Is it just me.............

I am constantly amazed, and even horrified at what people complain about,  I fell out with ebay today, not because I had done anything wrong, but because I had to be in the office dealing with a complaint.  

I recently picked up a set of cast iron pans with wooden handles and lids on that were knackered!  They were made before WW2, were very black and very knackered.  I stuck them on ebay for £35 - thinking they might appeal to an interior decorator, or someone who has a huge country farmhouse kitchen and needed authentic items.  I clearly labelled them as vintage, and sold them within a week.

Today I received the following email:

"you didn't descibe these pans as broken and need of serious repair?  We have had nothing but problems since we received them, the handles were loose and needed to be fixed or the whole pan would rotate one way, they were and still are full of so much rust no matter how much we clean and scrub them."

Who - in this day and age -  in their right minds  - buys a set of pans that are at least 70 years old, pays £6.50 postage and seriously intends to bloody cook with them!

However, - I am aware that these people are my customers so I have to be nice, and patient, and charming, and not condescending, irate and sarcastic at all! The resulting barrage of emails has made for epic reading and hopefully by tomorrow it will be resolved one way or another.

Then I met another one - in French!  despite clearly stating UK postage only I received an enquiry written in French - not a problem I thought, google is fab - I will translate it and reply.  I replied about weights and measurements - and guess what - I have now sold an item to someone in Quebec!  When I specifically said: I will ship to Europe, but for the rest of world please contact me for a shipping price - I meant it!  Yet more emails, and I am now shipping 4 tiles to Canada.  They will break or be damaged before they get there, and yet again I will be in the complaints department! 

Bubble has hit a massive growth spurt and it sometimes feels that every time I look at him he has grown 3 inches.  He now has size 7 feet, is 5" 1, wears big mans boots and it still at primary school. He takes everything thrown at him in his stride, and has a sense of humour the same as his mums.  Squeak is smaller, dainty and bothers and troubles about everything.

This week was "Sex and relationship stuff" at school.  Year 6 have done about changes in your body in the next few years, year 4 have done about babies.    Squeak came home and talked for about 3 hours about what she had seen on the educational videos - she was highly indignant however that a little boy sat next to her had fainted and landed on top of her, thus breaking his fall.  This more than anything else has been her abiding memory.

Bubble on the other hand..............

I have been nagging him for about a week about his bedroom, (we have a deal - his room is private and his space so I only go in there to clean)  I nagged him again tonight and with a smile he set off to clean his room so I could clean.  The resulting debris included 6 empty glasses, 2 full bins, about 32 odd socks and a few bits of dirty clothes that have been festering under his bed for a while.  He cleaned out his gerbils, picked up his lego and generally was amazing.  Then I made a mistake.......

40something - "Bubble -while your at it will you strip your bed and bring your sheets down please?"

Bubble - "It's ok mum I don't think I need to, I have not had any wet dreams or anything yet!"

 I am dreading the next few years

Thanks for reading