Chirp!:

    Tuesday, April 03, 2007

    When the Lights Go Out.

    and the power is on again/off again ..
    .. you get plenty of time to do other things.

    The house, however is a mess.




    Easter tags for little gifties for our Mother's Group buddies and budd-ettes.

    Labelled with their first initial.





    Party hats inverted, filled with choc, chicklets, & ribbon replacing the elastic.

    Green for boys, pink & silver for the girls.




    Lots happened again today.

    The S.A.D. was home ( my new name for the husband .. no .. not Seasonal Affective Disorder .... but Seasonally Affected Dad .. we used to see him on Fridays .. this is rapidly turning into a Tuesday affair. He's rarely available on weekends .. )

    So S.A.D called Westinghouse and said the Thursday appt was useless. If we needed to hire a fridge due to them being unable to fix it on the spot, we were ratsh*t ( due to Easter ). He was on hold for a long time, but someone came out today and replaced the motor. Although the fridge was out of warranty, apparently the motor had a 5yr 'parts' warranty attached, so we only had to pay for labour.

    The guy refused to charge it ( !! ). He shook his head and said 'this should never have happened'. Fixed it, and went on his way. WOW ! :)

    In other news ... the fireplace .. which I have ( fortunately ) only lit up a few times, and not for long ... once for picturing in here, and maybe another couple of times to show people.
    The reason I haven't used it is because we needed to be rewired, so the fan on it was unfunctional, and I didn't want to do the fireplace harm by using it without the fan.

    Lucky. Lucky. Lucky.

    Faced with calling the fireplace people again, I felt dejected.
    Our electrician used to install these, so I asked if he wouldn't mind taking a look ?
    We unbolted the mantle from the wall .. to find ... it was never installed properly. Dodgy city. PLUS, the electrical wire was left on top of the hottest spot, and had melted down to the wire. Now that we're having circuit-breakers installed, this would have tripped them every time, and left everyone scratching their heads in wonder as to what it might be.

    Lucky they took a look. It's fixed .. but the 'finish and flush' of the fireplace is a bit wonky ( always was ) .. and parts of it I wasn't so happy with ( again, written off to being too fussy .. but it did cost us a LOT of money .. ) I found were because they weren't done right.

    Unfortunately they have to do with gasfitting and other non-electrical things, so we are going to try again to get Agnews out to take a look.

    I mean, we used the guys THEY recommended .. but there just seems to be no quality control, no box-ticking along the way.
    The contracter had contracters who had contracters, and there was like a dozen unrelated guys filing through at any one time. No wonder mistakes are made !!
    I've asked S.A.D. to call, because i'm starting to come to the conclusion that women wield no power. People listen to him.

    Which is totally crap, because i'm at home, with the time to call and whine and wait on hold .. yet he is at work, elsewhere, and yet my results just don't cut his mustard. Or something.

    Anyway, we had a cheery afternoon at IKEA after this.
    The TV stand we wanted was out-of-stock, but should be in next week. We had a $1 hotdog each, and they were mm-mm-good :)

    20 comments:

    Muzbot said...

    You just can't beat those $1 hotdogs! :)
    You're mighty creative H&B. Easter's looking good at yours.

    joanne said...

    Very cute little easter pressies and what bad luck you are having at your house!! Although free fridge service - good score!

    caramaena said...

    Very nice of the fridge guy. I can't believe how many problems you've had with that fireplace though!

    Damselfly said...

    You are so crafty! How thoughtful of you to make those pretty tags.

    Someday IKEA will come to my neck of the woods, and I can see why everyone is so gaga over them....

    Anonymous said...

    I keep forgeting that Easter is a global thing...DUH I can be so blonde! I've been to Melbourne! We stayed in St Kilda.

    http://mrsmogul.blogspot.com


    Mrs. mogul

    msdramateacherlady said...

    I love the Easter "hats". I wish I would have seen them before doing the gift bags I did. Oh well, there's always next year.

    I also concur on your assessment of calling for assistance with all things "man-like". I think it confuses them, they don't know how to deal with us. Especially if we know what we are talking about. My latest encounter with this happened at Home Depot...idiots work there!

    meggie said...

    Wow again, with your creativity. Lovely.
    Good news story about the fridge.
    bad news about the fireplace...but as you said, lucky lucky.

    Melody said...

    Did you realise that the ititals to the children spells out 'modest'. I was looking at the photo (before I read the post) and thought 'what is H&B trying to acheive here?'... hehehe...

    You are very creative - good on you. Those children will be rapt to discover those Easter goodies... great idea with the hat and all...

    And free fridge service? Wow. Gotta love that.

    Like you, I never seem to get anywhere with complaining, ringing etc., and here I am at home all day. Then poor old Lyndon, who works hard in a stressful job, has to do the rining around for me because no one seems to listen to a woman! Urgh.

    LBA said...

    Ha ! - the hats were only because I couldn't find what I really wanted, and was in a bind, and didn't want to blow a lot of money.

    M.O.D.E.S.T. - wow, I had no idea .. that is pretty trippy ...

    Anonymous said...

    Very crafty!

    And nice fridge guy. Just a pity about the fireplace - I actually know quite a few people who've used Agnews and they've been pretty good. I don't know if they've just been lucky or you've just been unlucky...

    Ms Brown Mouse said...

    This is one of the reasons a bloke is a useful thing to have around - something about the tone of voice, not sure what, but it sure gets the tradies moving.

    Stomper Girl said...

    The Easter stuff is fab. Also so are the fridge dude and the electrician. Glad you have the sort of hubby who makes tradesmen jump to attention too! Handy. Hope you get the fireplace sorted soon, it's getting cold....

    Holly Muppet said...

    Love those easter gifts, great idea!

    Wes said...

    So the electrickery is playing havoc in Melbourne. You're not the first I've heard whose been affected, although yours sounds like it has been around for a while. Good to hear it is getting sorted out though.

    Great Easter gifts too!

    Anonymous said...

    The little basket is cute! I'm thinking it would be a neat thing to do for May day and use flowers inside too. I might just be on the lookout for some cheap party hats and use that idea for my little flock at work!

    Tracey Petersen said...

    Very sweet easter treats. Well done!

    Live in the tropics....who needs a fire place?

    Fairlie - www.feetonforeignlands.com said...

    Those party-hat Easter bags are way too cute (and great initial labels too). I'll be keeping the hat/bag idea up my sleeve for a future party!

    Victoria said...

    I am glad you're getting those curcuit-breakers!!!!

    Victoria said...

    The baskets are sweet.

    verniciousknids said...

    I love your little Easter nests - reminds me of the Easter Bonnet parades we used to have in primary school.

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