Yesterday my house was completely, drugstore totally and utterly gutted.

It took the builders about half a day. Who knew that what takes so long to put up can be torn down in a matter of seconds?

I can’t say I feel particularly nostalgic. If anything my regrets are a product of what should have been, site not of what has been the reality of my house over the last few months.

Let me explain: on my second week in the flat, I was consumed by the curiosity to find out what lay beneath my ugly laminate floor, so I ripped up a board in what was one day to become my bedroom. Underneath, lay some grey indistinct cement, so I deducted that the people who had converted the block, had made off with any nice existing flooring and replaced it with the cheap floorboards.

I was wrong. Yesterday, while Jack was ripping out the kitchen, he called me over to have a look at something. What the absence of splashback and cupboards had revealed was that there were still the original tiles under the wall plaster and that, much to my dismay, the original floor tiles were also still there!

Whoever the barbarians who undertook this course of action are, I truly believe they should be taken out and shot. Harry, my all-knowing builder, insists that it is a waste of my time trying to recondition the tiles and return them to their original state. This makes me very sad, as I am still struggling to find a floor that I like and the original tiles do look really rather cool. Sigh.

This brings me to an ethical question: in my search for a kitchen countertop and tiles, I have come across various types of Zimbabwean slate. Now, when it comes to wood, I know a bit about sustainability issues and that basically if it isn’t FSC certified it’s probably best not buy it. I also saw with my own eyes the effects of logging in Congo and Mozambique and can’t say I would like to be part of something like that. So what about slate?

Mines are bad. Right? Yet given the fact that we all use computers, phones, electricity etc. however bad mines may or not be, we still enjoy what comes out from them. So how can we understand if something comes from a bad mine or not and what criteria should we use to decide?

I can’t say I’ve had much luck answering this question. The best I managed to uncover was an article that informed us that after ten years of forced nationalisation of private firms, Mugabe has recently done a volte-face and is trying to attract foreign investment. Which brings me to the conclusion that all Zimbabwean slate comes from government run mines and that it is probably pretty unethical to buy it. Sigh. Now that I’ve answered my own question will I heed the answer?

This is probably my last Hackney Bird blog for a long time. I have decided to make like the birds and fly south. I will keep a record of my activities but it will not be as Hackney Bird but me (Katy Fentress).  Enjoy…