h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh. nos.

They've started..... Taking the roof off my house... To be precise, they started taking the roof off my house, about an hour and half before I planned to wake up.... Especially seeing as last night was yet another sleepless night, and I was still awake at 6 AM. Well, three hours sleep is only one hour less than last night, and the night before that, and still one hour more than the preceding two nights before that.
Hmmm.... I don't seem to be sleeping well.... or at all at the moment....
If this goes on for the full 11 weeks, their second estimate seems to suggest (started with an estimate of 6 Weeks, and £7K per householder) I'll go mad. Unless, of course, as some people might have insinuated previously, I am already mad, in which case, I dunno.... I'll go sane? can't quite see that myself

Having spent the past couple weeks, trying* to clear the loft, I guess now, its too late... sounds like they actually started at the rear of my property, which is where my storage in the eeves is, which is where I had 'stuff'.

Well... I think* I got most of waht I wanted to keep out; all the guitars, speakers, etc, All the rubbish I'd bagged up is in the loft, still, as I had no where else to put it... There are a few boxes of 'stuff' in there I wanted to go though, in case they contained anything I wanted to keep... but... well, yeh, they probably have some 'stuff' in that if I'd looked at, I would* have kept... but... forced decluttering Pity all the HiFi boxes, that I've carefully stored and kept will no doubt vanish... but... not like I'd probably have ever sold the HiFi seperates anyhow
Just hoping they might 'kindly' chuck all the crap out from the loft, for me

11 weeks.
I don't think I can take 11 weeks of this.... so noisey.... such 'strange' noises.... and an overwelking sense, sitting in my bedroom on the netbook, that, at any moment, the roof is about to fall through and make me vanish
I'm not certain I can take a day* of this... let alone a week... let alone 11 weeks
Think I'll fold some towels. of course... what I really need.... is... well... it'd distract me ya know... a bit... blissing out into headspace for 11 weeks whilst the noise of the roof being torn off, just vasnished entirely from my mind... If I bliss-out enough n everything 'outside' 'me' just kinda disapears... totally
so* tempted just to pack my big rucksack, and go off 'on tour' until, I dunno... well, until the end of April or something...
Actually.
Actually.
Is there any good rason why I can't just do that?
I can't think with this noise... going to fold some towels

I still can't believe they're doing this in February. 11 weeks will take you right up to Easter.

Then you should have a nice cosy house. And the weather will start getting warmer anyway.

Its the council. They're stupid; I think its part of their job description.

I mean. Even there communicaitons regarding this work; No details whatsoever, on which* roofs, (I assumed all*, and that appears to be the case), Also no details on the 'level' of the work; I.E., just replacing tiling and felting, or removing rafters/beans/whatever those bits are called... (I assumed the latter, no idea which).
and.
and.

They didn't say when* the work would start. ; There was some 'hinting', it would be end of Feb, start of March; A later letter, sort of hinted sooner, but no actual dates; I mean... seriously....

What with the storms we've had recently, they think this is a good time? yeh... brainless...

I'm not even sure they inspected all* the roofs, of the 'block', or not; As far as I can tell, the whole thing is based on the fact one property at the end, had some trubble with its roof, and then, bang, they're wanting to replace the lot...

and, of course, the initial letter is sent out during Christmas, when everyone is busy. The work then randomly started (putting up the scaffolding) whilst I was away from home...

At the moment, I just so want it to finish, then I'm going to get myself organised, as quickly as possible; do up the interior, sell the house, and Just get out of this area... I've never really* liked it anyhow and... well, things like this just keep adding up I guess

I would get out if I could. I did that when they were pile driving the foundations of next door (I live on a new estate and they hadn't started the next set of houses when I moved in).

Can William put you up for a day or two?

I can go to williams' for as long as I want, basically... But, at the moment, I cna't; He hurt his back, about a week ago, and its still not good enough for him to even get out of the house very far I just wish really, I had my* house more to myself, or I'd have brought him here already, and be spending all my time pampering him AT his its quite cramped, and I can't really use his kitchen whic hwould make me going there at the moment, a bit tricky

Part of me, thinks I should* be here whilst its happening; to notice as soon as possible any ceilings that fall down where they sho9uldn't, and well, osrt of keep an eye on the place, in general, whilst its being bashed about from above and outside

I may need to buy new towels.... at this rate of towel-folding I'll wear them thread-bare by the end of the week

Going out tonight to have a break, fullstop, from being in the house... though of course, I guess they'll be stopped for the day by then anyhow

If I really concentrated enough, I could probably just about make myself 'bliss out' sufficiently to sort of 'meditate' the banging and noise away... only, of course, if I do that, I'll end up just doing nothing and staring vacantly into a mythical middle-distance
I just hope we don't get a spell of bad weather which delays all this work, and potentially would mean getting a cold, and even possibly wet inside of the house

*thinks*

yeh... a beach...

hmmm.... not silly hot overseas.... summary Brittish beach... quiet.... waves... gentle breeze... Maraham grass growing in clumps....

A large towel... sun... waves... sand... golden sand... hot to walk on...

*thinks*

yeh... can almost fade out the sound of hte hammering quite quick with some simple visualisation

err... exactly when did I get taught, or learn meditation... or was I just always able to do that... kinda weird, really... can just utterly block out, sometimes... and ... just ... 'go'... 'in my head'... 'elsewher' ... hmmm.... I don't even think I need to fold the towels to do it though, strangely... that does kinda help

Ahh.
That's getting reight l loud again... doubt I could ever manage to totally block that out... not without.. well... I'd need someone else here in order to achieve that

Just because we don't know why, or can't work out a good reason why, someone is doing something doesn't mean it's stupid thing to do, or they're stupid. It means we don't know why, or can't work out a good reason why, they're doing it because we're not a part of the organisation and haven't been in on the planning. There may or may not be a good reason why (or when) it's being. Sometimes councils/people/organisations do unfathomable things. Often they don't. Often there's a good reason why the unfathomable thing is being done.

Don't care : I'm not* sayign the 'what they're doing' is the stupid thing, more the way they are going about it, is the stupid thing; It would be nice, given I own my house (leasehold), were the council, as my 'landlords' (as the leasehold stuff insists on terming them), would I don't know... maybe tell us, as the people living in our houses, when they're going to come and remove the roof. I may have even been able to empty the loft before hand, if they'd told me. Amongst the things I'm going to lose now, from the loft, (I think* it is in there), is a pile of vinyl LPs. plus an old Braille embosser, even the old emobosser oughta be worth four hundred quid or so... It'd just be nice, if they communicated their plans, especially since I'm going to be paying seven thousand pounds or more for this work to be done.
We've got telephones. mobile phones. twitter. E-mail. there is even a letterbox in my front door, through which pieces of paper can be put, There are only six flats/houses, and six shops; not a huge amount of people to pass the information onto. I even got asked my my shopkeeper if I knew any more than he did, about it...

I'm still not 100% convinced they've acted within the law, entirely. But I'm not a solicitor so my 'lay-persons' reading through of the relivent bits of law, although to me, suggests it might not be, I can't be sure... I must get on the dog and speak to a solicitor see if I can have a (hopefully inexpensive), chat with em...

I'm lucky though. although unemployed, I have the money to pay for this work, when its done, although yes, I'd like to have spent it on otter stuff. Some of my neighbours... I really can't picture them having any savings...

Mind, paying out for this work, will most likely be the final coffin in the lid, for my living here; I really then won't ever have any money to repair, maintain and replace stuff in the house... hence it'd make sense to sell up, and move to a cheaper town/city I had the unexpected boiler work, err, last year/year before, and only a few years before that had to replace all the windows... Was actually starting to look forward to maybe being able to have the place painted, for the first time since I moved in, and making it smell a bit less disgusting in the house, and replace carpets etc, but that looks less likely now... and the oo...forty year old ish kitchen iwll have to manage to struggle on a bit longer too I guess It'll all work out fine in the end htough..... I've a plan so cunning, you could s stick a tail on it, and call it an eel...

this hammering and noise is unrelenting I'm going to go out and drink Guinness later though... and throw a ball about at some skittles So... that might help

True.

And they should be able to provide the rationale for what they're doing and when. Of course, when you ask what their plans are and reasoning for them, they may reply in this manner:

"There’s no point in acting surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for 50 of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now. … What do you mean you’ve never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven’s sake, mankind, it’s only four light years away, you know. I’m sorry, but if you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that’s your own lookout. Energize the demolition beams."

true...

which... only means one... thing...

*puts on dressing gown*

*lays down in front of roof-removal-workmen*

hmmm.... they might be getting the wrong idea about what I'm doing here... laying in my dressing gown in the mud... It'd work so much more effecitvely doing it in front of a bulldozer...

If it weren't for the whole money thing, I'd probably point out that we're not having roof work done here

Well, they seemed to finish for the day, at about 4 PM, though I could hear some noise, down below, I guess they had a lot of stuff to clear up for taking away Bit worried, if that was the noise, from the strange roof, at the back, in the eeves, which isn't really above the house... just sort of off the house what will it be like when they get to the roof actually* on top of the house

Glad to hear all the imminant dangerous weather warnings... they couldn't have picked a better time

Off out in half an hour, to throw a 1 stone bowling ball down the lane a few dozen times Half priced guinness on a Tuesday Its so* weird, paying less than £2 for a pint,f full stop... even though I can remember buying pints at normal* price of £1 when younger Not particularly looking forward to there being no ability to lay in tomorrow monring though, especially given my recent inability to sleep until gone 5 AM . . maybe the beer will send me to sleep a bit* earlier so I can get more than the 2, 3 or 4 hours sleep I've managed, a night, the past err, nearly a week

Well, they did some* work today... might have started a bit later, or it just didn't wake me up when they started... Quieter.... light hammering and some sawing, and sounds of bits of wood being moved about... I wonder, it may have been putting a new roof on, already... They're either on a very long extended lunchbreak, or the gusty high winds outside have gotten too gusty and dangerous for their continueing to work

It sounds so* quiet outside.... Ovviously it isn't, just useual* normal sounds of traffic, etc, but the contrast, from yesterday

Last nights rain sounded so* strange... I was in the studeo, which has the wal, and door, which goes into the loft space/eeves bit, where they've been working.... and I could hear the noise of the rain, in a very differnt way, as there was clearly no roof there Really had to struggle to resist the temptation to open the door, and just wonder out into what was, and which at that point may have been, just a flat open space luckily I resisted... otterwise I'd have probably ended up falling two storeys into the carpark below