Obnoxious, arrogant, and verbally abusive - yup that's me!

Training for a job with Anglian Water - our new drainage system

The heading is apparently how I've been described by the sprinkler companies I've been dealing with because I had the temerity to complain about poor service. It seems that this is the response to my calls trying to get some action. According to one supplier I verbally abused their engineer - the very amiable man who visited on two occasions and who I helped on his last visit. It is also alleged that I called the MD "all the names under the sun". This is rather surprising as I've only ever managed to speak to him once on the telephone and the only "abusive" element of my call was asking him why he hadn't returned a call that I made to him three days earlier. His customer friendly response was "I've got lots of messages here"- the clear implication being that mine was not of great importance to him. The reason that I've found this out is because the man I contacted at the second sprinkler company to try and get some action, is the chairman of the association which governs their business sector. He emailed my existing supplier (who happens to be his buddy on the committee) and got an email back with this very unflattering description of me. The chairman event went on to imply that he would have me blacklisted with all his members. What a very professional bunch they are.
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Having spoken to Darren, our plumber about the changes to the rainwater harvesting/sprinkler system, he's made a note and ordered the bits needed. He hopes to complete the work this coming week. However, I thought, (based on the email from the MD) that the sprinkler company were supplying and fitting the uprated pump. My email response to check that he had the pump produced the reply that this was up to me to arrange - to buy and fit. Another ten days lost.
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Once the system is commissioned I think I may well become obnoxious and verbally abusive. Or perhaps place number one on the Great Wall of China could become available.
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This week I have been back to basics with a pick axe, shovel, and fork, digging out the ground in front of the garage for the drain and soakaway as rainwater runs down the drive and ends up on our parking area. Unused as I am to hard work, this was quite tiring, but (complete with corset from my osteopath) I managed to finished the first one by Friday evening. Unfortunately I had underestimated the sand needed to pad the soakaway box out and ran out before I could back fill. Of course, it absolutely bucketed down on Saturday morning and filled the drain and soakaway. When I arrived at Brookvale on Saturday half of the Brookvale residents were gazing into the soakaway, which was nearly full of water. The consensus was that the water wouldn't drain away as there was a heavy clay sub soil that would trap the water. Happy that the water was no longer on the surface, we returned on Sunday to find the soakaway almost dry. So, one up for the drainage team. Another day's grunting and heaving saw the back fill complete and the remaining spoil in the skip. Now I have to get the sand and stones to finish it off.
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We missed out on the meatballs in favour of Spicy Caribbean chicken at IKEA on Monday night when we went to check out the wardrobes we had decided on. An apparently helpful assistant went through what we needed and warned us that we would have to buy the handles in the store because they weren't available on-line. We trotted home and input into the on-line shop all the codes he had given us, only to find that one small item - a coat rail extension - was not available on-line. How annoying is that? After a couple of non-obnoxious emails I got IKEA to agree to post the coat rail to us.
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Mick from Finesse came round on Friday to measure up for curtains and blinds. What a jolly chap he was - whistling and joking as he went. Perhaps we could send him to the sprinkler company for a while? Jan and I will be off to Baldock on Monday to see if we can agree on designs, style and colours at the Finesse emporium.
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This weekend we've been busy doing a lot of little jobs and cleaning up in preparation for the floor and carpet laying which starts at the end of the coming week. Although we rattled off a number of jobs from the "to do" list, we seem to find or remember others so the list never gets smaller. It must reduce eventually, mustn't it? Just for good measure the local council have decided to shut the entire road past Brookvale for the whole week while they resurface. I hope they allow local traffic to pass as the wardrobes are being delivered on Thursday.
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Navvy in chief and Mrs Mop