Get cementing

We needed to get some building materials and wanted to try out a different builders merchants. We normally go to Weldom, which is similar to B&Q, but we thought we’d give Point P a try. It is set up more for trades people, however their sign said they welcomed ‘particuliers’ (individuals) that’s us, so we thought we’d give them a go.

We entered the prefab on the side of the warehouse, and were greeted by a very bright ‘bonjour’, ‘bonjour’ we both replied, I’m sure immediately giving away that we were English. The young chap behind the counter, asked in his best french if he could help, and we were soon reciting our translated list of what we needed. We actually did quite well, or so we thought. We ordered our lime mortar 3.5nhl, our ready mixed sand and cement, and our self levelling cement. He told us that his colleague would bring the order round the side, so to pull up near the front door.

Excellent service. I pulled the car round and Brian paid the bill.

As the forklift pulled out of the warehouse, we looked aghast at each other. The forklift had a pallet of cement and sand on it, there must have been 40 bags. ‘Crikey, have we just bought all that?’ I asked Brian. I was thinking, ‘It’s not going to fit’. Brian was quiet to start with, then repeated back to me ‘Is that what we just bought?’ We looked at each other, both thinking we might need to start this conversation again. I suggested we look at the invoice, and try and understand what we had bought. I could hear the relief in his voice as he read out the volumes of bags, ‘it’s not all that!’. There was a lot of chatter between Brian and the chap, and after some very raucous laughter, and them both loading just 20 bags into the car, we drove off with our hoard of building materials.

Now we need to get cementing.