6 April 2010 (Tuesday) - Problems, Problems...

As I checked my emails over a bite of brekkie I saw I had an invite to join a Facebook group. Specifically the Avon Kite Fliers group. I fly a kite maybe six times a year, and I live in Kent. Why on Earth would I want to join a Bristol-based kite club? To me this sums up one of the failures of Facebook – the groups. What are they all about?

Given that you are a member of a club or group, then having your own Facebook group makes sense. But joining someone else’s group just because somebody you vaguely know once met someone else who mentioned the thing in passing… I don’t see that.

The same person who asked me to join Avon Kite Flyers also invited me to a kite flying event in Derbyshire. Surely one person can’t be actively involved with events in both Avon and Derbyshire?

I'd arranged to do a late shift today as the surveyor was coming to look at the hole in my ceiling. He said he'd arrive at 10am - I suppose 10.45 isn't that late. He had a poke and a prod, sucked air in noisily as builders do, and then told me what I probably already knew.

The old flat roof above the bedroom window is knacked - over the years the leading and the zinc flashings have had it. That's wear and tear & is down to us to fix. He says that bodging it with a coat of waterproofer is just bodging, and will last a year at most. Which is what we've found in the past.

It needs doing properly, we will have to get a builder to sort it out, and it will cost us about £600. The internal damage is covered by the insurance, and they will send us a cheque for what they reckon it will cost to fix, but we still need to find a builder who will do the work. It’s been my experience that for all the talk of recession and credit crunch, most tradesmen don’t seem to want work. In the past I’ve struggled to find builders, plumbers and electricians. They don’t answer phones, they don’t keep appointments, they even say outright that they don’t want to do jobs around the house. The surveyor suggested we ask the local builder’s merchants to see who they might recommend. I might just do that.

And then to add to my worries, on the way to work the car gave a beep, and a message came up to change the oil. The chodbin is still problematical, and the PC is whirring like it’s drilling for oil.

Who’d be me…?