So...

The left hand, right hand saga continues.

After original surveyor came out and said a trench would be dug, there were at least half a dozen separate visits from teams, "here to put poles up". Each one turned away by neighbour (landowner) as that was not what was agreed.

Same surveyor attends again and after ten minutes realizes that he's visited the site already and leaves to "sort it out".

More teams with poles arrive, same outcome.

A different surveyor came yesterday, had a mooch around, agrees to dig trench... but from a different direction to one already planned, from a different direction from where our phone line comes.

I despair...

Well, after a few more surveyor visits when they realised that it had already been surveyed, two more surveyors came on Monday of last week to say that work would start that week.

Then nothing until an e-mail yesterday to say that work would start today at 9am.

At 9:30 a lorry with a digger and a van arrived and after much huffing and puffing getting the digger and duct off the lorry, digging began at around 11am then stopped for an hour lunch at half twelve then carried on until 3 and stopped for the day.

Apparently, they'd been on the road since 7:30 so that's when their day starts and then ends when they get back to the depot.

So 3 men traveled 4 hours and had an hour lunch for 3 hours of digging (20 metres by eye).

Still, at least the digger and duct is offloaded so perhaps tomorrow will be more productive.

The British Way to Get Things Done ...

brilliant

Update

Friday saw 40m dug between 9:30 and 2:30, including having to dig up some of the previous day's work as they realised they hadn't put any blue nylon rope in to pull up the fibre when they finish.

They reckon one more day and they'll be done by end of play on Monday. While past performance Is not indicative of future results, 60m in two days does not bid well for the remaining 80-90m in one day.

About 30m today,,,

Many moons ago, when we'd forgotten to put in draw cord, we just attached a plastic bag to the end of the reel and blew it through with a compressor after .... simple enough.

I like that!

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Many moons ago, when we'd forgotten to put in draw cord, we just attached a plastic bag to the end of the reel and blew it through with a compressor after .... simple enough.

Or use a mouse with the rope taped to its tail and entice it with some cheese the other end LOL.

Jokes aside, I have seen what you said done so yeah it does work.

I myself have used a ping pong ball (which was a few mm smaller than the pipe) with string attached to it and used a hoover the other end and sucked it through, worked first try.

Word of caution, Ping Pong Ball needs to be bigger than the hoover pipe LOL.

Paul

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Many moons ago, when we'd forgotten to put in draw cord, we just attached a plastic bag to the end of the reel and blew it through with a compressor after .... simple enough.

That is how they put a liner in my gas pipe under my drive. Blew it through the old pipe with a compressor, mid winter it was and it was cold having the central heating off although they did offer us the lend of heater fans.