Do they see us coming?

From the happy corner I always try and make excuses for everything unpleasant that happens. There is always an explanation for turning a hurt into a mistake.

But it's too hard this week.

I have just seen my french teacher in the town and whilst explaining the last round of things that have happened I found I would quite like to sit down and cry, so a blog is called for.

The final straw was the wardrobe. We have had difficulty finding a wardrobe for our wondrous new bedroom. We went to a shop that was recommended about an hour's drive away and although they did not have what we wanted in the shop they had an old oak one in the workshop that looked as if it might be lovely. The very nice man said that he would do it up and then we could look at it and if it wasn't what we wanted we needn't have it. 900€. Sounded too good to be true but ok.

A month later his wife rang and I'm sure said that it was ready and we arranged to go and see it on Saturday afternoon. When we got there we were shown another one at 950€ that was nothing like the other one because there had been so much work to do on the one we wanted that it was now 1200€. We went to see the one we wanted which was still being done and looked lovely. BUT forget it. Why do they think we would suddenly pay 1/3 more? Why didn't she say on the phone - well actually I know why she didn 't say, if we were in the shop we might have bought the other one.

On the same day we had a letter replying to our letter to the plumber/electrician. We had asked why the bill was 39% more than the devis and listed loads of points requiring explanation. In France, if you buy your own stuff for the pl/elec to fit they don't quote for fitting on the devis, they add it at the end. You would think that someone would have mentioned this perhaps. Even from the happy corner - who else did they think was going to fit it. All the other points were just repeated with more words. No mention of any less money.

I'll put the update on the stairman on another blog.