Kates Journal

- BT Got the start date wrong

- Supplied faulty equipment that they refused to replace, including a phone which they appear to know is faulty but appear to continue to supply.

- Promised they’d ring me, but didn’t.

- Eventually after many broken promises supplied equipment that worked badly, but adequately for me to ‘deal with it’

- On cancellation of the BT Broadband put a ‘Stop’ on the ADSL line making it impossible to transfer to another supplier without a long break in service despite giving me a MAC code.

- Promised they’d ring me back, because they’re system was down, but didn’t.

- ‘Fixed’ the ‘Stop’ by cancelling my BT Broadband cancellation and recancelling it as a ‘transfer’, supplying a new MAC code.

- Have now billed me because “you cancelled with less than one month warning”.

- Have now put me through to 3 separate departments, each of which goes ‘ah, not our problem’, and seem surprised that I’m becoming somewhat terse.

- Alledge that they have refunded the incorrectly billed amount. I have had, again, to appolgise for being somewhat terse (which isn’t something I enjoy), and on this occasion have remembered to take the person’s name, so that I can quote it if there are future problems.

Argh.

I don’t need this right now, not when I’ve got the bill through for Rebecca. It means that at new year I’m going to have to prod one of my close friends for paperwork so we can get back money owed to us. I know it’s not a big deal for her, but for me that money was meant to pay off a big chunk of my credit card and is now going to have to pay back a big chunk of my car’s work. I hate having to push about money, but it’s been a long old time, and I’m really stressed about my finances at this point. I’m just going to have to work all the hours I can; other people manage multiple long days a week, and it’s the only way I’m going to be able to afford to do anything – I’ll try and mainly make them days when Kathryn’s on a full day at work.

The sad thing is, this is an interim invoice. This is basically getting the structure (which I thought was what my father paid another company to repair) repaired to make her sound.

This is nearly 2,000 pounds of remedial work that I should not have had to get done, because it wasn’t done properly the first time around. Worse than that, they’ve spent over 50 hours on her, that’s a week and a half. I’m paid approximately 1/3rd, per hour, as they charge. So I have to work 3 and a half solid weeks to make that money back – and I still won’t have a driveable car. After that the engine needs around a further grand (hopefully less) of work to get it to the state I want it to be for Canada. I wanted turreted rear shock absorbers, because the standard (reconditioned) ones wear out so quickly; and I wanted it done by experts, but I don’t think I can afford it. And having seen how bodged the rear of my car was, I’m scared for what a mess they might have made of the front. She handles well, really well for a 40 year old car. But, if they’ve bodged the alignment of the front chassis legs?

And under all that waxoyl they sprayed around; there’s no paint. There’s probably nothing in the A posts that support the doors. Any concealed metal work I can’t assume they’ve painted, and I don’t know what to do with it. JLH’s only suggestions are way out of my budget, we’re talking into the thousands, just to rectify the damage that the other restoration place have done. How can they do that? I shall make a priority this coming year of getting some of this money back. I shall go and see solicitors; frankly, I want all the money back. Because that might be enough to strip and dip the car, and then repaint it, and if they do that then hopefully they won’t find too many other bodges lurking in the dark and we can save the metal that’s there before it rusts out completely (the depressing photoset is here).

One thing that saddens me, also, is I suspect that the EV concept will have to be ditched, because I’m going to almost certainly have to sell Brick to get the money to pay for Rebecca. I’m not concerned about selling Brick in the long run, but it was a fun concept and I was quite looking forward to it. I still think it’s the right concept, in general terms. Classic UK cars are light and big enough to contain the batteries to carry them. The classic EV would be a great and clean way to have a Zero Emissions at Vehicle, uh, vehicle and a classic. Most of these classics were powered by engines that, by modern standards, are insanely small. The Viva weighs in at just over 3/4 ton, and yet is dragged around by an engine that produces maybe 50bhp. Simple bodies that are easily repariable give you the potential for a long life vehicle. Retrim the interior, rebuild the suspension and you’ve got yourself a new car… more or less… for far less resources than building a new car’d take.

But I don’t have the money for that spare. I don’t have money spare. I guess 2008 is expecting me to put up a fight, and although right now I don’t feel much able to do that; I reckon that with a little love and support I’ll survive. Anyhow, I really ought to go shower, I’m on a ridiculously horrible shift today, so I’m gonna be kicking round the house a while longer.

As another side point, the Men In Trees kick has filled up my harddisk. This is not good. I need to get that Mac up and running for the purposes of making space on the music pc to check out Gentoo.

Yesterday was spent trying to work out why Brick’s starter motor remains somewhat recalcitrant. I’ve tried using a jumper cable as a temporary replacement earth (didn’t help), and it does seem a bit odd. Sometimes it works well, other times it’ll struggle to turn the engine over. Still, it got us to Heathrow which it turned out was a world of pain. It turned out (we forgot to check before hand) that the reservation didn’t say which terminal to go to, and unfortunately, we landed up at T2 and asked – and the chap said Terminal 1. So we parked up and we headed in to terminal 1. I’m glad I stayed with Kathryn, because frankly if you wanted a stressful pre-travel experience, terminal 1 was it. British airways, along with every other airline, appeared to have totally been overwhelmed. Yesterday’s cancellations and the (apparently normal) Xmas travelfest meant that there was a world of chaos behind those shiny doors. We found out fairly quickly that we were, in fact, in the wrong place and had to go to T4. Having got to T4, the online check-in desk failed, and we ended up queuing. Which was a shame, really; because I’d hoped to spend that last hour or so with Kathryn having a nice relaxed and over priced lunch; but instead we spent it stood in a queue. At least we got to spend it together, that’s the main thing :)

So, she’ll be back in just under two weeks, and whilst I can’t promise anything I’m going to do my best to try and get the house heated for her return. On which basis I spent about 20 minutes today hunting round the bathroom for a 90 degree 15mm yorkshire elbow joint. A pack of them, actually. Because I was convinced I had one. Whilst I knew that I’d used up my T joints, I was certain (in my slightly hopeless memory’d way) that there was a pack of 90s lurking. It was only when I’d (in an amazingly good mood) managed to search the bathroom and I looked at the toilet cistern and remembered where the last of my 90s went, well… that I realised that I needed some new ones.

A quick trip to B&Q was had, and lo, we have a radiator.

I sometimes forget that it’s not the days when you achieve something visible when you’ve done a lot. Actually getting the radiator in, it took about an hour and a half; much of which was spent cleaning the floor where the radiator stands. It actually, imho, looks quite neat too. The paint is, unfortunately, still not perfect; but the back of it looks pretty good, and it’s all accessible bits that could do with more coats. So that’s okay so.

I’m also down to one strip of silicone sealant, I’d be down to none, but I’ve obviously disturbed enough dust in there that some of it managed to coat the place I wanted to seal, so I’ve just and simply cleaned it today, tomorrow morning I’ll throw the sealant on.

Anyhow, I don’t think I’ve shown off these yet, so here’s the shower and the toilet…

Right, so I’m going to be a bit knackered for the rest of the evening, and mehaps sit here and possibly watch a film, if I can find one I fancy, since the whole of you sorry lot aren’t online. I watched ‘Men In Trees’, S1E1 today, it looks like it’s going to be good, although I’m now missing AK as well as Kathryn. :-/

And for some reason, Kathryn’s plane is showing up as ‘Cancelled’ on the Sea-Tac website. Grrr. Here I am being the neurotic worried partner, and it’s not helping.

Anyhow, back to work tomorrow, so Merry Xmas everyone, have a great day :)

I’ve also made a hole in the bathroom wall, it is, as I thought Lath and Plaster – and quite easy to disassemble (and quite fun in a dusty way); I need to remove part of one of the framing pieces though and then I can – theoretically at least – run the pipework for the boiler. I’ve also gained even more understanding of the way the house is wired (oddly) – and what I thought was the ringmain entering the kitchen now appears to be a spur for one socket that obviously wasn’t there before. Still, I’ll leave that as it is – can’t touch wiring in the kitchen; I really ought to get my City and Guilds in this sh*t, because I do so much of it and its always good to have more strings to your bow.

Sometimes dumb luck is just handy though; the builders put the soil pipe in a different place to where it was officially meant to go. A good foot or so to the right, looking from the back of the house. While this is a pain, it means that the boiler can, actually, go where I want it to. Just by sheer dumb luck they put the pipe in the wrong place, but if it hadn’t have been the boiler would have had to go somewhere else :)

Ra.