What a day! Euro.Tra.Ma (Euro Trauma)

This morning after waiting in yet again, in case the tractor delivery company should call, I was trawling the web when I discover that the Italian delivery company Euro.Tra.Ma (should be Euro Trauma) had a UK depot. I called them and spoke to someone helpful who told me that there are in fact two english speaking and several french speaking employees at the Italian office! I immediately got on the phone and although none of the english speakers were available I did manage to talk to someone in french. As with all my communication with Euro.Tra.Ma they were rude, unhelpful and promised to call me back (which of course they didn't). After waiting several hours I called them again and told them I was absolutely pissed off with waiting for my tractor - whereupon they told me they would e-mail me immediately the location of the tractor and I could collect it. Having heard it was only 20km you can imagine how relieved I was. But when the e-mail arrived the address was Pamiers - about 100km away!

I've written them a stinking letter of complaint but given that they are employed by the seller and not by me, I have no contract with them so no route for legal action. Right now I just want my tractor. I'll have to find someone who can hire me a suitable trailer or alternatively I could drive the tractor the 100km - but that's about 6-7 hrs driving and I don't know if I need to service the tractor first - Lynch's film "The Straight Story" springs to mind.

If you ever have the misfortune of coming across Euro.Tra.Ma my advice is give them a wide berth - if you ever want to receive your goods.

Then at 2.00 across to see the contractor installing the septic tank. Having emptied the barn of fertilizer we've discovered it's built on solid rock, so the discharge from the tank can't filter into the soil and will probably just run across the surface onto my neighbours patio! An alternative solution was required and having rejected a cess pit we arrived at a solution which will pump the discharge from the tank up the hill beside the house to filter down through the garden. Only problem is getting a digger up onto this land which involves climbing two 2.5m high walls. We met a man with a special digger. After much chin scratching he decided he could help - tomorrow at 8.00! Only problem is he needed a dozen trees removed. So home I rushed, grabbed the chainsaw and by sunset had managed to take down the offending trees. There are two more big trees to come down but they're not essential for access so they can wait till tomorrow.