I spent practically the whole afternoon today on the phone, to the insurance firm, the carpet firm (not George the rug guy, this is re the laminate that was totalled in the flood), the inspection firm. I'm just about ready to forget the whole thing and just paint the damned floor, a la Changing Rooms.

The insurance firm says the inspector's report only gives me £1,100 (roughly) for the new floor, all up. The carpet firm says the new floor will cost £1,500 (roughly). all up. When I got back to the insurance firm, they said to phone the inspector. I phoned the inspection firm, they said talk to the insurance firm. After an argument the woman I spoke to relented and said, send us the estimate from the carpet firm and we'll think about it. So, back to the carpet firm, where I managed to beat them down a hundred quid or so, and they're sending me an estimate which I can send to the inspection firm and they can report on it to the insurance firm. Which in the meantime I think has sent me a cheque made out to the carpet firm for £1,100 (roughly).

This might sound the work of minutes, but every phone call was feindishly complex to make -- "if you are inquiring about a current claim, please key in the number of the team which is dealing with it". Team? I have a team? The inspection firm had the old-fashioned system whereby you explain what you want to several different people before getting through to the right one. At the carpet firm, John was often busy "with a customer" and I had to wait for him to call back.

I did tell the insurance woman about George-the-rug, to emphasise that I WASN'T TRYING TO CON THEM OUT OF ANY MONEY, IN FACT I WAS SAVING THEM MONEY (sorry to shout), but that seemed to give her the impression I was trying to pull some more complex con.

Ach, I'm no good at this sort of thing, it makes my head hurt even to do the arithmetic.

I try for perspective -- at least I'm not an Afghan refugee freezing to death in a camp in the middle of nowhere -- but that doesn't work any better than when mum used to tell me to eat everything on my plate because there were children starving in China.