Why, oh why, is nothing straightforward?

We went to the DIY shed this morning to buy some guttering for the back of the house; a simple enough task, you’d think. But no.

When we finally found the right aisle, the longest lengths of guttering or downpipe they seemed to do were 2 metres; after much searching, we found the rarest of creatures – a sales assistant. However, he wasn’t the sales assistant for the guttering aisle, so someone else was called and we waited – and waited – and waited. When the guy finally arrived, he said that yes, there were longer lengths of guttering and downpipe, in the outdoor bit at the other end of the shop; so off we went to find them. Unfortunately, there were no prices on anything in this part of the shop and the sales assistant we found told us that they were displayed with the rest of the guttering bits, so back to the guttering aisle we went, and finally tracked down the prices board, tucked behind a stack of boxes. The price was OK, so off back to the other end of the shop again, to get said guttering. But no, you have to find an assistant, get them to write you a “bon”, which you take to the checkout, pay for the goods, then drive into the outdoor bit and collect them. Well, you do if you can find a sales assistant who isn’t far more interested in driving round and round in his forklift truck than in serving customers.

In total, we spent an hour and a half just buying some guttering; I’ll never complain about B&Q again!

To add to our frustrations, we heard from our estate agent this afternoon. The house sale in England should have been completed weeks ago, but our buyers’ buyers are now threatening to pull out if the price they are to pay isn’t reduced by the cost of replacement windows. So we’ve been asked to reduce our price by a portion of the amount! Some people just have no conscience at all!