Today I'm meditating on honesty. That's because today I took my Persian rug in for cleaning.

The rug in question was a victim of my New Year flood -- the burst pipe flood. It was bundled soaking wet into the shed, where it promptly froze solid. When the insurance assessor came, he took one look and said: "The dye's run. Throw it out, we'll replace it."

After the rug dried a bit I brought it inside for a look. It didn't seem too bad, and as I'm very fond of it, I thought I'd rather get it cleaned than replaced.

People's reactions have been extraordinary. "You're mad," is pretty much the consensus. Even people I thought of as morally upright said I should get a new rug on the insurance AND keep the old one.

So today I took the rug in to the purveyor of fine oriental rugs recommended by the place where I bought mine, for cleaning. The chap there, George, hemmed and hawed and said well certainly we could clean it -- but we have plenty of very nice rugs if you want to replace it. He said it was worth £750.

What! I only paid £250 for it ... admittedly six or seven years ago. And it's not THAT marvellous.

Ah well, you made a good buy, and prices have gone up since then. This is a very good rug.

Slick as a merchant in the Marrakesh souk he whisked me through to the display room to look at replacement rugs. They were finely woven, plush and thick, soft as a baby's bottom. "These are MUCH better quality than mine," I said suspiciously.
"We sell good quality rugs at a reasonable price," he countered.

I still like my rug though, so I told him just to clean it, thanks very much. He wrote me out a docket, on which he put the replacement value of the rug: £950.

£950!!! It CAN'T be worth that much! I squealed. "That's what good quality rugs like yours are worth today," he said firmly.

He says if I'm not happy after it's been cleaned he'll give me a quote for reweaving the bits where the dye has run.

He obviously thinks I'm mad too. I don't want to question George's moral standing but ... well I have my suspicions. It's good business for him if he can sell me a fancy-schmancy rug and if the insurance is paying, surely it's no skin off my nose.

I'm no saint, I've done my share of law-breaking -- I even spent a night in jail once. But this rug business is doing my head in. I just hope the insurance company appreciates my efforts on their behalf.

Speaking of which -- a woman phoned today to say they are sending a cheque for the plumber's fee. When I asked mildly about the rest of the claim she became flustered and said "Oh, er, um ... I thought that had all been dealt with, oh dear!" So that cheque's now on its way too. And I've called the carpet place about the new laminate and they've got Dougie checking his schedule.

And the windows start going in on Monday, hurrah!!