Friday, December 5, 2008

A Sinking Feeling

Friday 28th November 2008
It was a busy day in the Café today, not so much because of the number customers we had, although it was fairly busy on that count, it was the fact that we were going to be closing at 2pm ready for the plumber to come in to replace our sinks and remove our cook top.
The thing that made it a bit hectic was that the equipment was only delivered this morning and needed to be assembled by the time the plumber arrived, also he was going to disconnect the gas and Water as soon as he arrived so that he could rip out the old equipment so all the washing and cleaning had to have been done by the time when we would normally have just been clearing up after lunch.
The plumber turned up early, just as we were starting to unpack the sink ready to build it. We had just unpacked it when Ian noticed that the Drainers didn’t look as long as he had imagined, or as long as they needed to be to fit the other equipment in the way we had planned.
Upon measuring it we found that the drainers weren’t as long as we wanted because the sinks were larger than we had been told they would be, Ian tried to contact the supplier but was told he was in meetings all afternoon so he left a message detailing the problem.
The plumber was obviously not over fussed about working on a Friday Afternoon because straight away he volunteered to leave until we had found a solution, maybe Monday or Tuesday, so we let him go.
Within about half an hour the supplier walked through the door and said I know exactly what the problem is and we will do everything we can to put it right, it turns out that of all the sinks this manufacturer makes, the only one that has this size sink is the length of model we need, all the rest are smaller.
It did mention it in the small print of the catalogue that he had, but it was the sort of thing you could easily overlook, and he had.
Ian told him we would scan the internet to see if we could find what we want and would get back to him next week. So tonight Ian spent most of the evening looking at sinks on the computer and managed to find two that would have done the trick, unfortunately they are both in the state of Victoria and talking about an eight week lead time and that’s not taking into account that they will be shutting down for a couple of weeks over Christmas.
We will look at it again over the weekend.
The shopping centre, just to put an even bigger damper on the occasion, had the busiest afternoon of the week and we were turning people away because we had shut everything down.
This evening the kids went round to their new found friends house round the corner, before all going to Freaky Friday at the swimming pool.
Ian has told the kids to swim a few lengths while they are there as practice for surf school, according to Fraser he did three lengths without stopping, Marisa according to Marisa did ten.

4 comments:

Ganeida said...

You guys going to post a week's worth in one day again? I realise it's time efficient but meanwhile the hordes are anxiously awaiting news.

The HoJo's said...

Hordes! I wish :o) Its just that we don't have much home time together at the moment. Mr Hojo is busy building our empire ;o) and Mrs Hojo is supposed to be there, home, sorting out various offspring and getting ready for Christmas. Hopefully the refurb in the Kitchen will be finished this week and some pressure will be off!
As you asked so nicely we will try and add a couple of days tonight, although we are doing something with Scouts tonight....
xc

Ganeida said...

lol, I just thought I'd stir the pot & see what came up! Ever hopeful. You know, the eternal optimist...

The HoJo's said...

Ok Optimist, I've done as I was told, for once :o)
xc