What a week

This really has been one of those Lions weeks. Monday (August Bank Holiday) saw many of our club - but not me - at Seaford for the local Lions donkey derby. They were selling books and running the pig races. Tuesday there was a zone meeting (no less than 30% of our members turned up), Wednesday our monthly dinner meeting, Thursday a Lion from Menton was in town so Pete and I met him for a drink in the evening, yesterday evening was sent preparing for the book fair this morning, where I shall be heading very shortly.

Yesterday there were also problems with the Housing Society. There has for some time been a problem with the drains at one of our properties and the solution, it seems, is to dig up the existing drain and relay it. I know nothing about these things, but our chairman runs a building company and does understand them. He told a meeting of the tenants that while the work was going on, the front door would be inaccessible and our manager arranged for the lock on the community room fire door to be changed and all tenants to be given keys. But what about the postman? And how to visitors announce themselves if they can't get to the entryphone? But at least the tenants were told there would be no interruption to their toilets etc. Then at 5.30 yesterday I got a phone call from the part time office assistant (she works Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday mornings) to tell me that a) there would be a pump running outside the block 24 hours a day at 90 decibels and b) the tenants would not be able to flush their toilets at some times. The chairman is away in Spain and the manager left for ten days holiday on Thursday, so it is down to us to sort the problem. She offered to type letters to all tenants calling them to a meeting in the community room on Monday morning which she would run and at which the contractor would be present to explain the situation. I told her to go ahead. Then, at 9.00 yesterday evening, she rang again. The tenants would be unable to flush their toilets at all during the working day. I took an executive decision and told her to stop the contractors from doing anything until the whole matter had been reviewed: there must, I thought, be another solution, even if it means laying a completely new drain a few feet further out from the building.

We must wait and see.