No news is .. what news?

Friday, 10am.

I’ve still not heard from the building inspector about my strip footing for the test wall. Odd, I’ll sent him a text and ask.

Me: “Hi Joe, did Ken get chance to have a look at the strip footing? Aiming to pour concrete tomorrow.”

Him: “No, the gate is locked.”

Me: “Yes, that’s right - as we discussed, I’m not on site until later today. Is Ken not able to walk around it?”

Him: “No. Too far and his time is too valuable.”

WTF!?

A little back story…

When I last spoke to Mr. Inspector about this strip footing, I asked about the possibility of getting it inspected last Saturday (the middle of the Easter weekend). That was going to cost a small fortune in overtime, so common sense prevailed and I mentioned that I’d get it ready and we could have it inspected today, Friday. Mr. Inspector then suggested that they visit sites all the time which are unattended, so they could look at it during the week in my absence. Perfect!

So on Tuesday morning I sent them a text to let them know it was ready, and then left.

Then.. crickets. Nothing, until my text this morning.

Now, it turns out that “Ken” (name changed to protect the .. relationship) actually came up on Tuesday afternoon to have a look, but indeed found the gate locked (since I’m not here) and left as he was in a hurry to get to another job.

Fair enough.

But don’t give me some officious bullshit argument about his time being too valuable to walk for 4 minutes to the house site, when every time he visits we spend half an hour chatting about nothing, and then don’t bother to tell me the inspection hasn’t been done!

Especially since Ken lives literally just down the road and visits our neighbour on a regular basis.

@^*$& !!!

</rant>

Anyway.

I bit my tongue and very politely asked if Ken could possibly make a visit this afternoon, since I’d be on site from around 3pm. “Yes, OK” was the reply, and when I arrived at 3:06pm (having driven from Bright, two hours away) Ken was just about to leave again having found the gate locked, again.

Needless to say, the inspection has now been completed, photographic evidence taken and all in the space of five minutes, a new record. Clearly, time is money.

The concrete arrives tomorrow at 12:30. I’m fairly confident I can depend on them to get the job done, sans toro merda.