was ordered for today and so today’s when he’d be starting. That didn’t sound unreasonable so I was up bright and early looking out for the skip. I had to go to work and Michelle waited until mid-morning before deciding it was a no-show and going out. When she returned there was still no sign of him; there was a skip delivery note but no sign of a skip. She gave the decking man a call. He’d been expecting them to deliver later in the day and said he’d enquire. He called back with the news that the skip had been delivered in the morning, but that the skip-hire men had been chased away by a Very Rude Neighbour. Really? We have one of those? I know quite a deaf one, but surely she … oh bollocks.

When I got home I wandered round the neighbours making enquiries. I had no joy at the first; I could see her as I rang the doorbell but she didn’t flinch so couldn’t have had her hearing aid in. I didn’t fancy having the conversation that played out in my mind:
Good evening neighbour, how are you?
OH HELLO! LOVELY EVENING ISN’T IT?
Yes it is. You didn’t happen to see a 7-foot skip lying about anywhere today, did you?
YES, YES … AND HOW’RE THE CHILDREN?
Very well thanks. It’s only the hire place says someone a little abrupt chased them away.
WELL DO GIVE THEM MY LOVE!
I will do, but I think they’d rather be paid a re-delivery fee.

So I moved on. I had more luck at other doors. Apparently the skip was delivered and two of our neighbours (including, to be completely fair, the one I didn’t get to speak to) helped them by moving a car and offering positioning suggestions. Another neighbour saw it arrive, went out for a bit, and on her return it was gone. I haven’t yet found the Very Rude Neighbour. I think the skip driver, who hadn’t collected payment on delivery was sent back post-haste before some anonymous person took the freebie and filled the skip. Quite where the VRN story comes from I’m not sure. I’ve written letters to those I haven’t spoken to to pre-empt a repeat in case there’s any truth in the story.

Two new words from Josie today:
“Mum, this is brilliant.” Carrying a new (car boot sale) tracksuit top
“This is huge.” Showing Mum a magazine

Skip and deck man arrive tomorrow. All being well. Had better do, it’s the only chance there is it’ll be finished before the 26th which is The Deadline.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2005 at 10:11 pm by james and is filed under House, Josie, Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.