The die is cast, maybe

Yesterday was D day, decision day on the water.  Reluctantly we have agreed to pay our share, 4000 euros, towards the cost of moving the 4 meters to the top of our road. We were not swayed by the various threats of what would happen if we didn’t join the other neighbours in this exercise, that if we changed our minds later we would have to pay 16,000 instead of 4,000, or even the rather more sinister suggestion we would be left with a very unhappy feeling, which would be a change from the frustration and rage we’ve been feeling for weeks.  We went ahead because actually not having the meter in the snake pit therefore a shorter length of pipe to be responsible for is a benefit.  But the main reason is that we are certain that when the contractors start excavating to install the new single pipe to the new meter location they will destroy our existing pipes and we would come back next year to probably no water and an almighty battle to sort that.    

We are still furious and have no idea about the next stage of the work, pipes from the new meter location to our houses which we residents must arrange.  The water company refuse to give us a quote for connecting to the proposed new meter and without that we cannot pay, in advance of course, to be connected.  Our neighbour has a quote, we applied weeks ago and our last two emails have been ignored.  

We haven’t paid the money yet, which we must put into our neighbours bank account without any paperwork although we will make some note on the transfer.  We have no expectations of any kind of receipt.  The only start date for the work was given verbally at the meeting, straight away when we pay.  I interpret that as sometime next year and hope to be proved wrong.

Unrelated to the water, I read in the paper this morning that Silvio Berlusconi who will be part of Italy’s new coalition government is boasting of his recently renewed friendship with Putin.  There has been an exchange of lovely letters and Vlad has declared Silv one of his top 5 best friends.  Things are pretty pear shaped government wise in the UK at the moment but there’s a long way to go before we reach this level.

I promise the next post will be a knitting one, even if there is more craziness and there probably will, we need some balance.  I’ve broken my own rules and have two projects on the go as I knit to be calm, as recommended by Weave.