Time after Time

To: Inquiries and Claims Dept.
Lost-Time Recovery Services
Time after Time Division
AllTime International



Dear Sir / Madam,

Client No: xxxxxxx

I am writing in the hope that several significant portions of time belonging to me have been found and put into your temporary care. Let me specify:

The Lost Time belongs to Last Week (10-16 January 2011), and amounts to 20 hours (the equivalent of 5 mornings) as follows:

1. Waiting for stone trader to measure 8 (eight) windowsills on order: 4 hours. Time spent with stone trader NOT included since it can't be considered 'lost' (unless he has lost the cigarette packet where he wrote the measurements)

2. Driving to sand quarry to provide personal details for a new sand order (it turned out they didn't need the details after all): 1 hour

3. Discussing random aspects and details of house build again and again, just before changing them and starting a new cycle of discussion: 3 hours (over 5 days)

4. Listening to stone mason moan at the injustice of not being mentioned by name (and complete business details) in the local rag that published an article on our house. The article was about building with straw bales, rendering the Tantrum not only unpleasant but also irrelevant: 1 hour

5. Buying a new electric chainsaw. Once the chainsaw was chosen, it was taken apart for demonstration and testing, then put together again and repackaged. Then the warranty document (individualised by Series No.) could not be found. We had to do it all over again, this time starting from the Warranty Paper and finding another Chainsaw by quoted series number, dismantling and testing it, etc: 1 long hour.

6. Waiting at the vet for Saffie to have her vaccines: 2 hours

7. Sitting in the staff room listening to wall drilling and bad radio, while the English Room was unavailable pending the End of Building Works: 5 hours (over 5 days)

8. Waiting in various (necessary) queues: 2 hours (over 7 days)

9. Stuck in traffic: 1 hour (over 7 days)

Please let me know if these empty-time units have been registered in your database, in which case I would like to lodge in a Formal Request for their immediate return.

They are clear instances of Lost Time that have affected me severely in the past week. I am aware that you may not be able to locate them. In that case, I would be grateful if you could advise me regarding my options. Should I take it to a Higher Instance? Since I consider this time Forcibly Taken Away from me, I believe I might be eligible for Compensation. A return of ALL the Stolen Time plus, let's say, a baseline amount of 10 (ten) extra days would be acceptable. Plus the time it took me to write this letter (34 minutes), naturally.

Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I look forward to hearing from you, best wishes, etc. etc.