Five things make an election day

[shewhomust]

• As agreed, the bathroom fitters arrived on Tuesday morning to start work on the downstairs bathroom. They ripped out all the fittings, and took up the floor. They discovered, what we had already told them, that there was damp underneath the floor (this, indeed, more than a desire for a shiny modern wet room, is the reason why the downstairs bathroom heads the list of home improvements). "I thought there would be joists under the flooring," said the boss, and we made sympathetic noises, and refrained from saying that we had told him the floor was solid (and he had confirmed explicitly that he felt competent to take on a job which was likely to involve remedial building work). The work will take longer and cost more than the original estimate, but this hasn't come as a total surprise. The most unnerving thing is hearing the excited Polish conversations and not knowing what they are about.



• To the cinema, to see Their Finest. It is based on a novel called Their Finest Hour and a Half, which strikes me as a clever and witty title: I wonder why they changed it for one which people are forever getting wrong? But the film was enjoyable, if you didn't think about it too hard. Apparently it is still inevitable, if a man and a woman are on friendly terms, that romance will ensue (and I don't think that can be regarded as a spoiler since it is, as I say, inevitable). It also has to balance - or perhaps juggle - a humorous depiction of the making of a film which will boost morale during the Blitz, with the depiction of the Blitz itself, which isn't in the least funny. This dissonance was amplified by the fact that the film within a film is a sentimental account of Dunkirk, and one of the trailers preceding the main feature was for a particularly bloodthirsty account of the same event.



• We walked home over Milburngate Bridge, which we haven't done for some time, as parts of the route (not always the bridge itself) have been closed for various reasons. We had a fine view of the pile of rubble where the Passport Office used to be - literally, in that the plan is to use the debris of the old building as a platform on which to build the new, so raising it above the main flood risk. The heron was strolling along the weir, admiring his reflection in the still water above it.



• Yes, election day. We, like many other parts of the country, have county council elections. You are forgiven for not noticing. The news media have occasionally mentioned the elections for the new powerhouse mayors (thankfully, we have escaped this one so far), but county councils are beneath their notice: London doesn't have one, so it can't be anything important. Finally, today they had to notice. The Today programme this morning kept announcing that 'we aren't reporting on politics today' in what I thought was a very passive-aggressive manner.



• For what it's worth, I'm not convinced that reporting on the issues - such as they are - of the General Election would have had much influence in this ward. We have been showered with leaflets by both Greens and Lib Dems, who have good grounds for claiming that neither Labour nor Tories have a hope. I'm quite insulted that the Labour Party haven't felt it worth making an effort: they control the County Council, and seem to resent that the City is an enclave of dissent, but they haven't tried to win us over. The other contender was an independent - a semi-detached Green, and I wonder what the story is behind that? Anyway, the polls have just closed - the count is tomorrow.

Comments

[athenais]

Your home improvement schemes are so much more fundamental than ours. Although that depends on what we find when they take up the carpeting. 18 layers of linoleum? Hardwood? We don't know. This house is 78 years old and a lot of what's been done to it has been mere window dressing.

[shewhomust]

Our house is older than yours (1901) but not that much older...

Our schemes may be more fundamental (that's meant to be a pun, right?) but yours are more extensive. I read your post and was thankful we would never undertake anything that involves clearing every room at once. You are very brave! (Also, ruthless, in a good way.)

[athenais]

Yes, a rare pun from me! I am afraid I have to be ruthless or we would never get this done. John may be content to live in a pile of papers and books, but I can't think clearly when every sightline is obscured by piles of objects we don't have room for.

We have decided, though, that John's room is just not a reasonable goal. When we sell this house someday we will pull up that carpet and put in wood flooring or something so it's not so odd that it wasn't done at the same time.

[cmcmck]

No elections here this time until the general.

[shewhomust]

As I understand it, some councils elect a third of their members a year, in three years of each four, and others (including Durham) elect the whole council in the fourth year.