It must be me age, because I thought children went to school to be taught. So they are, I hear you say, but today in the playground of the Clifton C of E primary School, the children were out in force, seemingly for most of the day and their voices were at full volume. Not that I mind children's voices, but there's a time and place for everything and I don't want to hear them when I'm working! (really, then only on very special and limited occasions!) The maisonette I saw today, our American cousins might call it a duplex, had two of the most magnificent ceilings I have seen for many a year and quite frankly such ornate ceilings that I would normally expect to find in a far grander house, more likely in a stately home. I had hoped to get onto the roof, despite the fact that, God bless them, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Institution (RICS for short) has decreed that if there ain't no trap to examine the roof within the flat, then don't bother. Who are they kidding; what sort of surveyor I would be if I didn't make the effort to get into the roof space and then onto the roof? I tried, but no one seemed particularly interested, so I went away, very dissatisfied. I will not let it rest; I will get to the roof despite what the RICS say so that my Client can have a full report, but he'll have to wait though that is the fault of the vendor…   more »