Although his Cockney accent was deplorable, the man wasn't afraid of heights!

Dick Van Dyke didn't need scaffolding. . .

The chimneys on Victorian Houses are like those made famous in the movie, Mary Poppins. An eagle-eyed neighbour put a note through our door informing us that one of our 'chimney pots' was leaning. Since they are quite heavy the next gale could bring it crashing down through our roof and cause significant damage. So, I informed the chairman of our building committee who came out and discovered that the masonry that surrounds the chimney pot had separated and would need to be repaired. As a side note, the Church Treasurer preferred that we wait till the chimney pot fell through the roof so that 'the insurance company would have to pay for it'. Since our bed is directly below the chimney I decided that was not an appropriate solution.

If you remember our collapsed garden wall last year (12 September and 20 October entries), you will also remember that the work of masons in a city like Bath, where everything is stone, doesn't come cheap. My estimate in US dollars was $317 per hour for that minor repair. Well, now the same masons have been assigned the job of repairing the chimney pot. But they have decided that the slope in the roof will require scaffolding instead of a ladder. They thought a ladder would be too dangerous. I think you can see where this is going. Add the cost of putting scaffolding up, taking it down, etc and this bill is going to be 'over the moon', or should I say 'over the roof'. Work starts Monday. I'm glad I don't have to come up with the money. I think we might need to have an extra collection or two.