No avoiding one of those domestic days that turn up every now and then. Today I sat in and waited for The Washing Machine Man. He was due to arrive 'any time between 8 am and 1 pm madam' so got up early, nipped out got my paper and then sat in for the rest of the morning. Goes without saying he arrived at 12.45 pm.
Told him there seemed to be a water seepage somewhere and I could not track it down, was not my sink as I had checked and it was definitely in the corner wherein resided my noble Indesit. He asked me how 
long I had had my machine and when I said seven years waited for the normal intake of breath and sucking of teeth and ooh dear, well I am not hopeful but this did not arrive. Instead the WMM patted it and said OH yes this was one of the good models' which made me feel quite proud of myself. He then checked the machine with a thingy which bleeped and said all seemed ok, then pulled it out and AHA cried he 'I can see where the water is coming from'. Apparently, it was not the machine but the pipe to which it was attached. 'Now this means that it is nothing to do with the machine and I am not allowed to touch your pipes' said he and then just as I was poised to launch into my I Have Never Heard Anything so Stupid tirade, he took the wind totally out of my sails by saying it was all totally stupid and he would fix it. So he did and then he wrote down he had had to reconnect an outlet hose in order to have something to report so that he would not get into trouble, I told him that I would not sue him or Indesit if I had a flood overnight, and we shook hands and parted on excellent terms. OK I was some £70 lighter in the pocket for the call out charge but hey it was worth it.
Then in the afternoon I had the Television Aerial Man. Our digital pictures have all gone pixilated and half the channels have vanished down the tube and had to call the so called Management Company who purport to 'manage' this property and after a series of increasingly abusive telephone calls from mois and other tenants, the Man duly arrived. As I was the only one at home today in the block I was deputed to deal with him and when he arrived he duly disappeared in the loft came down and said he could see nothing wrong with it but he had replaced the amplifier just in case and then launched into a technical explanation, not one word of which I understood. Despite all his best efforts, and two cups of tea with biscuit, nothing worked and then he decided to walk around the back of the flats. Eureka. He discovered that the overhanging branches from the wood behind the flats had knocked the aerial and damaged it. I forbore from reminding him that I had mentioned this possibility to him when he arrived as it had happened before and beamed at him 'Gosh fancy'. So a new aerial was put up but I have had to report the overhanging trees and now await a tree surgeon to arrive and cut back the offending branches. The Aerial Man went off gloomily saying he had put it up 'but I doubt you will get any reception as I have had to lower it a bit and I can't cut back the branches as I am not a tree surgeon and it is very high up and I can't be expected to do it'. Trying very hard to keep the acid out of my voice, I told him nobody expected him to and thanked him profusely for all his work and time. In return he thanked me for the tea and waved goodbye to as he pootled off in his little van. White - of course.
I thought may as well finish the day off as it began with domestic chores and do my ironing but somehow martyrdom no longer appeals, so tea and biscuits I think - this time for me.
