The day of the conservatory dismantling arrived...............the electrician turned up and disconnected the cables followed by the chaps turning up to remove the panels. All good so far...............however, as they were in the middle of their works the telephone rang. It was the offending company wanting to know if my parents would like a conservatory or any other glass for their house. Great reference to their database and current state of play prior to dialling the number. Yet another case of you couldn’t make it up.
On inspecting the brickwork once the glass was removed, more evidence of poor workmanship jumped up and shouted hello. The external layer of bricks (apart from the cracking) was fine but the rest was a collection of flaky and cracked bits of brick with bits of insulation wool here and there. The original building works might just as well have been constructed of sawdust and glitter glue for the amount of proper support offered.
....................And so the saga continued....................on the day the knocking down of bricks and digging up old concrete was due to commence, my parents were up and about really early to allow for the new hip to get going, and ready for what they presumed was going to be an 8 o’clock kick off. They waited..............and waited.............and eventually I received an email from the company asking for my Dad to contact them urgently. Hmmmm, okay then..............the upshot of this call was to advise him that the skip had been delayed and would most likely not be there until early afternoon. Can someone explain to me in simple English why a skip company from over two hours drive away is being used instead of a local firm? Having worked for many years in the construction and repair industry I cannot imagine why they have chosen this course of action. Is it any wonder that their general workmanship leaves a lot to be desired? Better still, the builders are also travelling everyday from three counties away so by the time they arrive they will want elevenses and I daresay they will knock off early to beat the motorway traffic.
Later in the day the decision was made for the workers to turn up the following day and make a start whilst waiting for the skip. Great bit of project management going on there then and a totally wasted day for my folks. I can hardly wait to see how the rest of the job pans out.
This reminds me of two chaps who used to work for the same company as me several years ago. They were not keen on putting a full weeks work in and would use various ruses to skive off. They hailed from Liverpool and were away from work so often that a departmental phrase was coined in relation to anyone from anywhere who was off ill – they were deemed to be ‘On The Scouse’. At this point I must say I do know many Liverpudlians who are hard workers and should not be lumped into the aforementioned category. The general excuses for absence, such as telephoning on a Monday morning claiming to be suffering from ‘the flu’ after sneezing twice and announcing they would be off all week was normal..............even better they shared a works van so if one was off the other would also stay at home despite being able to drive. A common excuse for not carrying out external painting works in the sunlight was that the glare would give them a headache...........you understand the sort of nonsense we were up against. The crowning moment came when one of them telephoned a colleague to announce they were having to leave work early to travel home (and would not be back that week) as..............wait for it...........one of the lazy-good-for-very-little workmen (I use this word very loosely) had broken his flask. Hello.................why didn’t he just go and buy a replacement part? The sad thing about all this was they got away with it every time – I guess after so many years in the company they very likely had some incriminating photographs of the bosses (allegedly and without prejudice).
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