Concrete and fraud

So, we gave this man (JOHN WRAY) £800 deposit and off he went. When I phoned him up to let him know the concreting was done, he said great and that he would have it done for the end of the month.

A few weeks later I phoned back and he said there was a problem. Apparently his father was poorly and he was selling his business.

Now, if I had any sense at all I would have said WHAT ABOUT MY MONEY. But I didn't. He said he was selling to a friend and that he would come back with friend and check out the situation. And they turned up. Friend (Dave) said it was all possible and that he would give me a quote - "can't you do it for the price previously agreed?" I asked. "Well," says he, "material prices will have gone up in the last 6 months." Hmmm.

Dave phoned to say that materials were up, but in fact John had got the price wildly wrong. I suggested he contact John and sort it out between them. It was at this point that things took a downward turn.

John disappeared. And yes, with our money.

Dave says he's left his address and we know his mobile phone number no longer works.

On a positive note he had bought the windows and doors, which Dave now had. Apparently they only came to about £500. And Dave gave us a new quote - £6,500.
That's (including our doors etc) £3000 more than John.

Thanks, John.

Thon.

So I have got another couple of quotes. A guy (Paul) has been in to give us a quote for loft and shed. And I've sent all the bumf to another company for a shed quote.

So we wait over the weekend to see if and what Paul will quote us on Monday.

Dr Feelgood's Tatto Parlour and Emily Strange's cat

Now that is a title to be proud of.

Sounds like the latest Tim Burton movie.

I think I cheated a little because it's not a parlour, it's a studio. Anyway, it's based in Poole and it's where I went to have my first tattoo and quite honestly, I think it will be my last.

I have long wanted to have a tattoo and with my beloved's arms covered in them, it seemed I should have at least one. In fact, I really wanted to celebrate my love for him in a permanent way - dangerous, I know. Having had one disastrous marriage I am fully aware that sometimes things just don't work out (although I truly believe it will this time) and so I wanted to be careful what I stuck permanently into my flesh. Since his name is Kat and I adore the feline species, a cat seemed obvious. On my internet browsing I came across Emily Strange and her cats, and that was that.

My sort of daughter in law (henceforth referred to as sodil) wanted one too and I helped her to design it. Hers was to be the word Angel on her lower back. So clutching our tattoos in our hands we hotfooted our way to the local tattoo parlour - having checked it and others out on the web first. They were not over enthusiastic to help us and we were slightly put off by a certain member of staff, who we both prayed would not be doing our tattoos. After a brief moment of solid fear, we were told they couldn't do it today and booked us in for a few days later.

So Thursday arrived and we found ourselves in Dr Feelgoods. Our tattooist was a young girl, who clearly would not stand for any nonsense. She told me to sit and I did. She told me not to move and I said I wouldn't. She told me not to flinch away from the pain. And I .....PAIN???? No, that wasn't mentioned before....my beloved said it was a bit uncomfortable to start with and then it just became irritating. There was nothing about pain.

Now I could feel the sweat prickling my entire body. What in God's name had I let myself in for?

And then she slapped some goo on and started.

Ok. I've given birth to 3 (what could be loosely described as) children and 2 of those births were traumatic. So I can cope with many many hours of pain, but this was horrid. Now it may be the shoulder blade is a nasty place and I am not very fleshy, so I suspect the arms (particularly on a man) are not so painful. However, this was really nasty. It certainly felt like someone was scraping a sharp needle deeply into my skin. To be fair, the tattooist did it in stages, about 10 - 20 seconds each. Each time my threshold of pain would slowly be eroded and then she would stop, just for a few seconds and I could breathe again. I certainly was glad that it was not a big one and was regretting that it was black (this is the most painful colour apparently). After a lifetime and me constantly asking, like a child, is it done yet, it was. The relief was tremendous. She then put some more goo and a large bandage like covering on it.

Now it was SODIL's turn. Hers took just as long. She didn't seem to grimace as much as me and for a while seemed to become comatose. I couldn't help noticing that her knuckles were so deep in the upholstery that they had gone from white to green.

|Eventually we were given aftercare instructions. Keep the bandage on for 3 hours, then wash the area with soap and water. Apply savlon and continue to apply savlon 3 times a day, eventually changing to moisturiser.

We went out of the tattoo parlour in a desperate search for a pub.

James (sodil's other half and my son) suddenly pointed out that I was bleeding. This gave me a panic flash and I pictured myself in hospital with a hemorrhage. Quickly checking out SODIL's I could see hers was bleeding too.

100 yards later I noticed SODIL's was oozing blood and goo down her backside. So we found a chemist and got some tissues and wipes to sort it out. NB we only wiped the dribbling goo - I knew we had to leave the tattoo'd area alone. This ended up with us standing outside Superdrug (with 3 policemen watching us suspiciously) and me wiping SODIL's bum. Lovely.

Following alcohol and crisps, we felt much better and went home. The tattoos were throbbing pleasantly and SODIL's was certainly stopping her from moving freely.

We washed each others down as instructed and had a pretty uncomfortable night.

The following morning we both decided to avoid the shower (not allowed a bath) and above are the photos of the state of play.

I will post regularly to show what happens....