Google Photos reminded me of some photos I took in 2006, reminding of how incompetent Barnet Council are.
The landlord in the flat above us decided to get plumbing done by people who were likely not qualified and ended up compromising the floor between flats, and causing electricity arcs in our ceiling, we had to pop the breakers manually to prevent any short circuits.
Attempts to communicate with the landlord all went to voice mail, attempts to get entry to the flat to stop the water were ignored, attempts to contact the council to get help were refused.
Eventually the water leaked through OUR floor into the floor below, and the OAP who lived there called us. We told her to call the council since they refused to help us, and lo and behold, 30 minutes later, we had the council banging on our door.
Now, due to the council's refusal to help, instead of one flat being damaged, you now have TWO.
The following day, the police and fire brigade were called to gain entrance, because the landlord STILL did not answer his phone.
After this incident, we had to redo our bathroom, toilet, and front bedroom.
We had to rip out the carpets, wallpaper and replaster the ceilings.
We had to also rewire the ENTIRE flat.
But that's not the end part of it. Several years later, the damage caused by the landlord, carried over and the ceiling started leaking again. And again, the council didn't help. The tenant who lived in the flat above (the original landlord had since sold the flat on) was a construction worker, who knew what he was doing -- mostly, I guess.
Over the course of two years we were subject to more ceiling leaks, including leads into our cloakroom where we store our coats, until he finally found the leaking pipe -- one which was severed during the time of the previous landlord and was still dripping.
He's also sound the house on now, and to the council, and now Brent Council and Barnet Council have combined and we now have new tenants who are probably worse than the previous two combined -- they sleep all day, talk loudly until around 2am in the morning, smoke pot and guess what, Barnet Council won't do anything about it.
When I escalated to the counsellors of the area, they passed the query on to the council and the council claimed I never contacted them. Well, that's BS since I have an email chain AND a case reference.
Barnet Council have done nothing but drag their feet for the past 14 years whenever there's been any complaints. They like to claim they are listening to people with things like "You Said.. We Did" but that's only for things that are easy to do.
I know the likelihood of Barnet Council reading this post are low, but I need to vent...
Decided to test the time it takes to walk from the prospective new house to the nearest Piccadilly Line station and see if that's any different to walking to the nearest rail station.
Turns out it takes 15 minutes using two different walking routes to get there, which is about the same time it takes to get to the rail station. The only difference is that the rail station is in Zone 4 and the underground station is in Zone 5.
A single from the Zone 5 station costs £4.70 peak, £3.10 off peak.
A single from the Zone 4 rail station costs £6.00 peak, £4,70 off peak -- so it costs MORE to start my journey FURTHER into London. So why do I do it?
Well, if I cap the journey for the week, I pay a 1-4 weekly travelcard, and not a 1-5 weekly travelcard. Plus, the daily cap for a 1-4 is £10.40, and I'll hit that with two journeys, versus the 1-5 cap of £12.30
Decided to test the time and distance of walking from my local train station to the (potentially) new house, then walk back. Total distance for the loop was 3km, which about the same distance as my normal short walking loop, so that's okay.
Update on the car accident that wrote off my car earlier this year.
My neighbour finally got an estimate on the repairs of her car. Hers is the only car that survived the crash, and she got away with a damaged front spoiler. Costs about £1500 to repair.
Total costs the other side will have to foot: Value of my car (written off): £3000 Value of the car next to me (written off): £2500 Value of the car that both our cars got shunted into (written off): £1500 Repair of the damaged car (sole survivor): £1500 Hire car (45 days @ £75 per day): £3375
Decided to go a different route today, to go past a house I might be buying.
Slightly narrow roads, and a lot quieter, but means less likelihood of my car getting wrecked, since there's also a parking area in front of the house. Someone would _really_ have to try to wreck my car using that setup -- they would have to go through a brick wall and other cars to wreck my car with this setup. Also, since this is a house not a flat, I could potentially get a plugin hybrid or full electric in future and get a charge point installed for around £500. But that's assuming my Yaris gets wrecked, which hopefully it won't anytime soon.... :)
Another grey and rainy day. Found out that even though I didn't renew my FitBit Premium subscription, some videos on the FitBit app are free to view, so I checked out one of their abs and core videos. At only 15 minutes it wasn't long, so I thought "oh, it can't be effective then"
My abs and core begged to differ with me afterwards...
Another grey day, although it was sunnier earlier. Got caught as I started my walk, so my walk ended up being much shorter than expected, since I didn't want to get caught in the rain again, like yesterday.
A _really_ windy day today -- even so much as the windows of the house were either being slammed shut by the wind, or being thrown open by them. I even felt resistance when I went to open the door of my room because of the wind.
I thought with the Hire car collected, this incident would be closed. I guess not.
The insurance broker contacted me to ask me to complete a litigation questionnaire. From the sounds of it, the other side is resisting the costs, unsurprisingly.
Was my mother's birthday today so we took her to the local Chinese restaurant for lobster and noodles. And also helping the "Eat Out to Help Out" campaign.
Did my walk afterwards, even though it was drizzling with rain (still is).
Reached Day 130 of training in quarantine.... Testing out some new Sketchers shoes today. Comfy and soft, but I think needs a few more walking sessions to break in a bit more.
I came across this article on FailBlog, but it was actually something that hit home quite hard. It's a thread that talks about grief.
In case you didn't know, I lost my uncle to cancer in 2017 and sat on a blog entry talking about dealing with loss for months, not wanting to publish it (it wasn't this entry, mind you) -- but I knew that writing about it helps deal with it.
The article on FailBlog links to an old thread by Lauren Herschel, an unrolled version is here:
It talks about grief as a "Ball in a box with a pain button" and the ball fills the box, hitting the button near-constantly right after the incident or loss.
The ball deflates over time, meaning it doesn't hit the button as much, but when it does, it hurts just as bad, and damn, this is right on the button.
Much later walk than usual today and the temperature has really dropped now, so much more comfortable. Rain has been on-off these past few days so I went out with my cap and jacket just in case.
A lot more cooler today and rain for most of the day. Went for my walk with a jacket and tracksuit bottoms for the first time in several days. Brought an umbrella with me in case it did rain while I walked (it didn't).
