Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

We all know where it originated from - anyone who still believes it was accidental or "just one of those things" clearly hasn't been watching what was going on. If you think about it, in the preceding months there were discussions in our parliament about the use of technology from China in our security systems and mobile networks and that they weren't to be trusted... bang, along comes the pandemic and all of a sudden we are chucking money at them for masks, buying ULEZ cameras and mobile network gear and mandating that the entire country has to buy electric vehicles, the bulk of which originate in China.

It didn't help that we were being governed by a bigger bunch of idiots than we usually are, who seemingly had nothing else to do with their time except blow as much of our money as possible or go around jumping into bed with each other.

I've long said that Labour and the Tories are two cheeks of the same arse.

Available, made from finest Chineseium...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/KINGLETING...rds=Heated+Seat+Cushion&qid=1724353168&sr=8-9

The way contractors operate nowadays is quite comical - - very recently, in Kingston town centre, there was a water leak... Thames water started digging to find the leak and in the process hit a gas main, so had to stop and wait for Cadent to attend and repair the gas main. All the while, the water was still running and by the time the gas guys had finished the water had washed away all the subsoil under a main road (three lanes of heavy traffic); they discovered that rather than just a little bit washed away, there was a massive void under the carriageway, so they literally had to shut the entire one-way system through the town there and then. It was shut for over a week while they filled it all in.

 

Glad I am not the only one that struggled with the volume of food in hospital - it felt like they were constantly trying to feed me. To be fair, the grub was actually quite nice.

 

True - although around here it is more often an unexploded bomb

 

They all a shower - I am still fighting with Virgin Media over our broadband cable connection that was busted by Cadent at the start of July. My neighbour across the road has finally managed to get his garden wall replaced, but only because he was going to do it anyway - they knocked his down the same day they bust our cable. One crew to drill the hard surfaces, another to dig the debris out, another to use a water jet/vacuum to dig holes in soil/grass areas, other teams to do the piping, carpenters to make good on kitchen cupboards that they bust through and so on... no wonder everything costs so much!

 

Remember the finger...?





4-5 days later and it is as good as new! You couldn't make it up - I'd almost have hacked the thing off last Friday night.

 

There was a water leak in our road and it was causing a problem with the electrics to some of the houses. The inspector came along the next day and I told him where I was sure the problem was. He used his electronic dowsing machine (don't know what it is called) and said the leak wasn't there although I told him that when there was a leak on that spot eight years previously and they fixed it they also hit the metal piping around the electric cables before backfilling. I also told him that I took photos before they backfilled and could show him but he wasn't interested.

They had to apply for a licence to put up traffic lights and when they had that they got the traffic light company to put them up. Then their road digging division came along and dug the road up where the inspector told them. They worked quite quickly and then their machine broke the gas main . Work stopped immediately! Gas men came along and fixed it and as there was no water in the hole they finally decided to dig where I had indicated. Before they did that they had to back fill the hole with exposed gas pipes and electricity cables.

They dug the next hole where I told them and found it full of water and the cracked metal pipe around the electric cables was running under the water. They vacated the spot in rather a hurry until their foreman came along, two hours later, and told them to carry on work as they had the proper protective clothing, boots and gloves.

They got their pumps out, attached two metres of piping and laid it in my flower bed - which I promptly told them to remove and run it down the road to the rain water soakaway gutter in the kerb. They didn't have enough piping on the van and the foeman had to send for more piping. The pumping was taking a long time because they couldn't find the whereabouts under the water the leak was coming from. They finally fixed the leak but couldn't close the hole because the electrics needed fixing.

As, by then, it was Sunday the electric company couldn't get there until Monday - BUT - by Monday the licence for being able to have traffic lights closing half the road had run out. So the Council said they had to apply for a new licence which would take two weeks and in the meantime they had to reinstate the road and make it safe to drive on.

They had to call the road division (or whatever you call them) to come back and infill. Then a different company had to retarmac the road and then the traffic light company had to take away the lights.

Two weeks later they got their licence and fixed the problem.

I had fun photographing a lot of it and the local paper had a field day with the story. On their website they also put up the Flanders and Swan link.