Tuesday August 8th 2023

Don't buy a shiny new house if you want a problem-free existence, that's what Lois and I have learnt in the past 9 months. Yesterday, however, we got a visit from Winston of Persimmon Customer Care together with one of his assistants, and this time we think they really mean business about fixing the remaining "snags" as these new-build customer care guys call them.

Lois's toys, her Mir Jafah (left) and the teddy bear she misguidedly

tried to bath when she was a toddler, look on approvingly

as two Persimmon Customer Care vans draw up outside

Winston doesn't mess around - if something's obviously not working, he tends to suggest, "We'll order you a new one!". And we like his style! 

our latest "snag-list" of outstanding problems

with this house

For example he's going to get us a new door for the central heating boiler, because the one we've got is obviously warped; and a new lid for our gas meter, which was obviously botched, and doesn't lock properly - even a meditative idiot like me can see that! 

He's getting a plumber in to discover why our hot water is cloudy, and a bricklayer to repair holes in the mortar between the bricks on our walls. And they're going to replace the bit of stair carpet that's crazily worn itself completely away after only 9 months' use - what a madness it all is!

I showcase a bit of worn stair carpet - practically worn bare

after only 9 months - what madness!!!

And Winston's assistant takes a bit of time out this morning to fix the locks on the two bathroom doors - sometimes they stick when you're inside trying to unlock them, which is enough to send the calmest person into a minor panic. He says the locks are gummed up with sawdust, and that's why they stick from time to time. Simples!

typical members of a Persimmon Customer Care team

Lois, however, who's more realistic than me, says we should withhold judgment on whether all these repairs and replacements are really going to happen - we've been promised things in the past which have turned out to be just words to keep us happy for a while, and stop us sending bad reviews back to the NHBC (National House Building Council). 

So we'll have to see. The jury's definitely still out on this one. Oh dear!

16:00 An email from Steve, our American brother-in-law, comes in with a bonus amusing Venn diagram attached.

Haha! But the question is, surely, "Should Lois and I start doing more of our own Venn diagrams to sort out some of the messes we get into sometimes?" And should we be told, perhaps?

Certainly Venn diagrams are beginning to emerge as a useful tool not just for businesses but also for families, particularly in the States, but I expect it will start happening here soon. Oh dear (again) !

In the States, Venn diagrams have for some years been starting to play a major role in preparations for Thanksgiving, always a tricky situation when families get together and long-forgotten problems inevitably get the chance to resurface, as suggested in this article on the influential American website Onion News

In an effort to ensure a smooth and enjoyable dinner with their relatives, siblings Jason, Alyssa, and Leslie Conroy reportedly sat down together Tuesday evening for a PowerPoint presentation covering all of the conversation topics that will be off-limits during the family’s Thanksgiving gathering. 

“As you can see here, we’re unsure whether or not cousin Jessica is actually college-bound, so we’re going to avoid that subject and stick to the key talking points listed in this table,” said Alyssa Conroy, 26, during the siblings’ 48-slide presentation, which reportedly featured pie charts breaking down the state and national voting histories of extended family members, as well as Venn diagrams illustrating what each relative knows about their father’s upcoming surgery. 

“While we’d like to stay away from this topic if possible, this timeline does lay out Sarah’s various employers and subsequent job search over the last several years, and the chart to the right summarizes Uncle Jack and Aunt Peg’s opposing viewpoints on the matter. Now, if you would open your handouts to page 14, Jason’s going to give us the outline of Dad and Uncle Jack’s ongoing argument about renting a house together in Cape Cod this summer.” 

The presentation reportedly concluded with a reminder not to ask Uncle Tim’s girlfriend anything, a slide that has been carried over from the last seven straight PowerPoints.

We in the UK are perhaps lucky that we don't have a Thanksgiving get-togethers, with all their fraught consequences, that's for sure!

20:00 We wind down for bed by watching a programme in Michael Portillo's series "Great American Railway Adventures" on BBC4.

Who knew that the Louisiana Purchase, whereby in 1803 the US was sold over 800,000 square miles of territory by the Emperor Napoleon, effectively doubled the size of the country? [I expect millions of people knew that, apart from you two "noddles" !!! - Ed]

The Louisiana Purchase (1803)

In tonight's programme, Michael is travelling across Missouri, from Washington to the state capital of Jefferson City, via Hermann, which was originally settled by German immigrants.

In the town of Hermann, the German language was the standard for many years, but it was killed off by World War II. Here we see Michael talking to one of the residents in the area, who says that the original settlers were keen to establish a wine industry on German lines - and at its peak in the 1870's Missouri was the largest wine-producing state in the country, with over 60 wineries in the area. 

This resident grew up in a nearby town called Potsdam, but the day that the US entered World War I, in 1917, the townspeople changed its name to Pershing, in honour of General Pershing. The Federal Government took an aggressive attitude towards the area, the resident says, looking for German sympathisers. And as a result, use of the German language died out. 

And the Government's hostile attitude to the German population in the area also helped to kill off the wine industry there. When prohibition arrived in the 1920's, a lot of Californian wineries switched to making communion or sacramental wine, but with the anti-German sentiment prevalent at the time, the Missouri wine industry didn't attempt to do that. So it all pretty much ended there and then. 

Next, Michael travels on to the state capital, Jefferson City. 

Although the capital, Jefferson City has a population even today of only 40,000 and a small-town atmosphere to go with it, Michael is surprised to see a massive prison building, the State Penitentiary, capable of housing up to 5,000 prisoners, and originally built by the prisoners themselves - under close supervision, I would imagine. [You don't say! - Ed]

the Missouri State Penitentiary, Jefferson City

The penitentiary closed in 2004, but Michael talks to a former warden about how such a huge jail came to be built here. It was actually the prison, not just for the state of Missouri, but also for the massive area to the west of it, which had no prisons in the mid-19th century.

So if you committed a crime in, say, Colorado, the local sheriff or the local bounty-hunter took you back to the penitentiary in Jefferson City.

See? Simples!!! Suddenly it's all starting to make a crazy kind of sense, isn't it!

It was pretty crowded, though, 6 to a cell, with no plumbing, no electricity and no heat, and no beds - just a straw mattress on the floor. And the regime was harsh, to put it mildly. Silence was the rule, and prisoners were not even allowed to have eye contact with the warders. Door to cells were deliberately built low, so that prisoners would have to stoop to go in and out, which further underlined their subordinate position.

Fascinating stuff !!!!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!