Nice guys still exist

My weird little house comes with a flat roof, which I didn't realise wasn't ideal when I bought the place. After the snow in Feb, and the non-stop rain for weeks afterwards, it sprung a little leak. While I quite like a water feature, it didn't seem exactly ideal to have one at the top of the stairs, so clearly something needed to be done.

I contemplated going up through the skylight, but as it is over the top of the stairwell this seemed tricky. Getting up onto the roof would probably have been easy enough; it was the dismount that would almost certainly have gone wrong, and I had a mental picture of myself stuck up on the roof gazing down at a ladder that had fallen over and realising my mobile phone was in the kitchen. And a thunderstorm rolling in.

However, I bought the rubber paint that is supposed to work under any weather conditions and never crack blah blah blah. And sat and looked at it for a while. Since it hasn't rained since, I've lacked the motivation to do anything further.

Then today I saw a large ladder being hoisted up outside my front windows. At first I was a bit cranky - exactly who was trying to get onto my roof, and why? After charging outside to confront the would-be burglar, and then finding out he was fixing next door's aerial, it finally dawned on me that maybe he could have a look at the leak while he was up there.

Not only did he agree immediately, and take the paint and brush up with him, he also found the problem immediately, AND took before and after photos of the repair to show me! And didn't ask for a cent (I slipped him 20 quid anyway).

I had no idea people this helpful still existed, and have been walking round with a huge smile on my face ever since.

And here's the bad news

Lord do I hate the news. The bbc website is just one tale of woe after another. Banks posting record losses (although they didn't seem to like it much when banks were posting huge profits either). Journalists seem unable to contain their glee in reporting all this doom and gloom - I guess they at least are recession-proof; if it wasn't for Robert Peston (hate, hate, hate) how would we know how much our lives suck and how much everyone hates those of us who work in banking. Well, used to work in banking anyway, until the great Qatar bank cull in January.

And if they can't find a banking story, they default to the Great Housing Crisis, and tell us how much our investment in our homes has crashed in the last year. If there's nothing to report on that, they blither on about recession, and try to decide if this is the worst economic climate in the last 30, 50, 100, 150 years. Take your pick.

It's starting to remind of me of National Geographic specials, with their penchant for the horrific. Observe the lioness with 4 three-day-old cubs. Oh look, she's moving them to a new location one at a time. Oh dear, there's a snake under the bush she's moving them to, and it's systematically killing each one as she deposits them there. Oh, and look, now it's bitten her too, so lets follow her around for a few days while she gets sicker and sicker and then gives up and dies. Makes for great tv, right? Just reporting the facts, ma'am.


Do you have to be Jewish to opt-out and go kibbutz-ing for a few years??

Agent Joy

The lack of work thing is starting to get boring. And not a little stressful. There are some jobs around, but the competition is fierce, and the hiring managers are getting ludicrously demanding. Must have degree from Oxford, speak five languages, be able to work 28 hours a day, perform every role on the project simultaneously, and come round to clean my house and cook me breakfast before work everyday.

The application process is also taking forever. Apply for roles; wait 3 weeks to hear anything at all; get told they had 12000 applications, and you aren't getting any interview any time soon (for which read never). Agents no longer answer their phones and job ads state that you should apply and if they think you're worthy they might call you, but DON'T call them cos they don't want to speak to the great unwashed.

Renovations are going better however; maybe that's a better career option?

Bob came through his surgery with flying colours, after some determined nursing on my part to get him to eat and drink in the days before the operation made him a lot stronger (and quite cross about having to go back to the vet). He does have cancer, and it is inoperable, but the vet gives him 6-8 months and he seems tons better (despite being split from sternum to tail!).

My relaxed (ok, lazy) approach to job-hunting seems to be paying off, with a number of calls from agents this week. There are some interesting roles coming up, so who knows? I may even be employed by this time next year. At least the redundancy pieces are all complete now, with lawyers advising and contracts being signed, and property returned (sob, my blackberry is gone).

In the interim I keep on renovating, slowly. The stairs are taking forever: they had a pretty non-descript beige carpet, which I ripped up in a shower of decades-old dirt and dust. Underneath was the residue of some especially hideous acid yellow paint (god lord, what must that hallway have looked like??), and at some stage they have clearly had a stair runner, as the edges are painted in a cream eggshell. My brilliant idea was to paint them white, but put a mock-stair runner on them. Heuga carpet tiles are gorgeous, and half a tile on each tread is the plan so far. This is not recommended by the manufacturers (something about being slippery, death-trap, I can't recall the precise details), but enough internet people have done it to give me courage, so I've ordered some samples (which, btw, Heuga supply and deliver within 5 days completely free!).

Combine that with the clear acrylic nested tables I'm getting, we're coming over all seventies here baby!