It was even more exciting after that

We started off with a phone call from Mandy - it appeared that her boss was not in a position to see me and so could I come on Friday? That led to a hectic change of plans and a jaunt down to Machynlleth to find out why Dulas had not replied to my request for a quotation. And basically the answer to that is that the sales staff couldn't be bothered to reply.

Anyway, the saleswoman is away in Germany at a conference, and the whole organisation grinds to a halt. I was told that she has her phone switched off - such a gift of foresight by the warehouse manager being probably the most astonishing part of our discussion. If he can see as far as Germany then he's clearly in the wrong job. And if he is possessed of the facilities of such long sight, it is clearly compensated by the fact that he cannot see much closer to home within the warehouse that he manages, in order to identify the products that he has in stock. Never mind painting by numbers - he does warehouse-managing by numbers, so it seems. What about that for stock control?

He also does a pretty good job at prevarication and obtuseness but of course I've been here before (and I have, too) and seen his type before. I've also dealt with his type before and I don't think that he will forget my visit to his office in a hurry.

Nevertheless, the upshot of this is that I still don't have my product, and CAT - the Centre for Alternative Technology - up the road, is equally as useless when it comes to recommending another supplier. It really is astonishing but what with the estate agents the other day not being bothered to sell product to a client and with Dulas today not being bothered to sell a product to a client either, is it really any wonder that the UK is going down the pan? Here we have a client with a reasonable amount of cash in his pocket (houses aren't cheap, and neither are solar panels) and it's too much trouble for British companies to sell to them.

Do you realise that after all my effort to drive to Dulas, which is a round trip of 304 kilometres, the manager did not even have the common courtesy or decency to offer me a cup of coffee?

I spent the afternoon in Barmouth on the seafront and that was pleasant as well - it was a gorgeous day - and then on the way home I called at Nina's for a long chat. It's years since I saw her. She and Marion are in the throes of modernisation and we all ended up having a lengthy chat about solar energy. It seems that I'm now co-opted onto the modernisation panel and a solar water and solar photovoltaic project will follow in early course, always assuming that I can find an eager supplier willing to divest me of some money.

This morning I went to Mandy's office and met her boss. And the reason for my visit was quickly unveiled. It seems that they have won a contract to supply and fit out a new village hall on the Staffordshire Moorlands, and it all has to be off-grid. Off-grid is not something in which they have any expertise and so it seems that I've been drafted in on this project as well. I'm not sure what the payment might be, but "panels at cost" is a good inducement for me to become involved in it, if nothing else.

Mandy and I then spent until some ridiculous time this morning catching up on all the old times that we knew when she worked for me all that time ago, and discussed all of our recent histories. It was lovely to see her again after all of this time.

Tomorrow Terry wants me to go to look at a digger and then I need to be in Ilkeston for Vehicle Wiring Products. But I'm not going anywhere until I'm reunited with my wallet, which I hope is still at Mandy's. If it isn't I am going to be having a few problems.