Jonathan: I have on my desk here a bent nail – a nail which may not have been the cause of losing a kingdom, but certainly wasted more than half of this morning.  The electrician who did the work on Carrick back in 2008-2009 clearly had a problem with a length of wiring conduit which kept slipping down, so before the plasterboard was fitted he supported the end of the conduit with a bent nail, driven into the edge of an adjacent length of 40×25 strapping.  At the time, the cable he’d installed passed by the nail neatly: but trying to feed in a new cable this morning, I just kept encontering the same hard unyielding point – no amount of jigging and poking I did worked.  So I had no choice but to start cutting small holes in the plasterboard to find the obstruction, which eventually I did. Which is why I now have this very expensive bent nail on my desk. And there’s more work yet – I’ve got to repair the holes cut in plaster!