Friday, October 13, 2006
Life continues
I felt so sorry for the PRs at the press party I went to last night. They had to try to sell the idea of a feature on a catheter for stress urinary incontinence to me and about 50 others. Pointing to the catheter, the PR tried to be serious but I couldn't help recoiling very slightly as I reached out to touch it and we all laughed.
On the upside though, I got a test to see how bad my skin's sun damage is. Ever since I started getting wrinkles a couple of years ago, the horrific realisation of just what I did to my skin as a teenager has dawned...the many days spent age sixteen ladling cooking oil over my flesh and lying in the South African sun trying to burn because that is the only way freckly people like me get a smooth tan rather than more freckles. So I was expecting to be told my skin is beyond saving. But I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that the damage is not too bad in my case - 4 out of 10 where 0 is zero damage and 10 is severe. I am sure there has been a mistake!
These musings were interrupted by a terrible conversation with Network Rail. We have been waiting for months for them to consent to us cutting down the trees causing subsidence to our home. Just now I was rung by someone I have spoken to before when I chased this up about a month ago, but he had no memory of me. His entire function seemed to be to drown the whole project in years of bureaucracy. There was no question of any work being arranged, of course not.
No, instead he proposed he writes a letter to our insurers' agents, in which he would ask them to tell him who their clients are. I said, 'But we are the clients, can I not just tell you that right now? Why do you need to write a letter when my neighbour's flat is growing cracks every day and she's scared there's going to be a gas explosion from the pipes under so much pressure from the tree roots?'
'We are quite busy, I don't have much time to spend on this today,' he whined.
No, I 'm not busy either, I thought. And we've only been chasing you guys for the last two months just asking if it's OK to cut down a few trees, how bloody hard can it be for you to put an agreement in place?
We went round in circles for about fifteen pointless minutes until I got him to agree to put us in touch with an administrator for Network Rail's treecutters, since he doesn't seem to be too pleased with the plans submitted several months ago by the treecutters our insurers put on the project (but of course, he had done nothing about this).
I have no idea how we ended up in this situation where we, the landowners, pay rent to Network Rail to lease a tiny strip of land that is actually part of our own garden and contains basically a line of trees by the railway. Our lease's absurd terms state that although NW owns the trees, we are responsible for maintaining them and thus, now they need removing, we have to pay for it!
Luckily, our building is made up of a lovely sprinkling of professionals - a city lawyer, three journalists, a corporate accountant and two engineers by my last count - and so we might think of legally challenging the lease.
The worst bit is he is insisting there needs to be a railway possession to cut the trees safely, which will cost us thousands....aaargh....
On the upside though, I got a test to see how bad my skin's sun damage is. Ever since I started getting wrinkles a couple of years ago, the horrific realisation of just what I did to my skin as a teenager has dawned...the many days spent age sixteen ladling cooking oil over my flesh and lying in the South African sun trying to burn because that is the only way freckly people like me get a smooth tan rather than more freckles. So I was expecting to be told my skin is beyond saving. But I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that the damage is not too bad in my case - 4 out of 10 where 0 is zero damage and 10 is severe. I am sure there has been a mistake!
These musings were interrupted by a terrible conversation with Network Rail. We have been waiting for months for them to consent to us cutting down the trees causing subsidence to our home. Just now I was rung by someone I have spoken to before when I chased this up about a month ago, but he had no memory of me. His entire function seemed to be to drown the whole project in years of bureaucracy. There was no question of any work being arranged, of course not.
No, instead he proposed he writes a letter to our insurers' agents, in which he would ask them to tell him who their clients are. I said, 'But we are the clients, can I not just tell you that right now? Why do you need to write a letter when my neighbour's flat is growing cracks every day and she's scared there's going to be a gas explosion from the pipes under so much pressure from the tree roots?'
'We are quite busy, I don't have much time to spend on this today,' he whined.
No, I 'm not busy either, I thought. And we've only been chasing you guys for the last two months just asking if it's OK to cut down a few trees, how bloody hard can it be for you to put an agreement in place?
We went round in circles for about fifteen pointless minutes until I got him to agree to put us in touch with an administrator for Network Rail's treecutters, since he doesn't seem to be too pleased with the plans submitted several months ago by the treecutters our insurers put on the project (but of course, he had done nothing about this).
I have no idea how we ended up in this situation where we, the landowners, pay rent to Network Rail to lease a tiny strip of land that is actually part of our own garden and contains basically a line of trees by the railway. Our lease's absurd terms state that although NW owns the trees, we are responsible for maintaining them and thus, now they need removing, we have to pay for it!
Luckily, our building is made up of a lovely sprinkling of professionals - a city lawyer, three journalists, a corporate accountant and two engineers by my last count - and so we might think of legally challenging the lease.
The worst bit is he is insisting there needs to be a railway possession to cut the trees safely, which will cost us thousands....aaargh....
# posted by Olivia @ 10:54 am 
