Bad luck? Good luck!

There’s an old saying that ‘things happen for a reason’ and sometimes things happen that you originally think are a set-back and a total pain in the back-side but turn out eventually to be a bit of good fortune. And that exactly sums yesterday up.

While levelling the base for the concrete floor of my new wood store I’d already come across the waste from my bathroom and the pipe for the house’s main water supply. I was pleased to have done that because I had no idea where they were before and now that I did know, I didn’t mind that they’d be covered up again with concrete later on. I took a picture in case I needed to refer to it at some time in the future.

I’d had even less idea where the waste from my kitchen sink was until I also came across that while I was digging out a channel in which to place the first length of shuttering for the concrete. Quite unexpectedly, it turned out to be about two metres from the wall of the house and I’d only come across it because I’d heard a hollow sound while I was hacking at the ground with my pick-axe. As it was plastic, I’d thought that I’d taken great care not to hit and break it, but while I was preparing the ground I took a close look at it and noticed that it was cracked. There was a large tree root tightly up against it which may have caused the damage but maybe I had damaged it with my pick-axe after all. In any case, it didn’t matter because the damaged section had to come out and be replaced, and I was cursing my luck.

So as it was already late afternoon, I quickly had to have a wash, change out of my working togs and head across to Brico Depot at Trelissac to get the materials that I needed, otherwise I’d not have been able to use my kitchen sink. As I was going over there anyway, I thought that I might as well drop into the Orange shop because when I’d signed up, I’d been promised that on provision of proof of payment, I would be given a voucher for the 45€ that I’d had to pay for terminating my SFR contract for telephone and internet.

As I already had a short length of 40mm plastic tube left over from when I put Val’s kitchen in for her, the other bits and pieces that I needed for the repair only cost a few euros. So then I dropped into the Orange shop. The young lady who I spoke to first initially said that the offer had expired but after I said that it was linked to the date when I signed the contract she asked a young chap about it. He recognised me and spoke a few words of English before telling the young lady that it was OK as I was indeed due the voucher.

I’ve been absolutely delighted with Orange. I’ve been connected since the first week of June and so far haven’t paid a centime for my phone and internet as I received an initial 3 months free. This has saved me over 100€ compared to what I’d have paid SFR in that period. Now I’m getting another 45€ to pay for my SFR termination charge! OK, I’ve already paid this and I’ll just be getting it back, but it means that I’ll go for another month or so before Orange starts to take anything out of my bank account.

So where does the good luck/bad luck bit come in, you might be asking? Before the young guy left the young lady to sort out my voucher, he looked at the paperwork and said how fortunate it was that I’d come in yesterday. The reason was that I’d not read the small print and the voucher offer terminated one month after the end of the special offer period. And that date was yesterday! So see what I mean 😀

I had to repair the plastic pipe soon after getting home and that didn’t take too much time as it wasn’t that complicated. Here’s a shot showing the repair with the bits of broken pipe that I’d removed lying next to it.

All in all I was very happy with the way that things had turned out. If I hadn’t had to carry out the repair that had only cost a few euros and taken just a few minutes to do, I’d have missed out on my 45€ Orange voucher. I think it was well worth it 😉