Plumbing the Depths

Well it’s been a while since I got the time to add to this blog. Most of this time has been spent tiling bathrooms. Tiling! Urgh! Horrible stuff.

For anyone thinking of tiling their bathroom, start off by measuring the tiles and then measuring the bathroom itself. If the dimensions of the bathroom are not exact multiples of the tile size it is going to be a lot quicker to just knock the bathroom down and rebuild it so it’s dimensions are exact multiples of the tiles. Trust me, I’m a plumber!

We’ve had very few genuine odd-ball clients of late. Mind you I did get into the most bizarre conversation last week. I got trapped in a house with a mother and daughter, while my business partner, obviously sensing signs that I’d missed,  went off to buy some bits and bobs.

Said females were fascinated by the humble rabbit, bwhich is a bit odd in itself, but the oddest thing was that they just assumed that I, a plumber, would be equally fascinated and knowledgeable on the subject.

Client: “I bought a French Lop-eared last week”

Me:      “Did you? Wonderful stuff… Lovely… French eh?… Bit on the lop-eared side I imagine?”

Client: “Yes, but not as nice as the Netherlands dwarf of course.”

Me:     “How could it be, bit bigger though?”

And so the conversation flowed. It’s mad what these little “breeders” have done to the poor old rabbit though. Have a look at this site: http://www.arba.net/photo.htm

Look at the poor old “English Angora”. How can they deliberately do that to a rabbit and get away with it? It looks like it’s been plugged into the mains!

Go right to the bottom of the page and look at the Cavy. I’m sure that’s one of Tina Turner’s wigs heading out for a night on the town.

I have since discovered that the scientific name for the Rabbit is ’cuniculus’. It was just as well that the daughter hadn’t asked me if I was interested in cuniculus as, whilst this word does cause some assocations to spring almost imediately to mind, none of them have anything to do with rabbits J

Tiling! Don’t talk to me about tiling! We’re fitting a new bathroom for a guy down the road and he’s selected huge, thick wall and floor tiles. For some reason the manufacturers have combined an aesthetic look with the strength to withstand a nuclear detonation. Perhaps it’s a new trend in Bunker-bathrooms? Come the apocalypse, while the rest of us are kissing our a*$es goodbye, this bloke is going to be relaxing in his bubble bath, safe in the knowledge that nothing short of a direct hit is going to disturb either him or his rubber ducky.

The other major problem with tiling is the price. We have got our rate way, way wrong. At our current rate I would expect the guy serving fries at the local Mc D’s to buy the drinks. I think it’s more to do with quoting without first seeing the tiles. Big, thin ceramic tiles are a doddle on the whole, but people tend to fit these themselves. It’s only when the tiles are either tiny, fiddly, little buggers or huge armour plated affairs that we get a phone call. From now on we’re redirecting the calls.