No balance in life, spells trouble.
Too much of a good thing, makes enjoying a good thing harder and the good thing becomes harder to reach.
Always the mundane things, without good things, is a slippery slope, or results in going too far to get a good thing.
Too many of the lows, results in a permanent low.
In everything, balance is required.
If everything has to be a good thing, without the mundane/routine things, then how will you appreciate the good things when they come around?
Likewise, if everything is mundane all of the time, life’s highs and lows will appear more mundane.
(Sort that lot out!)
Example:
You pick up a lotto scratchcard for £5.
Your card wins £10.
£5 on another card or back in your wallet + £5 profit in your pocket.
Do you;
Buy another card straight away and bank the profit?
Return the £5 to your wallet, along with the 50% profit you’ve just made, happy in the knowledge that you’ve got one over the lotto company?
Buy another two cards straight away?
Buy another card and bank the profit – chasing that winning feeling again as the next card is free, right?
Bank all £10 – Gained 50% profit and be smug that you’ve stung the lotto company. (I’d take this option)
Buy another two cards – possibly win nothing and lose not only your original £5 but also lose your 50% profit, total loss £10.
You need to have the mundane in life, to be able to enjoy the good, how else will you recognise it?
It’s all about balance.
I snapped a radiator cap lid off, leaving the expansion tank gubbins in the thread a few days ago, when I needed to top up the coolant.
I bought the new cap no probs, but couldn’t budge the trapped gubbins from the old cap.
“Bring it in if you can’t free it” advised the mechanic.
Today, I did just that.
“Come back in 20 minutes!” was the reply.
30 minutes later I returned, the new cap fitted and the coolant topped up from the boot.
I gave the mechanic £40, “Here, get yourself a drink, thanks for helping me out”
“That’s too much!” said the mechanic, giving me a £10 back.
I’ve got a job done that I was struggling with (and would probably have made worse if I’d have forced it) – the mechanic and his mate have got a beer or two, for a 5 minute helping hand – both the mechanic and I are happy, goodwill should I ever need another job doing (which I invariably will) – sorted!
Although I am poor, if someone helps me out, I’ll help them out.
Now take another example.
The boiler was groaning and getting stuck on hot water, when the heating was on.
I’d priced the part up and could get a valve for £19.
A friend’s son was a heating engineer, gave me his number, so I arranged for him to come out. Not telling him I am a time served plumber so could source parts.
He took the valve off, scraped the inside out with flat bladed screwdriver and put it back in again.
No joy, later that night the same problem reoccurred.
He ordered the part and arranged to come out the next evening on his way home from his last job of the day.
He fitted the new valve in ten minutes. Fair enough.
“What’s the damage?” I asked.
“That’s two call out fees…” as he reckoned up,
“What? You were here 15 minutes the first time, failed to fix it, then called in on your way home from your last job, for 15 minutes?” I mentioned.
“Yes, that’s two call out fees!” was his claim again.
“Ok” I thought I’d see how this was going…
“Then it’s £70 for the part, then there’s my time, we’ll just call it £160!”
“How much?” I asked in a sarcastic tone!
I counted out the notes in front of him, handed over the £160 whilst saying, “Ok I’ll pay it, but I will tell you now, I won’t be asking you to do anymore work for me again and I certainly won’t be recommending you to anyone else!”
A couple of days later, my friend asked, “Did my son fix your fault for you?”
I told them he was a rip-off, charging way over the odds, for parts and labour!
Well he has a living to make and you have to pay for his knowledge, insurances, etc.
I asked, “Why then, did he charge £60 for a part that I can pick up from the merchants for £19?”
Silence.
I asked, “Why scrape the valve with a screwdriver and tell me it was fixed, when it needed a new part?”
More silence.
I stated, “I’ll tell you why, so that he could charge two call-out fees to fix the same problem!”
“I won’t be recommending him to anyone else and he’ll not do any work for me again!”
I received a phone call a day later, “Hello, it’s the heating engineer who fixed your boiler, I’ve double checked your receipt for the valve part I fitted for you and then queried it with the plumbers merchants where I got the part. I thought it seemed a bit steep in price.
They tell me they have over-charged for the part and it should have been £25 and not £60!”
“Of course they have mate, of course they have!” I put the phone down on him.
I’ve had three small jobs of work done on the boiler since costing a total of £320, he’s not been asked back to do any of it.
Not that this will bother him, he won’t give a seconds thought to it, while he’s away on his three foreign holidays abroad each year, or away on his festival attendances, or his numerous meals out.
Some, it appears, are “just making a living” easier than others…