Boiler Blues an' More

Early afternoon, Monday. At work, third week of Feb. Grey day and cold-ish. My eyes are sore and I don't know why. Possibly to do with having a little less sleep than usual, but then again maybe not. Busy weekend because it was the Tibetan new year and since Tamdin is Tibetan it meant a party on Saturday for the Tibetan Community in Britain at a hall in Islington, North London. Then we were out to dinner yesterday evening to our Tibetan neighbours. The East London Tibetans. Lots of eating, not so much drinking because I was behind the wheel. Driving duty in other words. Keepin' us safe. On Saturday I managed to have a couple of large whiskies at the end of the night around 1 am-ish after we had got back from the Tibetan Community party. Jamesons. Lots of ice. Big gulps so that that effect of the spirit went straight down the back of my throat. Big swallow then a burning in the ears. Nice. As the Damned used to say, it is better taken neat, neat, neat.

Pressure at work over having to replace the boiler. Think I may have written about the boiler situation vis a viz our landlords before, but what the hell, a little bit of repetition aint gonna do any harm within the realm of Ghost Eternal so here we go (again).

Facts of the situation are as follows. We signed a repairing lease which means that if any fixtures or plant pack in during our time in the building we have to replace them. Fair enough. The boiler has gone so now we have to get a new one. Problem is the landlord wants us virtually replace the whole heating system - new boiler, new radiators, new valves and who knows what else. All new, and all to be paid for by us. They have put in a quote for the job that comes out at a cool £14,000. A lot of money. Not only that but we only have just over 2 & half years left on the lease anyway which means we could very likely be handing over all this bread and not sticking around for very long to enjoy the benefits. We have begun to get in other quotes but whatever happens it is going to cost.

Difficult to see at the moment what the landlord wants from us. They have said they would like to see the other quotes we get in order to make sure that the terms of the lease are not going to be broken by any works which might be undertaken by whoever we finally decide to go for to do the job. Don't know if they want to throw up unnecessary difficulties for us or not. Maybe they would just like to get us out of the building and the way they might be able to do it is to get us to fall foul of the lease, then they can just chuck us out (and sue the arses out of us as well). Possible. Or maybe they are just being fussy. That is also possible.

Decided to just give the landlords copies of the quotes that we have got in so far, prices and all. No point in hiding anything. If they turn around and say that the quotes are not acceptable the very least we can ask of them is that they give their reasons as to why they are no good and what it is they are or are not doing with respect to complying with the lease. Yes, at least when we see their response to these 2 quotes we might get a better picture of where it is they are coming from.

If their response is negative we can ask them what it is they do not like about them, in fact we can ask them to put their reasons in writing. This seems fair enough to me. They have to clearly state to us what it is that is required in order for a new boiler to be installed in compliance with the terms of the lease. If they refuse to do this then surely they are then just going to look stupid...then as far as I can work out we will be in a good position if things get heavy later on. We can state that we got quotes for the job, we submitted those quotes to the landlord but they were rejected as they landlord told us that if the works were undertaken as per the quotes we have received we would be in non-compliance of the terms of the lease. However the landlord refused to give us their reasons as to why the works would be in non-compliance. Left us in the dark in other words.

The other possibility is they return the quotes to us along with an extensive explanation as to why they are not acceptable. In other words they give us a full breakdown of what it is that has to be done by whoever we choose to replace the boiler.

Got to get these thoughts down despite the fact they no doubt look extremely mundane and boring. Just can't get away from the fact that I feel out of my depth trying to deal with all this. Best policy is to keep things honest and simple. Just do that and see how far it manages to get us. After that we will have to call in the lawyers if it looks like there is not going to be any solution. Hope it don't come to that but it might. In fact it very well might. Landlords. Lords of the land is what they are there is no doubt about that. Feels like the fuckin' middle ages.

Compared to them what I do is peanuts i terms of income generation. Just working away at trying to sell a few books. Well the fact of the matter is that I have to now sell quite a few books in order to be able to pay the bills we are going to get for boiler...whoever does it. Work, work, work and then sit back and see it all taken away from you. Is that really how it is supposed to be?

All the above was wrote last night. Now it is Tues morn and the weather just as grey and dull as yesterday. Cloud covered sky, we all labour under it. Well we do if we happen to live in England. All the time carrying around in our minds our little trials and tribulations. Things which to us can loom large on the horizon of our own consciousness, stuff which may not mean much to anyone else but which is our burden and ours alone.

Early afternoon now. Will write a few lines. No word from the landlord regarding the boiler quotes as yet. Been half expecting something to drop through the letterbox, some tersely worded document. Got another boiler installer coming round on Thursday so hopefully that will mean another a couple more quotes will soon by winging their way to the landlords. That should give them something to chew on.

Guess I need to stop going over it in my mind all the time. Chewing on it is only going to be any good if it leads to solutions, otherwise letting the whole situation go around and around in my mind is no good. Shows a lack of self-control when I chase after it, an inability to move on and concentrate on other things. Run the danger of things getting so bogged down and stale that I don't see the wood from the trees. Need to break out of such a cycle. Only think about what to do next when the time is right. Don't try to anticipate, don't make the mistake of thinking that I can control the situation.

Weds morn now. Clearer weather today after two days of solid cloud. A few breaks above with patches of light blue way up high. Not that cold. Ain't been cold at all this winter I have to say. Rain in the night as well. At home today working with Tamdin on sending out medicine. Quite a bit to do. No more news on the boiler so I will forget about that now. Or try to. The firm A One Solo from Walthamstow are calling round tomorrow morning to have a look at it and give it a quote so hopefully the picture will be clearer by then, well it probably wont be but don't know what else to say about it at the moment really.

Woke up this mornin' after dreaming about New York. I was there with my friend Richard, in fact I was his guest. He was livin' there. Funny dream. In it I was there for the second time and we were waiting to go on a big slide in the middle of the city between the skyscrapers. Stuff kept getting in the way to make it difficult for us to ever get there. By the end we were in a pizza parlour, having a meal before finally getting to go on the ride, but then after that I woke up.

The whole thing about the dream was that it was all so familiar, I was conscious of the fact that I had been in NYC before and I was re-visiting places I had already seen. It therefore lacked the feeling of fresh vitality and wonder that you can sometimes have when see a place for the first time. Had quite a few other dreams last night as well, about people from the past. Think it was because we were woken up by the phone at 4 am. Sleep was disturbed in other words. Neither Tamdin or I could make it downstairs to answer it and find out who it was. Both of us assumed it was someone calling from India who had got their time zones all mixed up and didn't realise it was still the middle of the night in London. It happens sometimes believe me, especially with Tibetans. Called 1471 this morning and discovered it was a mobile number that was calling us. That meant it was someone in the UK. Mystery. Probably wrong number.

Still enjoying playing around with the old ipod. Playing being the operative word. Playlists abound, with there being a bit of an obsessive focus on nailing down the ultimate Rolling Stones playlist. Fact of the matter is that it is impossible to do them justice with just one list, unless you make it about 6 hours long. So at the moment I am on about my fourth major Stones playlist. Each one pretty chunky. Let's see...there is is Right Stones playlist that had 30 trax, Rampant Stones with 40, Roaming Stones with 24 and Rocky Stones with 17. Clearly the last one needs beefing up a bit.

Such a great group the Stones, though, probably the greatest. Don't know what it is about them but I have a pretty good idea. All stems down watertight rhythm thanks to the incredible Charlie Watts on the skins and then the master of riffology Sir Keith Richards laying down truly memorable, truly addictive riffs and licks over the rest of the music. As with all truly classic rock and roll there is more than a hint of hard drugs and more than a hint of the devil about them. That is just the way it has to be for the music to be any good. Can't remember where I read it, but I remember someone saying the only person in the world who doesn't look stupid with a guitar round his neck is Keith Richards. That might just be right. And now he's gonna be in the new Pirates of the Caribbean. Top geezer.

Evenin' now, still Wednesday. Just been scanning itunes thinking of buying stuff on download but haven't quite found anything to fit the bill. Only a question of time though. Maybe I'll go for the Keith Richards debut "Talk is Cheap" or maybe even Kraftwerk's "Minimum-Maximum", their double live album which is available at what seems to be a very reasonable £7.99.

Mornin' now. Thursday. Another grey day. Back to the grey after a yesterday's sun which served as a respite from the consistently gloomy skies. Well, I have downloaded the Kraftwerk live effort and for £7.99 I think it is a bit of a bargain. Poddin' it right now and sounds as mightily electronic as I was expecting. Travel, speed and visions; all inhabiting the deeply nocturnal...the landscape of Kraftwerk in other words. They just wouldn't have it any other way. Nice to have on low and in the background to this.

Back to work soon. Hopefully will write a bit more on here when I am there. First I have the usual commute from Ilford to Woodford to look forward to. In the car. In the Toyota Avensis. Gettin' out of Woodford is usually the biggest problem due to the fact it has a lot of schools (mostly private) and the time that I leave is almost bang in the middle of their rush hour. Mother after mother in 4 x 4 s with brats either in the front or the back. What a fuckin' mess. The scramble to get on. To get on down the road, to get on in life with a good education. Runnin' round on the wheel. And me in the midst of it, a ghost behind the wheel, quietly tryin' not to lose my cool as I flick from silence in the cabin, to radio 4, to the CD player which at the moment of course is dominated by the Stones. All I an say is when the holidays come around gettin' out of Woodford and goin' to work is heaven. Clear roads, sunlight on the horizon. Bright sunlight, bursting out beneath the clouds. Intimations of eternity suddenly breakin' thru'.

Evenin' now. A crappy day as far as the weather has been concerned, a really crappy day. Cloud, plenty of it, rain and a cold wind rattling down the streets. Bleak. Slow day for business, little bits of this and that but nothing to get excited about. That's the working life I lead, lots of grinding away at the little things and not too many thrills. And all in the wonderful environs of Ilford. Well actually Ilford is not that bad, plenty of worse laces around that's for sure...along with plenty of better ones as well of course but I'll try not to dwell too much on that.

Writing this with Kraftwerk on the ipod. Sounds good but maybe I was expecting more, I dunno.

Keep thinkin' about the business and whether or not there is more we can try to do to move things along. By move things along I mean create more business. What is that is required?

Investment? In what? Maybe in stock, then we sell the stock on the site.
Advertising? What kind? To customers we have already got? To people already on our mailing lists? Do some deep mailing? Try to get the word as to what we are about these days to people who contacted us years ago? We have thousands of people on our mailing lists, maybe send a card to those who we haven't been in touch with us for years and years and see what comes back. Use it as an opportunity to clean things up a bit. Could be expensive.
Bringing people onto the site. Try to do that already, but maybe could do more.
Thoughts. Thoughts. Thoughts.