Mr Happy

Junk email, you can filter out, and the odd one that does come through you can hit the delete button and its gone.
Unsolicited cold calling on the phone is more annoying but I thought this guy was particularly bad. Initially I thought, okay the man is just doing his job. Of course I asked how much for the service and he proceeded to give an elaborate break down of what it may cost but with the caveat that additional units would attract a premium charge of X pounds per unit. The obvious trap was to be fooled in to thinking the base price wasn't too bad but when you did a quick bit of mental arithmetic you realised that the base price was likely to be a third of the final bill. All this and I had to extract the fact that the figures he was so far quoting were pre VAT.
I shall explain at this point he was punting his service to test plug in electrical appliances; his starting off base fee for ten items would hardly see his man out of the average kitchen far less an entire house.
I put it to him that with his experience in this field he must know typically what it costs for a one, two or three bedroom property-speak to his boss- and come back with a price accordingly. To my immense irritation he emailed me back this morning with a regurgitation of exactly what he read out from the script on the phone previously, totally ignoring what I had asked him. In a brief reply I indicated that I am self employed and our clients all want to know one thing; what is the price? I can't say X if it is dry and Y if it is raining (and our work is more difficult in poor weather) or a bit extra if there are bushes in our way. We have to make reasonable assumptions and deliver a service with some perception of value to it. I found his reply quite ironic:

"Please don't contact me again sir"

Well Daniel you started this nonsense with your annoying cold call!

So I don't leave folk with the "Grumpy Old Man" impression I can advise that after D left my life I have had a lovely day. My cad work was completed early on. I drove down to Fort William and called in to see my parents. I met M after her visit to the hair dresser, AND she looks lovely by the way, and for lunch we had a bowl of soup together in a wee café in Fort William. M continued home for the fish man, who visits Roy Bridge on a Tuesday afternoon and to be there for the boys coming home.

Through Facebook I had become aware that a girl I was at school with was back in the area for a short holiday and I had arranged to meet J and her husband N for a coffee and blether further down the street. Its funny, through regular FB exchanges you feel like you have never lost touch, yet in trying to work out when we last met face to face I found myself reaching for a calculator. Its been a long time. J works in the legal sector and N, like me, is self employed. They are at a more advanced stage of parenthood than us. The concerns never diminish they just change it would seem.
J and N were enjoying their short break and it was a pleasure to have met up with J again after so many years. (I'm not being offensive to N here it is just that today was the very first time I had met him.)
Bizarrely I was a few seconds late because I bumped in to our old maths teacher (J and I were in the same maths class) out in the street who I have also not seen in years.
I hope he didn't take my obvious haste the wrong way. H is a really decent guy and keen hill walker. He was also an excellent teacher.

There you are; Mr Happy again.