Back to battle stations

If I knew who to vent my anger at I would give it to them with both barrells. If life wasn't hard enough already.

I have been having that feeling of one step forward two steps back situation again. But I know that in reality it isn't quite that dire its more like 1 step forward 95% of step backwards. So with each step forward there is a small amount of progress even if it isn't as much as I would like.

About 10 days ago I was cleaning up my laptop, I now think maybe a bottle of bleach would have been a safer option but I was trying to be good and treat my laptop with care and attention. Whilst doing this I deleted among other things all my internet history. Good idea I hear you say?

I thought so, got rid of all the crap that had built up. But it also cleared out all my usernames and passwords. Ok not such a bad thing I can easily remedy that. But then I came to log onto my online banking............ah now we have hit a snag..............where the hell is my identity number. Ok that was solved more easily than I thought. Number retrieved, usual login achieved, hmmm there was one payment on there that I was not convinced was mine but I had to rush off to work so would check later.

Later I attempted to login but it wouldn't let me. Thats odd perhaps its something I have done, typed in a wrong digit or something. I tried again but it still didn't work. Next morning same thing. For the rest of the week I was unable to login to my bank, I was also having trouble with my email accounts so perhaps it was my laptop that was the problem. Ok I knew I had enough money to cover any payments that should go out. SF gave me his monthly cash payment so I had money to buy food with. Perhaps if I had tried to use my card before today I would have discovered that it had been blocked. But I didn't try to use it until I tried to buy petrol at a fast track card petrol pump. It declined!! WTF why would it do that? I knew I hadn't made the two largest payment I should have made so the money for those should be in my account still. I drove to cash point (ATM) to check my balance..............where the bloody hell has my money gone?

Once again I have tried to login to my online banking to see whats going on. Still I couldn't login, so I phoned the number given. Why do they have to use these call centres where the staff don't understand me and I don't understand them. I have nothing against the operatives who I am sure work very hard and are quite capable but the language barrier doesn't help it makes me more frustrated! Finally after speaking to two different departments I was transferred back to UK for the Fraud department. After going through all the security questions yet again and answering a few questions about payments I have made it transpires there have been some that I have not made. Consequently my bank card is now cut in half and I have to wait for a new card to arrive in the post. I still can't get onto my bank account to see what payments have been made either legtimately or not. I don't even know if my rent went out on Friday.

I should receive a form to complete and return which will then mean I can get my money back. However I am not overly optimistic. The last time this happened it took a few months. They kept sending me forms that didn't arrive. Then when I did get a form and had it faxed back to them directly from my local branch they didn't receive it. It took many phone calls and written complaints to get my money back. So this time I know what to expect I am prepared to do battle again.

I wish I knew who had done this to me, I would love to have a chance to give them a piece of my mind.

Before when things like this happened to me I would just despair of ever getting through all these struggles. Now I just think it is so unfair that I struggle so hard to get out of debt then something like this happens it makes me angry. I am angry that someone else should put me back into a difficult situation when I have been clawing my way out for so long. How dare anyone do this to me. It is bad enough when my debts are of my own doing (or that of my ex) but some unknown person who knows nothing about me or my circumstances. They know nothing of my struggles, they don't give a damn about me or my children, how bloody dare they do this.

But whatever ..............I know one thing for sure............I won't let them get me down. But if I ever find out who they are they had better watch out!

Family Outing and going solo

Saturday ~ my day of lie in, rest and recuperation followed by a late dash to Asda. Home again to cook supper for my boys then quiet evening with my laptop.
But that was not how this day went.

Last night I fell asleep in the middle of writing a post, not overly unusual, this morning I wasn't so happy with the post and deleted half of it. I was just about done with it when LV began chatting. I had already decided that a visit into town was on the cards for today. JA needed new school shoes, I also wanted to visit the bank, JA lost his bank card at the start of the holidays. Last week when I was travelling with Mei one of the things we discussed was bank accounts. I have no idea how we got onto that topic. But Mei was able to pass on a valuable piece of information which would help me to resolve the problem of the joint account I still have with SF even though neither of us still use it. All the time this account is open I cannot disassociate myself from SF's large debts.

Our post which usually arrives at about 1.30pm came very much earlier today. Not long after, OJ asked me if I want some money. Of course the answer would have to be yes. He handed me a cheque for £50!!! Not only was this unexpected but the name on the cheque was enough of a shock that if I had been standing at the time I would have fallen over with shock. It was from my former mother in law (who since the divorce regards me as the wicked witch of the west). Recently the warden run flat she had moved to some years ago had been sold to developers. According to her letter she has received a sum of compensation. She sent cheques to each of us for £50 each.

My trip to the bank now became a family outing. We arrived en mass to deposit our new found wealth (such that it is). We then took over a corner of the bank as we dealt with a variety of issues. Each one of the boys had a different problem with their accounts. Then it was my turn. I think I must have been there for about an hour closing down all the accounts other than my current account. I now have the facility to operate my banking online but without the disadvantage of having the old joint account open. I can now cut my ties with SF's financial nightmare. which should help my own credit rating. Thanks for the tip Mei. The bank was followed by the back to school/college annual purchase of new pencil cases, pens/pencils, writing paper etc. As I headed to the shoe shop JA told me he doesn't need new shoes after all but he need new trousers as he can't find the ones I bought him in June!! I have told him to tidy his room he will find them.

This evening the boys had been invited to a bbq with their father, I was going to buy myself something for my solo dinner when I decided to make the most of the sunshine. Taking my camera I headed off to my favourite chalk ridge. Stopping first at the most easterly carpark I joined several dog walkers on the open green space I took a few photos to compare with similar ones I had taken from the same spot last autumn.

Turning back east I stopped at the main carpark where the bikers and boy racers congregate en mass near to the very popular burger van. A few more photos, partly to see the difference in view from less than 1/2 mile further along the road, partly to show how green the city is considering how how densly populated it is. It never fails to amaze me how many trees and green areas can be seen from above.















Next stop the car park where I used to meet swinger for our mugs of hot tea/coffee and very nice hot dogs (this is what I had decided to have for my supper). But when I arrived ther trees had grown more than a little obscuring some of the view, the little car park was quite busy but worst of all our burger van was gone, replaced by another.


It wouldn't have been the same so I departed choosing to take the road down the back of the ridge winding through green country side with glimpses of golden fields, straw bales waiting to be moved. Driving along country lanes randomly turning not know where they led to. Until I reached he village with a well known vineyard and Indian restaurant run by the acclaimed chef Atul Kochhar, still driving I found the turning for Vatika Restaurant, then continued my aimless meandering until I found myself at the beach not far from home. a few more pictures looking out to sea














and back home just in time to get comfortable when the boys returned.













update

I have just read Mel's latest post ...............her young daughter has stage 1 cancer and I would like you to join me in sending her positive thought to help them get through this.

Is Friday 22nd the new Friday 13th ?

6am and a mad rush to the garage down the road, £10 of petrol and £10 on the gas card. My debit card is declined, I know this is wrong as I checked my bank balance online before I left the house. Try again, card still declined. Duty manager fills in a ‘no means of payment’ form as I had left the house without my handbag thinking I would just need my bank card. Ok so they can’t cancel either the petrol or the gas so I now have 7 days to pay before they involve the police. (I know this from the time I had problems before at this garage.)

Back at home I write a note to put on the front door for the heating engineer who is coming back today. Now I know that there are about 4 rolls of sticky tape in the house as I have bought them in recent months and we don’t eat the stuff (or at least I don’t). I really want the boys to get up before I go to work so that I can be sure they will be up and won’t miss the engineer when he arrives any time from 8am. I have to wake ET several times to go to his paper round. He still wasn’t up when I left the house at 7.15, he is meant to be there for 7am or they start phoning up to see where he is. OJ didn’t want to get up as he had toothache.

Arrive at work and phone my mechanic and ask nicely if he would mind not banking my cheque until next week as I currently have £31 to get me through until payday (Friday 29th). As I walk into work I meet my boss (she is always there first) but today she is late, she had been feeling unwell yesterday and her husband had decided to give her a lie in. I mention that I am having a bad day already (its only 7.45am by this time). Why oh why did I have to open my great big humongous mouth to utter those words.

The first thing I do in the morning is collect the orders that have been faxed to the office overnight. Very odd for the first time there are no orders, none, not a single solitary one. Now last night before we left for the night Wayne checked that there was plenty of paper in the fax machine. He noticed that it said ‘toner empty’. I boldly told him not to worry as they say that for ages before they really do run out. Just to check we did a copy of an order just to prove there was plenty of ink. How wrong we were! We had only changed the toner a few weeks ago (first time since it was bought a few months ago).

When we changed the toner last time I assumed (wrongly) that Wayne had asked the lady who orders stationery to but another toner. Whether or not this happened we will never know (I think it was around the time her mother (who she lived with) had died. We didn’t have a toner to fit our fax in the office at all. By this time Wayne has arrived, he doesn’t seem to be too bothered that all of us women are running around trying to get a toner for the most important piece of equipment in our office. Boss drags out the old fax machine to set up then we realise that even if we can get that going the faxes that have come through are stored in the memory of the other one!!. A few phone calls ascertain that our stationery supplies cannot get us a toner before Monday. Several supplies are either not open yet or don’t have the toner we require in stock. I get a text which puts the smile back on my face.

It occurs to me that if we are quick we might be able to catch at least one of our reps before they leave home for the day, I can ask them to resend their faxes to the fax in the accounts dept. Wayne just shrugs and says see what Boss says, by this time she is in the directors’ office. I know it will be too late by then. I take the initiative and call one of my reps. He has left home but is staying local today so if needed he can go home and send faxes but he mentions a chain of stores that opens at 8am. A quick call to them discovers that they have one in stock which is put by for us. MD forbids Boss to go out saying one of her staff will go. I quickly volunteer as Wayne doesn’t have his car and if Bob goes I will be stuck in the office with Wayne being useless, it also means that he will have to answer the phones (he avoids that as much as he can). So I fly down the motorway into the city (yes my car sprouted wings for once). Within minutes I was at the store collecting this valuable thing. Without a working fax it not only means there is little work for myself, Wayne and Jonesy. It also means that the warehouse staff, who were up to date with orders would have no work either. I am back at the office just after 9am, as soon as new toner inserted the fax jumps into life and begins spewing paper out. We all get down to work.

As the day goes by it seems to me that nearly everything I touch or have touched in the last day or so has gone wrong. I won’t go into the ins and outs of the rest of my working day but suffice to say that when I tried to phone a customer and ended up ringing Wayne I knew my day was not getting any better.

At lunch time I phone home to see if the engineer has been yet. He hasn’t so I phone the contractors, they tell me it was down for a PM appointment. He finally arrives at the house a t 2.55pm after the boys have been waiting for him since 7.15am. suddenly I remember that JA has his friend B coming to sleep over at our house tonight. That means I have to go buy some food!!!

It’s now 4.40pm and I am driving home (I thought I had better leave on time today to save causing any more problems). I am smiling to myself as I think about the text I received that made my morning for me. I hear my phone go off, glancing at the screen I see who the incoming text is from. I want to pull over to read it but force myself to keep driving, onto the motorway through the road works up the steep hill and along the residential roads to my home. I am reading the text before I have even switched the engine off.

Once indoors I pick up my post, there is one enveloped marked, ‘open urgently’. It is from my bank, you remember the bank that took four months to refund the money that I had lost due to the fraud on my account last May. The letter tells me to phone this number urgently and quote this word ***** and my card number. The fraud dept need to speak to me.

WHAT THE FUCK………….no wonder my card was declined at the garage this morning. After lots of security questions including questions about various transactions on the account I am told that my card has been blocked as it appears there has been a security breach. I will receive a new card in 3 to 5 working days but can use the same PIN as I have now. I tell the man on the phone about the problem I had with my PIN at the ATM 2 weeks ago and that I suspected there was something odd about it but the guy at the bank wasn’t interested. So once again I have no access to the small amount of money I have. Good old mother is going to draw some cash out of her bank for me for the next few days. What would I do without her bless her.

Having gone to collect B I drop both him and JA off at home while I go to buy some food with the £5 I have in my purse. I have just parked my car at the local shopping parade. My mother calls me all excited. My Garden Fairy is getting married in September and we are both invited to the wedding in Norfolk. It is all very exciting and romantic. Apparently mother and her friend White are going to be in Norfolk on some kind of holiday that week. They were due to be coming home on the day of the wedding but obviously not now. White’s husband is going to take me to join them all and we are all to stay at the hotel where the wedding is being held. The last time I saw Garden Fairy was when we all went out for a posh meal the night after White’s daughter got married last year. I have met Garden Fairy’s betrothed a couple of times and he seems to be the perfect man (I know he must have at least one fault but it hasn’t been discovered yet unless its his reluctant son). Whilst talking to mother I am watching people coming and going in the parking spaces opposite me. The spaces are all set out so that you reverse into them at an angle then you can drive straight out. In the minutes I am sat there I see several drivers drive in forwards which means that they have a difficult time firstly getting into the space at that angle but an even harder time getting out again. I am embarrassed to notice that this is mostly women who do this. My question is ………….WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THEM?
Do they not have the brains they were born with?

Eventually I am home, I cook sausage and chips for the boys and begin preparing a nice hot chilli for myself, this will last me a couple of meals. Then I do something that makes me think maybe I am finally becoming a genuine cook. Never in my life have I done this before. All the best cooks do this don’t they?

Yes that’s it I opened a bottle of red wine to drink with my meal, both during the preparation and the consumption. Until a few months ago I was not a red wine drinker, but I am now becoming accustomed to it and as white wine seems to give me headaches this is preferable. So having indulged in a couple of glasses of this cabernet Sauvignon from Chile (rather appropriate don’t you think). I have been writing up my day for you at the same time as doing my bit for woman kind, counselling men on how to have a better relationship with the women in their lives rather than looking elsewhere.

Oh yes and whilst cooking I needed the bathroom, dashed up the stairs as fast as my body allows, only to discover the bathroom floor an inch deep in water. The toilet had flooded again!! Apparently OJ had managed to unblock it but hadn't cleaned the floor. I guess I'm glad he had done the worst bit.

Here is hoping tomorrow will be a better day.

Result

today has been just a tad different
first thing my mum picked me up once the boys had gone to school/college and work
We were headed into city to visit a care home. This care home belongs to the same people who own and run the one where my grandad has lived for the last 13 months. He is 93 and becoming quite frail. He is having trouble walking (shuffling really) even with his walking frame. It now takes a lot of time for the staff (who are all lovely) to get him from his room and down the stairs each morning and back again in the evening. It is getting close to the time when they are not going to be able to keep him there any longer. He doesn't need nursing just help with walking and now also with eating as he is losing the feeling in his fingers and can't hold the cutlery very well. this other home has a vacancy in a ground floor room which he is being offered the chance to take. so we went to have a look, this home is a little bigger than the one he is in now, it is also nearer to us. My mum introduced me to the owner saying we might have met before, just as I said that no we hadn't he said he has seen me a few times when I have visited the man.

Any having checked this new place out (it will be the old man's decision) we set off for the drive to visit him in his current home (very close to where Forest lives). He now knows that he has the option of a ground floor room but at the other home, he doesn't yet know that it is a twin room. At the moment it is empty and there is a chance he could be on his own for quite some time but we felt it best not to mention this for now. He is thinking about it over the next week.

While we were travelling I got a call on my mobile (thankfully I was not driving) from my bank.
Maybe the two messages I left on their answer phone yesterday saying that I have made one complaint and if the problem is not resolved very soon I shall complain again, did the trick. The Assistant Branch Manager is now dealing with this. I explained to him what has happened and how long it is taking to get my money back. He called me back later to say he has made some calls and is now using his own authority to reimburse my account. He will also make sure I get all bank charges incurred during the four months this has taken reimbursed. He apologised for the problems I have had and understands my frustration. So next week I should have my money back. Bloody Romanians !!!!............the aggro they have caused.

I did something today that I have not done for weeks........I text Forest. As I was in his home town, I told him that we were having lunch in one of his local pubs, a different one to where we usually go I made a comment abut it. His reply was bloody cheeky. Whilst we were having our lunch two couples came in together intending to sit at the next table before moving to another. as they were moving away mother recognised one of the couples as the people who bought grandad's bungalow. The cheeky sod who sent his workman in to start ripping out the gas fire and strip the wall paper weeks before the property changed hands.

I also exchanged a couple of text with Sammy. ;-)