Four condoms and a funeral.
Discussion
Yesterday was trifle bizarre, for clarity I'll try and keep it simple.
A few months ago I fitted some extremely efficient water heaters at a local girls' boarding school - but part of the installation involves a small water circulating system. Now this circulating system is open to the air (the filling point is a copper tube about an inch in diameter sticking upwards) - and over time water evaporates. When enough water has gone the system stops working - and I have been thinking what to do (otherwise I have to go back every couple of weeks and add water).
An aditional problem is the circulating water also expands and contracts with changing water temperature. I finally figured out that the best way of preventing evaporation, but allowing for expansion was to fit a condom to top of said copper tube.
So, I turn up at the school yesterday, possibly fortunately term hasn't started yet, and met up with an assistant. The assistant is Hungarion and his 'normal' job is a trolley dolly for Qantas (business class though - no riff raff) - also present was the Hungarions great uncle - 67 and speaks about 5 words of English (two of those being Good Morning). (Trolley dolley got him a good deal on a return flight Heathrow-New Zealand, three hundred quid - but it started with a 22 hour coach trip from Budapest to London - but that's another story).
Anyway, there we are at the school, and I simply asked if anyone had four condoms for fitting to the copper pipes, (they would prevent evaporation but allow expansion). Hungarion (for some unkown reason, but perhaps because he's 30 and unmarried) had just enough - so we ended up filling all the copper water pipes and sticking a condom on top of each one - being careful to take all the wrappers with us. Luckily all the water systems are in various roof spaces which are out of bounds for the girls.
I suppose one question is, should the condoms go on the bill as a separate item? or under sundries?
Our next job at the school was to replace an air conditioning outdoor unit, weighing sixty kilos. As luck would have it this unit had to be taken up a flight of stairs, up a six foot ladder onto the roof, then carried 100 metres along the roof (reasonably flat) to its destination. And it was hot yesterday, very hot (about 30 degrees) - all three of us carried this unit looking like a funeral cortege ( and the old outdoor unit we carried back was in fact deceased). Rather than push the dead unit off the roof (an action closely considered), it was 100 metres along the roof, back down the ladder and down the stairs. I was all for leaving the thing up there, but Hungarion reckoned it was worth a dozen bottles of beer as scrap - and who am I to argue?
Got home at six, and persuaded one of my sons to get the fish and chips in as I was shagged out. Unluckily he's not yet eighteen, so he couldn't pick up any beer - I had to make do with orange juice (with a dash of vodka for medicinal purposes).
It's all part of life's rich pageant I suppose - four condoms and a funeral cortege.
Today is a bit more normal if just as hot. Reminder to self, buy beer before getting home.
How was your day?
A few months ago I fitted some extremely efficient water heaters at a local girls' boarding school - but part of the installation involves a small water circulating system. Now this circulating system is open to the air (the filling point is a copper tube about an inch in diameter sticking upwards) - and over time water evaporates. When enough water has gone the system stops working - and I have been thinking what to do (otherwise I have to go back every couple of weeks and add water).
An aditional problem is the circulating water also expands and contracts with changing water temperature. I finally figured out that the best way of preventing evaporation, but allowing for expansion was to fit a condom to top of said copper tube.
So, I turn up at the school yesterday, possibly fortunately term hasn't started yet, and met up with an assistant. The assistant is Hungarion and his 'normal' job is a trolley dolly for Qantas (business class though - no riff raff) - also present was the Hungarions great uncle - 67 and speaks about 5 words of English (two of those being Good Morning). (Trolley dolley got him a good deal on a return flight Heathrow-New Zealand, three hundred quid - but it started with a 22 hour coach trip from Budapest to London - but that's another story).
Anyway, there we are at the school, and I simply asked if anyone had four condoms for fitting to the copper pipes, (they would prevent evaporation but allow expansion). Hungarion (for some unkown reason, but perhaps because he's 30 and unmarried) had just enough - so we ended up filling all the copper water pipes and sticking a condom on top of each one - being careful to take all the wrappers with us. Luckily all the water systems are in various roof spaces which are out of bounds for the girls.
I suppose one question is, should the condoms go on the bill as a separate item? or under sundries?
Our next job at the school was to replace an air conditioning outdoor unit, weighing sixty kilos. As luck would have it this unit had to be taken up a flight of stairs, up a six foot ladder onto the roof, then carried 100 metres along the roof (reasonably flat) to its destination. And it was hot yesterday, very hot (about 30 degrees) - all three of us carried this unit looking like a funeral cortege ( and the old outdoor unit we carried back was in fact deceased). Rather than push the dead unit off the roof (an action closely considered), it was 100 metres along the roof, back down the ladder and down the stairs. I was all for leaving the thing up there, but Hungarion reckoned it was worth a dozen bottles of beer as scrap - and who am I to argue?
Got home at six, and persuaded one of my sons to get the fish and chips in as I was shagged out. Unluckily he's not yet eighteen, so he couldn't pick up any beer - I had to make do with orange juice (with a dash of vodka for medicinal purposes).
It's all part of life's rich pageant I suppose - four condoms and a funeral cortege.
Today is a bit more normal if just as hot. Reminder to self, buy beer before getting home.
How was your day?
k..
always a good day when you pick a new car up!
saramac1969 said:
I picked up my new Z3. So it was a fantastic day.
good move! get on over to:www.zroadster.net
jaybkay said:
Anyway, there we are at the school, and I simply asked if anyone had four condoms for fitting to the copper pipes, (they would prevent evaporation but allow expansion). Hungarion (for some unkown reason, but perhaps because he's 30 and unmarried) had just enough - so we ended up filling all the copper water pipes and sticking a condom on top of each one - being careful to take all the wrappers with us. Luckily all the water systems are in various roof spaces which are out of bounds for the girls.
I suppose one question is, should the condoms go on the bill as a separate item? or under sundries?
Typical plumber charging the customer for their own bloody stuff!!! I suppose one question is, should the condoms go on the bill as a separate item? or under sundries?
Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 23 January 07:50
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