By Robbie Burns:
"But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane [you aren't alone]
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry]
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promised joy."
My last post outlined my plans to renovate my kitchen and go on a Bicycle Ride along the Mary Valley in a couple of weeks but the title says it all.
Following recommendations from a couple of satisfied friends for a particular kitchen renovation company on the Sunshine Coast, I got a quote and paid my deposit. The renovation began last Tuesday. First the electrician came and removed my oven, cook top and microwave oven. Next the plumber came and removed the kitchen sink and finally the carpenter came and started fabricating the new bench top which is a much lighter marble finish than the old one.
During the morning I said that I was looking forward to putting all the kitchen utensils and crockery back in place. These were all over the dining area table, the barbecue area table and the spare bedroom. The carpenter then told me that there would be a few days delay and that he would be back on Friday to install the cupboards. I managed to get the plumber back to next day to fit the new sink so I had water and decided to cook outside using my gas camping stove and barbecue.
On Thursday evening I received a call to tell me that the cupboards were being delayed and they could not give me a completion date so I have spent the whole weekend living/camping in my house.
As a result of a firm e-mail to the renovation company last Friday I finally got a reply this morning telling me that they were endeavouring to "speed up" the delivery of the cupboards. They had no answer to my question why they had demolished my kitchen before informing me of the delay.
As a result of all this I have been unable to finalise the details of my bike ride which was to have started next Sunday.
On the brighter side I did use last Friday for a bike ride of about 40Km including a coffee stop in Cooroy. This just pushed my distance on the new internally geared hub over the 1,000Km distance and I was able to to the hub's first oil change. This was carried out with no problems and the next oil change is at 6,000Km which will take about three years. As I use my shopping bike for most local rides and cover about 50Km a week on it I must be doing about 5,000Km a year.
I will update the kitchen saga in my next post.
