The Gas-Man cometh
donderdag 15 augustus 2019 - 16:48
Toen ik vanmorgen langdurig zat te wachten op Fred, die de geiser zou komen repareren – ik weet het, niemand heeft nog een geiser – kwam het oude liedje van Michael Flanders en Donald Swann naar boven. Het epos van de Gas-Man. Die zo lijkt op meneer Bollemans uit Kuifje, die de traptree op Molensloot komt herstellen. Engeland is en blijft een standenmaatschappij. De working man en de heer, twee werelden.
'Twas on a Monday morning/ The Gas-Man came to call;/ The gas tap wouldn't turn - I wasn't getting gas at all./ He tore out all the skirting boards/ To try and find the main,/ And I had to call a Carpenter to put them back again.
Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!
'Twas on a Tuesday morning/ The Carpenter came round;/ He hammered and he chiselled and he said: 'Look what I've found!/ Your joists are full of dry-rot/ But I'll put it all to rights.'/ Then he nailed right through a cable and out went all the lights.
Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!
'Twas on a Wednesday morning/ The Electrician came;/ He called me 'Mr Sanderson' (which isn't quite my name)./ He couldn't reach the fuse box/ Without standing on the bin/ And his foot went through a window - so I called a Glazier in.
Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!
Twas on a Thursday morning/ The Glazier came along,/ With his blow-torch and his putty and his merry Glazier's song;/ He put another pane in -/ It took no time at all -/ But I had to get a Painter in to come and paint the wall.
Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!
'Twas on a Friday morning/ The Painter made a start;/ With undercoats and overcoats he painted every part,/ Every nook and every cranny,/ But I found when he was gone/ He'd painted over the gas tap and I couldn't turn it on!
Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!
On Saturday and Sunday they do no work at all:/ So 'twas on a Monday morning that the Gas-Man came to call!
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