Wednesday 5 May 2010

Because I'm a woman???

An early morning walk down along the river a few days ago . . .



Well, as you know, we are working flat out on redecorating the house at present. So we can really do WITHOUT any more little problems. The plumbing seems to be going wrong all over the house. First the washing machine, which OH had to take to pieces to cure. Then the ground floor toilet won't fill up with water properly and when OH wanted to take THAT to pieces, he found that the chap we'd had here to fit the new Belfast sink in the kitchen a couple of years back had bent the stop cock downstairs so that it couldn't be moved!

We have had a dripping kitchen tap for months, and - being on a roll - OH decided yesterday was the day to sort that out and I was sent in to get 2 washers for it (taking the top half of the kitchen tap with me). I went to the appropriate shop but there was much sucking of teefs and head-shaking so I was guessing, as he searched through the little boxes of "leftovers" on the highest shelf, that I was going to be unlucky with the washers. Then he said the tap is wrecked anyway, as "this bit" is broken and he pointed to what looked like a metal washer (couldn't see it myself, but . . . without the washers, might just as well be). So that meant new taps, and they only did a chrome version of our old-fashioned brass ones bought ten years ago. Price: oh dear, that will be £55 plus VAT. My turn to suck on teefs, and I pointed out I would have to pass this by my OH, as he sent me out for a fiver's worth of washers at most and I can't present him with a bill for over £60 . . . Thinking as I left the shop, OH will bodge this somehow or we will get a much cheaper pair from B&Q . . .

Of course, he bodged it - in that he found he had a spare brass tap (£1 at car boot sale) in his boxes in the stable, and he used the top half of that (with washers) and married it to the bottom half of the original tap. Problem solved. In excess of £60 saved. BUT - and here is the rub - he said it was only the washer which needed replacing on the tap. It wasn't "broken" as they claimed in the shop. Now . . . if he had gone in, I am certain they wouldn't have tried it on with him, because he's a bloke. But because I'm a woman, and apparently ignorant about the inner workings of taps, I am fair game. They don't have the washer, but that's a feeble excuse for new taps, so they say it's broken . . . Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! (And this was a subject we had been discussing only the day before, with regard to women taking cars to garages . . .) Cynical? Moi?

7 comments:

  1. It's not that we may not know certain things, it's that they try to put one over on us! If a man asked a midwife an intricate and intimate question about child birth wouldn't she give him a direct and truthful answer??? Grrr indeed.

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  2. Great new header photo!

    You're right to be cynical. We have changed garages a couple of times over similar situations when the lovely G has taken the car for some work rather than me.

    It's a disgrace and people like that won't get my business - or anyone else I can dissuade - ever again.

    I remember going on a radio phone in years ago about just this kind of scenario when my local Ford dealer wanted to charge me £200 for a new fuel tank and my local garage solved the problem with a £2 fuse!

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  3. Al - glad you like the photo. I was rather pleased with it too (early morning light is softer). I see I am right to be cynical!

    ChrisJ - I bet they wouldn't try it on with Joanna Lumley!!!

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  4. I agree! The way the men serving in these shops speak S-L-O-W-L-Y to you in these situations makes my blood boil!

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  5. You're absolutely right they did it because you're a woman, I've thrown more than one fit after being treated like that. There are certain instances where I won't even deal with the people involved because I know they think I'm simple minded just because I'm a woman.

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  6. Hello. I have just found your blog and wanted to say what a lovely blog you have.
    A x

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  7. Hi Wipso. Glad you like it here, and hope youll return.

    Kath and Mac n'Janet - It doesn't happen very often, but my back stays up for a loooong time afterwards.

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