Clever Bird realises that the combination of the stress of everything that's going on with the house improvements, along with the extremely early starts, is taking its toll on Baggy physically and mentally. However,the work is nearing its conclusion now - indeed, would already have been finished, if it didn't keep pouring with rain! And Freda Fretter is relieved to say that she knows that she will love the finished result.
Yesterday, as Furry Mama and the pooch headed off to the beach, the house looked like this, as it had been undercoated the day before, ready for its final coat.
After Clever Bird had finally surmised that it must be half-term, (as the beach was crowded with kids and parents digging big holes, for Baggy to fall in), she headed Furry Mama to the quieter end of Southwold.
A quick cappuccino at the extremely busy beach cafe, had Hormonal Hannah's blood pressure rising! It's difficult not to overhear other people's conversations when everyone is in close vicinity! There were families, and dogs everywhere; all being pretty well behaved, if somewhat rowdy in some cases. Clever Bird has noticed, that it's nearly always the little ones - dogs and kids that is - who make the most commotion! But none was causing any kind of a problem, other than a bit of volume. Pepper Pooch was focussed on his mama...
'Hurry up and drink up Mum! I's got balls chasing to dos.'
'Stop tapping my knee Peps, I'm drinking my coffee.'
'I's not stoopid - I can sees that, but you's not drinkin' it quicks enough.'
'Patience is a virtue pooch; just wait a sec.'
'God! Look at all these dogs; they shouldn't be allowed,' grumpy middle-aged woman.
'Some of them aren't on the lead either,' frowny man.
'I know - it's annoying.'
'Go somewhere else then,' thought Hannah.
'Have you seen that woman? She keeps talking to hers.'
Furry Mama looked straight in the woman's eyes.
'Let's sit over there,' said the man, walking away from Baggy.
'Jolly good plan,' thought Hannah, 'go and upset someone else.'
'Is you okay Mum - you looks upset?'
'I love you pooch. Let's get out of here shall we?'
Pepper, who was technically on the lead, (but Furry Mama wasn't holding it), grinned and wagged his tail. Furry Mama unhooked the lead from his collar, and Pepper shot down the steps onto the beach, where he sat and waited whilst Baggy took her empty cup back. Hannah ignored the eyeballs boring into her back and headed off back to her happy place, by the sea, muttering to herself, 'As if there aren't loads of other cafes that dogs aren't allowed into that you could go in.'
The sea air did its magic once again, as they walked the length of the beach back to the car. Yes Baggees, the car; Fred Volvo that is, not Billy Bob Jalopy campervan. Because that's been more stress!
Number one furry thought he'd found a great garage to look after Billy Bob; and Baggy's taken her camper there a few times now. However, the 'few times', is a few too many. 'Why?' you ask, well because each time he has gone in for some work, they haven't finished it, and have asked Baggy to book it in again, usually at least four weeks later. Take this time for instance:
Baggy booked Billy Bob in for an MOT a few weeks ago. They didn't do it because the battery was sitting on a big hole and so it would have failed it. Six weeks later, it was booked in again for a metal plate to be fitted, so that the battery could be safely secured, and the MOT completed. That was last Tuesday (the second day of the gas engineer chaos)! On the Thursday Baggy popped in with an air-tube that they were going to replace, and asked how they were getting on. Billy Bob had not even been touched!
'Sorry, we're busy. We'll get onto it later.'
'Oh, okay.'
On Thursday she heard nothing more. Or on the Friday. On Saturday Baggy went in with Calum. Billy Bob was sitting with his back indicator lights panel missing. Nothing had been done!
'We can't solder a metal plate in, it will damage the paintwork.'
'You don't need to,' said Calum crawling underneath Billy Bob, ' it can be bolted in.'
'Have you test driven it yet?' asked Freda Fretter.
'No, we wanted to fix the battery first.'
'But I don't think the battery has anything to do with why he's "juddering"', said an annoyed Hannah.
On Monday Baggy called again. 'What's happening?'
'Well I know why it's juddering.'
'Oh good.'
'Well it's not good actually, your tyre blew up, so we haven't done anything.'
'So can you get a new one?' asked a furious Hannah.
Hours later, the phone rang. 'We can't get a tyre. It's a really odd size. Probably the wrong size for the wheel. And we now realise that you need two tyres.'
'Can you try a different garage, like the one round the corner from you?'
'Well I suppose we could.'
More hours later. 'They can't get the tyres either.'
'So are the wheels a weird size?'
'No, just the tyres.'
'So why can't we get normal tyres?'
'Well you could, but you'd have to swap the back tyres onto the front wheels.'
'Or, we could just get four correctly sized tyres? My guess is that the front tyres are worn as well, are they?'
'Yes, they've got odd cracks in them.'
Baggy attempted to stop Hannah from bursting into tears of frustration, and decided to call Calum. Cal spoke to a garage, and arranged for four correctly-sized tyres to be available on Tuesday. No news on Tuesday! Baggy called again on Wednesday morning.
'Any progress?'
'No, we're waiting for the tyres.'
'But they arrived yesterday, as organised!'
'Oh right, well I'll call the garage then.'
And breathe! No news for the rest of the day. At 4.45 Baggy called yet again. 'So?'
'Well the tyres are on.'
'Great! And everything else?'
'Well, blahdy blah is about to look at fitting the plate for the battery.'
Baggy's heart rate was rising fast.' So, when will he be ready?'
'We'll try to get it ready for the weekend, but if we can't, we'll at least make sure that you can drive it, and then you can book it in again.'
'No, I bleeping well can't,' thought Baggy. 'But I have to have it for the weekend, as my sister's coming.'
'Leave it with us, I'll see what we can do.'
Today is the ninth working day, that they've had Billy Bob! Baggy is carless for the third time as Cal had to leave for work at 4.30am this morning; and that's just too early for Baggy to safely drive him there! It's lunchtime, and there has been no news. Hannah is spitting feathers, and is praying that Calum will finish work early enough to go into the garage and have a word with them! Because the simple fact is that it's just yet another instance of 'lone woman syndrome,' as Creative Clara has decided to call it. It seems to her that an unhealthy number of men think that it's okay to treat lone women badly: make her wait; double the price of the work; add a bunch of extras; do a shoddy job; don't finish the work etc etc. 'She won't know any different - she's only a 'bird' after all!' And sadly, in Baggy's case, even when she does sometimes know differently, because Hormonal Hannah just cannot cope with confrontation, they get away with it!
Clever Bird is slightly surprised that this is still happening to Baggy, when these guys have met Calum, but 95% of the time that she's been into, or spoken to the garage, she's been on her own, so...
But at least the house is beginning to look lovely:
Although, Clever Bird had not anticipated every other insect deciding that it's a big flower! Freda Fretter has been reassured by Steve that all the little critters, currently stuck to the wet coating, will die (poor things), and fall off soon! Gloria Gardener is wondering what it will be like next year in the height of summer!
Tomorrow, the guys will finish off various bits (it's too wet again today, so they've gone home), and maybe, Baggy will get Billy Bob back...
No comments:
Post a Comment