pumpkinstrokemarrow

On the 28th February the famous water tower at Horton was half down, courtesy of the people with the flash web site at http://www.erith.com/. Today, well over a month later, the demolition might be described at 99% complete. So its not just the builders doing domestic work who make a good start then take off to keep some other customer warm while you wait and watch all the building junk collect dust (and maybe rats) in your front garden.

And while we are on buildings, time to complain about the insurance premium I am paying Halifax, the former mutual, to insure our house. 2009 was the same as 2008. Then it went up 10%.Then it went up by a modest 8%. Then this year it goes up by a whopping 18%. This for a policy on which we have not claimed for years and at a time when house prices are stagnant. As I never tire of saying, bring back the days when you could trust an outfit like Halifax to give you a fair deal without having to fuss. When you didn't have to chase around every year to make sure you are not being done for being idle. All this isa nonsense is just the same. Zillions of deals out there, all slightly different, all with slightly different nooks and crannies. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just stuff the dosh in the building society and forget about it, without feeling guilty that you haven't spent the weekend reading all the small print in the money supplement.

More important, I have now embarked on a jigsaw from Falcon Vista, this time via Oxfam, having discovered that the Epsom Library jigsaw service seems to specialise in 1,000 and 2,000 piece whoppers which are a bit out of my league for the time being. 500 piece photographic scene of a beach, maybe somewhere in Italy. First complaint, the pieces, while about the same size as the last lot, are very thin. Bit apt to jump out of their slots if disturbed. Second complaint, the picture on the box has not been trimmed to be the same as the picture on the jigsaw. Minor source of confusion. Third complaint, the colours of the picture on the box are not all that like those on the jigsaw. Another minor source of confusion. Fourth complaint, regularity. On 28th March I talked about the regularity of jigsaws. This jigsaw has reminded me of another sort of regularity, according to which exactly four pieces meet at every interior vertex, a sort of regularity that this jigsaw does not possess. You cannot rely on a piece being wrong just because there is overlap. A major source of confusion. There are also a lot more pieces with other than hole-prong-hole-prong configuration.

However, despite all these complaints, the jigsaw advances and I have certainly had my £1.70's worth from it. Very handy at a time when ITV3 is very much in the doldrums.