ALEXANDRA SHULMAN’S NOTEBOOK: Flood that left me with an enormous invoice – and purple mist

While I am not one of the truly deranged women who lust after Luigi Mangione, the alleged ‘hot killer’ of an American health insurance boss, the story of the attack in New York struck a chord with me after a frustrating experience with my insurance firm.

Last Wednesday morning, a water pipe in the under-stairs cupboard sprang a leak. Luckily, my son heard a hissing sound and when we opened the door we discovered a jet spraying out from a pipe, pooling on the floor and beginning to seep dangerously into the hall.

Our regular plumber was not picking up his phone so, in a total panic, I googled ‘Emergency Plumber’ and came up with Swift Plumber. They told me their call-out charge, and that they would get someone to us within 30 minutes.

But they did not tell me, and nor did I ask, because my brain was frozen with terror that the house was going to flood just before Christmas, was what the hourly rate would be. It turned out to be a staggering £289.

The total cost for what was a smallish job was astronomical but I consoled myself with the thought that this surely was something my building insurance would pay for. Where did I get that silly idea?

As anyone who has ever tried to get some money out of insurers knows, they will always find good reason why the problem doesn’t qualify.

In this case, Aviva explained it doesn’t insure for repair work but only for damage.

Also, it wouldn’t cover pipework that was 18 years old because the problem would be ‘general wear and tear’. I’m not living in a rotting old pile that hasn’t been checked out over many decades. What world are they living in where everyone gets their pipes replaced every few years?

Naively, I had assumed I was pretty well set up with an Aviva policy. But it seems that refusing payment for remedial work is common practice in the insurance industry.

Will Daniel pass the gay hero test?

The new screen hero isn’t bulging with testosterone and making out with a conveyor belt of beautiful women, but is, instead, a tormented, openly gay guy.

Homosexual relationships have been a long time coming as acceptable movie fodder, while in the real world gay stars have for decades been forced to stay in the closet. No longer.

One of the most touching films of the year was All Of Us Strangers, the story of the love affair between two men, played by Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott.

In the new Netflix series Black Doves, Ben Whishaw plays a lethal ‘trigger man’, who is having a tough time juggling his skill at the kill with his desire to get back together with his boyfriend, now a father.

Now Queer has been released with Daniel Craig, who in real life is heterosexual, swapping Bond for the lead as a gay American expat cruising the streets.

Whishaw has questioned whether straight guys can accurately portray gay characters, claiming in a Guardian interview that ‘a small moment of hesitation or inauthenticity’ can stop him believing in the characters.

Will Craig pass his test?

This is a long-running debate in the LGBTQ+ community. Surely the time will soon come when the question is whether a gay man can accurately portray a straight one?

Lunch should never be al desko, Kemi

Kemi Badenoch says she doesn’t have lunch. Or to be accurate, she might have lunch of some kind but it will be at her desk. She just doesn’t have the time.

How wrong. Everybody should have time for lunch. One of the most successful politicians of the age, Labour’s Roy Jenkins, always made time for a lunch, accompanied by a bottle of good claret.

Lunches with others are one of the most valuable ways to spend your time.

Some of the most important things in my life began over lunch – a job offer, a love affair, a book deal, a long-lasting friendship. That doesn’t happen when you are sitting at your desk making phone calls or doing your paperwork.

And some of the most interesting information I have ever gleaned has taken place over lunch. People let things slip at the lunch table that they will never bring up in a meeting room.

Lunch is a curious kind of safe space. Not as dangerous or big a commitment as dinner.

Perhaps, as time goes by, Kemi with discover that lunch is a secret weapon, not a waste of time.

Make time for this gem of an exhibition

Time is the subject of the small gem of an exhibition at London’s Wallace Collection displaying an astonishing collection of clocks created by Andre-Charles Boulle, Louis XIV’s cabinet-maker.

After the discovery of the weighted pendulum, which led to greater accuracy, timepieces needed to be housed with their heavy pendulums in a structure, hence these magnificent examples.

It’s a beautiful exhibition which, in its display of such craftsmanship, sadly shows up how tragic it is that beautiful, intricate clocks are no longer designed, and that the passing of time is now monitored by most of us on thoroughly unexceptional looking smartphones.

I was wrong about Chanel’s new man

Hands up. I was wrong. I’ve been telling anyone who was interested – and some who weren’t – that Matthieu Blazy would not be joining Chanel as its creative director. Yet that appointment has just been announced.

In his previous role at Bottega Veneta, the 40-year-old French-Belgian has designed some delicious clothes and accessories but I didn’t think he had the big personality Chanel were looking for to head up this billion-dollar brand.

My apologies to him and many congratulations.