ALEXANDRA SHULMAN’S NOTEBOOK: Flood that left me with an enormous invoice—and pink mist

Whereas I’m not one of many actually deranged ladies who lust after Luigi Mangione, the alleged’sizzling killer’ of an American medical health insurance boss, the story of the assault in New York struck a chord with me after an irritating experience with my insurance coverage agency.

Final Wednesday morning, a water pipe within the understairs cabinet sprang a leak. Fortunately, my son heard a hissing sound, and after we opened the door, we found a jet spraying out from a pipe, pooling on the ground, and starting to seep dangerously into the corridor.

Our common plumber was not picking up his telephone, so, in a complete panic, I googled ‘Emergency Plumber’ and got here up with Swift Plumber. They instructed me their call-out cost and that they’d get somebody to us within half an hour.

However, they didn’t inform me, and neither did I ask, as a result of my mind being frozen with terror that the home was going to flood simply earlier than Christmas, which was what the hourly fee could be. It turned out to be a staggering £289.

The entire value for what was a smallish job was astronomical; however, I consoled myself with the thought that this certainly was one thing my constructing insurance coverage would pay for. Where did I get that foolish concept?

As anybody who has ever tried to get some cash out of insurers is aware of, they are going to always discover good reason why the issue doesn’t qualify.

In this case, Aviva defined it doesn’t insure for restore work, but just for injury.

Additionally, it wouldn’t cover pipework that was 18 years old as a result of the issue, which could be ‘common put on and tear’. I’m not residing in a rotting previous pile that hasn’t been checked out over many, many years. What world are they residing in the place everybody will get their pipes changed each few years?

Naively, I had assumed I used to be fairly properly arranged with an Aviva coverage. However, plainly refusing fees for remedial work is widespread within the insurance coverage trade.

Will Daniel cross the homosexual hero check?

The brand new display screen hero isn’t bulging with testosterone and making out with a conveyor belt of gorgeous ladies, however, is, as an alternative, a tormented, brazenly homosexual man.

Gay relationships have been a very long time coming as acceptable film fodder, whereas in the actual world, homosexual stars have for many years been compelled to remain within the closet. Not.

Some of the touching movies of the 12 months were All Of Us Strangers, the story of the love affair between two males, performed by Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott.

Within the new Netflix sequence Black Doves, Ben Whishaw performs a deadly’set off man’, who’s having a tricky time juggling his talent on the kill along with his want to get again collectively along with his boyfriend, now a father.

Now Queer has been launched with Daniel Craig, who in actual life is heterosexual, swapping Bond for the lead as a homosexual American expat cruising the streets.

Whishaw has questioned whether or not straight guys can precisely paint homosexual characters, claiming in a Guardian interview that ‘a small second of hesitation or inauthenticity’ can cease him believing within the characters.

Will Craig cross his check?

This can be a long-running debate within the LGBTQ+ group. Absolutely, the time will quickly come when the query is whether or not a homosexual man can precisely paint a straight one.

Lunch ought to by no means be al desko, Kemi

Kemi Badenoch says she doesn’t have lunch. Or, to be correct, she may need lunch of some variety, however, it is going to be at her desk. She simply doesn’t have the time.

How improper. Everyone ought to have time for lunch. Some of the profitable politicians of the age, Labour’s Roy Jenkins, all the time made time for lunch, accompanied by a bottle of fine claret.

Lunches with others are one of the invaluable ways to spend your time.

A number of the most vital issues in my life started over lunch—a job provide, a love affair, an e-book deal, a long-lasting friendship. That doesn’t occur if you find yourself sitting at your desk making telephone calls or doing all of your paperwork.

And a number of the most fascinating data I’ve ever gleaned has taken place over lunch. Individuals let issues slip on the lunch desk that they are going to by no means deliver up in a gathering room.

Lunch is a curious form of protected area. Not as harmful or massive a dedication as dinner.

Maybe, as time goes by, Kemi will uncover that lunch is a secret weapon, not a waste of time.

Find time for this gem of an exhibition

Time is the topic of the small gem of an exhibition at London’s Wallace Assortment displaying an astonishing assortment of clocks created by Andre-Charles Boulle, Louis XIV’s cabinetmaker.

After the invention of the weighted pendulum, which led to higher accuracy, timepieces wanted to be housed with their heavy pendulums in a construction, therefore these magnificent examples.

It’s a phenomenal exhibition that, in its show of such craftsmanship, sadly reveals up how tragic it’s that lovely, intricate clocks are now not designed and that the passing of time is now monitored by most of us on completely unexceptional wanting smartphones.

I used to be improper about Chanel’s new man

Arms up. I used to be improper. I’ve been telling anybody who was—and a few who weren’t—that Matthieu Blazy wouldn’t be becoming a member of Chanel as its inventive director. But that appointment has simply been introduced.

In his earlier function at Bottega Veneta, the 40-year-old French-Belgian has designed some scrumptious garments and equipment; however, I didn’t suppose he had the large character Chanel has been on the lookout for to go up this billion-dollar model.

My apologies to him and plenty of congratulations.