About Me

Managing director of the 0800handyman franchise which covers Crawley, Horsham, Dorking, Guildford, Farnham and surrounding areas

Friday 29 June 2007

Sleeping Beauty

Today I had what seemed to be a straight forward job in a studio flat, simply clean mould from the kitchen and living/bedroom ceilings, paint with stain block and finish with white emulsion.
I arrived at 9am as arranged, with the landlords set of keys, I knocked at the door just in case somebody was in, there was no answer so I let myself in. To my surprise in the living/bedroom there was a person in bed asleep, with the noise of me entering the flat the person stirred just enough to say he was expecting me, at this point I said I would start work in the kitchen thinking they would now get up.
Wrong!
On completing the work in the kitchen, I then started in the living/bedroom with this person snoring loudly in bed, what do you, do wake them up, or just carry on around them. Being a kind sort of chap I worked around them instead if waking them up which was easier said than done with the curtains closed.Even with cleaning the mould off the ceiling applying the stain block and then painting he continued to sleep.
Finally the job was finished bar a small area of ceiling directly above the bed I which I was unable to reach due to sleeping beauty.As I drove away I wondered when he wakes up will he remember the few words with me when I arrived or will he wonder what happened to the coiling while he was asleep and why is there a dirty area above the bed!

Thursday 1 March 2007

New mobile phone laws

With the revised laws about mobile phones and driving I thought I should check and make sure that the wired ear piece i use while in the Mini was up to the legal requirements.
I went into my local O2 retailer thinking they should be able to give me some useful advise, the young chap at the counter told me that the ear piece i was using was not up to the legal requirements because it had a wire and i need to have a bluetooth ear piece or car kit and they start at £19.95. After much consideration and nearly parting with £50 i decided to go back to the office and look on the Internet for a car kit which was best suited to my needs.
During my searching I looked up the law about using mobile phones in cars I was very surprised to learn that my ear piece complyed with the law and also if the phone is in a cradle i am allowed to press the receive button http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2003/20032695.htm.
The morale of the story I guess is never trust a sales person there job is to sell you something not to give you advice which will probably result in them losing a sale.

Monday 19 February 2007

Traffic Wardens

This week we had to collect a set of house keys from a well known high street estate agents in a Cathedral town in Surrey something we do on a very regular basis
So the handyman parks outside the agents on double yellow lines looks up and down the road just to confirm there are no wardens patrolling that part of the high street, he goes into the agents and has to collect the keys from the second floor so looses sight of his mini for two to three minutes. With keys in hand he returns to the Mini and to his horror there is a parking ticket on his windscreen he immediately looks up and down the road for the Warden but there is no sign of them.
Though not a Trekkie I fear that this council has developed a transporter system or a cloaking device for there wardens
Another letter to write asking for forgiveness and that we were loading and it is not necessary to relive me of £60