When I signed my tenancy agreement with Leaders I was told that as my property was a managed property they would sort out the transfer of the utilities such as Council Tax, Water, Gas and Electricity.
Well earlier this week I received a Council Tax Bill from Gosport Council. Alarm bells started to ring when I noticed that it was addressed to Mr and Mrs Evans. Now I am pretty sure that I am not married to my brother so that clearly needed to be changed. It also stated that there was no Direct Debit set up for us. I ask myself what was the point of completing the form with my bank details if they aren't even going to bother passing them on.
I proceeded to ring the council and spoke to a very lovely lady who kindly changed me to Miss on their system and advised me that the third party (leaders) who supplied our details only gave them or Surname and the address of the property. Not at all helpful!!
So I completed a new DDM and mum has taken it down the town hall. Imagine my surprise when a letter arrived from Leaders last night advising me of who my utility companies are. This information on the whole would be quite useful if it wasn't for the fact it totally contradicted what I was told back at the beginning. Leaders had advised they recommend their tenants keep their Gas and Electricity with Southern Electric. Well my letter advised me that my electricity supplier is Eon and my gas supplier is Unknown.......helpful I don't think so.
They did however supply me with a number to ring to establish who the gas supplier is, I called them and was told this information is not stored on the National Grid as it is a private supplier, I can obtain this information from the Gas Meter. This means at the weekend I get to crawl around in the cupboard under the stairs to find out and then call them.
Back to the letter from Leaders, they did state that IF they have requested the services be changed to Southern Electric then we will receive a welcome pack in the next 6-8 weeks however IF they haven't then we will be billed from the current supplier in the usual way. This raises yet more questions:
1) How do I know what the usual way is? I've only just moved in
2) How do I know if they have actually requested the change?
3) Have they even bothered to set up a direct debit for my payments?
This means that yet more of my time is going to be taken up trying to answer these questions, so it looks like I will be taking a trip to leaders tomorrow to find out what the hell is going on.
The moral of the story is, if you ever rent a managed property through an agent and they offer to sort out the utilities for you, tell them politely not to bother it will be quicker to do it yourself!!!
xoxo
Friday, 11 February 2011
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Some people need a smack in the face
Oh My Good!! What a hell of a morning!!
The traffic this morning was pretty rubbish so getting to work wasnt fun, topped off by the fact that I could bearly keep my eyes open. I can safely say it is not fun almost falling asleep while driving, it is not an experience I wish to repeat. Thankfully no accidents were caused and I kept a safe distance from the car in front of me but even so!
Got to work eventually, alive, and had a nice quiet first hour. No calls to annoy me so I had time to catch up on some outstanding bits and pieces. The Trudy arrived. I am not going to list all the things I cannot stand about here as there is only 10 mins left of my lunch break and I just wont have enough time. The main things today that are really grating is that everytime I ask her to do something she huffs and insists on making everything into a massive drama. I could understand if the issues were massive but its not its just general everyday things. She has been doing this job for this company for over a year yet she still asks me questions she clearly knows the answer to so when I tell her I am unsure she goes and answers her own question. If you know the fricking answer dont ask the fricking question and piss me off.
I am generally not a people person, but lately I have been getting so much better at tolerating people. She however pushes me to the limit everyday, even trying to ignore her doesnt work as she is like a dog with a fucking bone, and a yappy little one at that!! Anyway rant over and here is hoping that today gets better.
On a fat club update, 1.5lb was lost on Tuesday so back on track as it were. I have been good bringing in decent lunches to work and also cooking healthy dinners so fingers crossed it continues.
I am off out with Green and the gang tomorrow night so very much looking forward to it I should imagine lots of alcohol will be consumed!! Good Times!!
xoxo
The traffic this morning was pretty rubbish so getting to work wasnt fun, topped off by the fact that I could bearly keep my eyes open. I can safely say it is not fun almost falling asleep while driving, it is not an experience I wish to repeat. Thankfully no accidents were caused and I kept a safe distance from the car in front of me but even so!
Got to work eventually, alive, and had a nice quiet first hour. No calls to annoy me so I had time to catch up on some outstanding bits and pieces. The Trudy arrived. I am not going to list all the things I cannot stand about here as there is only 10 mins left of my lunch break and I just wont have enough time. The main things today that are really grating is that everytime I ask her to do something she huffs and insists on making everything into a massive drama. I could understand if the issues were massive but its not its just general everyday things. She has been doing this job for this company for over a year yet she still asks me questions she clearly knows the answer to so when I tell her I am unsure she goes and answers her own question. If you know the fricking answer dont ask the fricking question and piss me off.
I am generally not a people person, but lately I have been getting so much better at tolerating people. She however pushes me to the limit everyday, even trying to ignore her doesnt work as she is like a dog with a fucking bone, and a yappy little one at that!! Anyway rant over and here is hoping that today gets better.
On a fat club update, 1.5lb was lost on Tuesday so back on track as it were. I have been good bringing in decent lunches to work and also cooking healthy dinners so fingers crossed it continues.
I am off out with Green and the gang tomorrow night so very much looking forward to it I should imagine lots of alcohol will be consumed!! Good Times!!
xoxo
Friday, 4 February 2011
Fat Club Update!
I went to Fat Club on Tuesday not feeling overly confident, I was fully aware that my previous loss of 4lb was a total fluke mainly down to the fact that I went to a morning group and didn't eat anything before going, so was not expecting this week to be very productive. I was right, straight back to square one, do not pass go, do not collect £200. Bad times.
I feel this slight backward step is down to the stress of moving and the fact that until the middle of the week we didn't really have a great deal of food in the house. A change of routine always takes some getting used to but I have to start behaving again and damn quick.
I am out with Emily Green and her family on Friday night so need to make sure I am sticking with the healthy between now and then. I don't expect to lose a lot but I need to get a couple of pounds off at least so I look good in my dress. Fingers crossed!!
The new house is going well, although last night was not so fun. The damn wind kept making my window bang and I kept waking up with a start thinking someone was breaking in or something! Talk about paranoid.
The Rugby 6 Nations starts tonight with England playing Wales in Cardiff so my evening is planned! A nice healthy chilli or salad in front of the TV shouting at England!! Good Times.
On Saturday I will be heading back to the old house to collect some more things that weren't overly important during the move next weekend and then on Sunday I will mostly be chilling out although I think I am going to have to pop to Asda at some point.
All in all, things are still going well!
xoxo
I feel this slight backward step is down to the stress of moving and the fact that until the middle of the week we didn't really have a great deal of food in the house. A change of routine always takes some getting used to but I have to start behaving again and damn quick.
I am out with Emily Green and her family on Friday night so need to make sure I am sticking with the healthy between now and then. I don't expect to lose a lot but I need to get a couple of pounds off at least so I look good in my dress. Fingers crossed!!
The new house is going well, although last night was not so fun. The damn wind kept making my window bang and I kept waking up with a start thinking someone was breaking in or something! Talk about paranoid.
The Rugby 6 Nations starts tonight with England playing Wales in Cardiff so my evening is planned! A nice healthy chilli or salad in front of the TV shouting at England!! Good Times.
On Saturday I will be heading back to the old house to collect some more things that weren't overly important during the move next weekend and then on Sunday I will mostly be chilling out although I think I am going to have to pop to Asda at some point.
All in all, things are still going well!
xoxo
Monday, 31 January 2011
And its done.......well almost!!
Whoop Whoop!! I am officially living in my new house and I absolutely love it!!!
I was up at 7.15am on Saturday morning and by 8.30 I was loading the car with the first load of stuff to be moved. All morning I was back and forth with boxes. Claire very kindly came round about 10.30ish and completed the inventory for me. Then her and Lewis put up my wardrobe unpacked my DVDs and arranged the furniture. At 10am Jo and Adam arrived at mums with the van ready for the lifting and shifting of all the heavy furniture. Mum had a mild panic attack at about 9.50am that Jo wasn't going to arrive but he did.
After a lot of hard work we got all the major stuff moved and buy Sunday it was all unpacked. There are still a few bits that I have left at the old house but I can get those after work in the evenings. The rest of the family have this week off so they have plenty of time to adjust I however am back to work today so ever so slightly jealous of Alan being home on his own.
Yesterday I was getting ready and it felt like I was staying as a guest in someones else's house I think it is going to take a week or so to get totally settled. I had trouble sleeping last night due to "new house noises" but I am sure I will get used to these eventually.
All in all the weekend has been totally knackering but so worth it.
On other items, I went for a Curry with the lovely Miss Green on Friday night to the New Bengal in Gosport. The food was once again delish and I will certainly be making that my regular for Curry related eating. She came round to the new place first with some fizzy champers to celebrate the move, she truly is a love!!
Sunday was not such a fun day, I woke up with a stomping headache which I put down to the fact I didn't really have a lot to eat or drink on Saturday so probably a bit dehydrated. I went to Asda with mum to get some food in as we didn't really have anything. On the way out I ended up (and I'm not really sure how) having a run in with my dad on the phone. And as much as I am ashamed to say it started crying in the car park ahhhhhhhh!!! Got home and was putting the shopping away and managed to bash my head on the corner of one of the cabinets, needless to say I swore, a lot and then cried some more. Emily came round again and we just chilled out and chatted, had a small bite to eat and then she headed home.
The family then went to the Cocked Hat for dinner, thankfully by then dad had got over his tantrum by then and the evening passed very nicely. I managed to get two loads of bedding washed and when I left for work this morning they were almost dry so good times on that front.
My uncle has come down from Cheltenham today to pick up our old oven and fridge freezer, he has helped mum and dad do a few bits round there new place and they are off out for something to eat. He will probably have headed home before I finish work so wont get to see him which is a same.
Thankfully I haven't got much planned for the rest of the week as I could do with just relaxing. Tonight I am going to make some dinner and have a nice hot bath as I have been freezing all day, for some reason the heating in the office hasn't been working properly and it has been worse than the old house for cold.
Got fat club tomorrow so the next entry will be about that, not feeling confident for any loss this week but I have been very busy so not going to feel too bad about it.
xoxo
I was up at 7.15am on Saturday morning and by 8.30 I was loading the car with the first load of stuff to be moved. All morning I was back and forth with boxes. Claire very kindly came round about 10.30ish and completed the inventory for me. Then her and Lewis put up my wardrobe unpacked my DVDs and arranged the furniture. At 10am Jo and Adam arrived at mums with the van ready for the lifting and shifting of all the heavy furniture. Mum had a mild panic attack at about 9.50am that Jo wasn't going to arrive but he did.
After a lot of hard work we got all the major stuff moved and buy Sunday it was all unpacked. There are still a few bits that I have left at the old house but I can get those after work in the evenings. The rest of the family have this week off so they have plenty of time to adjust I however am back to work today so ever so slightly jealous of Alan being home on his own.
Yesterday I was getting ready and it felt like I was staying as a guest in someones else's house I think it is going to take a week or so to get totally settled. I had trouble sleeping last night due to "new house noises" but I am sure I will get used to these eventually.
All in all the weekend has been totally knackering but so worth it.
On other items, I went for a Curry with the lovely Miss Green on Friday night to the New Bengal in Gosport. The food was once again delish and I will certainly be making that my regular for Curry related eating. She came round to the new place first with some fizzy champers to celebrate the move, she truly is a love!!
Sunday was not such a fun day, I woke up with a stomping headache which I put down to the fact I didn't really have a lot to eat or drink on Saturday so probably a bit dehydrated. I went to Asda with mum to get some food in as we didn't really have anything. On the way out I ended up (and I'm not really sure how) having a run in with my dad on the phone. And as much as I am ashamed to say it started crying in the car park ahhhhhhhh!!! Got home and was putting the shopping away and managed to bash my head on the corner of one of the cabinets, needless to say I swore, a lot and then cried some more. Emily came round again and we just chilled out and chatted, had a small bite to eat and then she headed home.
The family then went to the Cocked Hat for dinner, thankfully by then dad had got over his tantrum by then and the evening passed very nicely. I managed to get two loads of bedding washed and when I left for work this morning they were almost dry so good times on that front.
My uncle has come down from Cheltenham today to pick up our old oven and fridge freezer, he has helped mum and dad do a few bits round there new place and they are off out for something to eat. He will probably have headed home before I finish work so wont get to see him which is a same.
Thankfully I haven't got much planned for the rest of the week as I could do with just relaxing. Tonight I am going to make some dinner and have a nice hot bath as I have been freezing all day, for some reason the heating in the office hasn't been working properly and it has been worse than the old house for cold.
Got fat club tomorrow so the next entry will be about that, not feeling confident for any loss this week but I have been very busy so not going to feel too bad about it.
xoxo
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Good Things
I went to Slimming World (here after referred to as Fat Club) on Tuesday morning, I decided as I had a busy day planned I might as well go to the morning group. Got weighed for my second week and if I am honest was not expecting to have gone well. I had hardly written anything down all week so wasn't handing in my food diary. But I stood on the scales and to my surprise I had lost 4lbs. I was stunned that is 6lb in 2 weeks. If I can maintain that this week and lose an extra pound on Tuesday I will have lost half a stone in three weeks. Damn good effort I think.
Further good news has been received today, my very good friend Hayley has had here baby. It wasn't due until the 2nd February but it appears she gave birth to a little boy at 01:15 this morning weighing in at 6lb 6oz and named Oliver James Robinson. I am very excited to meet the little chap.
The house move is looming ever closer, I am 95% packed which is good. My friend Adam who was going to help with a van has let me down so now we are reduced to one van to move all big items for the four of us. Jo is kindly helping and we have got him scheduled in for 930/10am.
I was supposed to be going out on Friday night with a few peeps from work and Green but that has now been cancelled as Vicky is also moving house this weekend. I do think this is possibly for the best as it means that I can do some moving on Friday night and by the time the big furniture gets moved on Saturday I will be sorted. Then I can help everyone else. Although they all have next week off work so they have plenty of time to get themselves unpacked I however will be back at work and I really don't want to be living out of a suitcase and boxes if I can avoid it.
I am back at work today after having my three days off, I was hoping coming back would be less stressful but apparently that is not the case. The last few days have been manic apparently and everyone seems to be feeling rather stressed. I feel like I am the only one in a good mood, will be interesting to see how long that lasts.
Not long to the weekend!! haha!!
xoxo
Further good news has been received today, my very good friend Hayley has had here baby. It wasn't due until the 2nd February but it appears she gave birth to a little boy at 01:15 this morning weighing in at 6lb 6oz and named Oliver James Robinson. I am very excited to meet the little chap.
The house move is looming ever closer, I am 95% packed which is good. My friend Adam who was going to help with a van has let me down so now we are reduced to one van to move all big items for the four of us. Jo is kindly helping and we have got him scheduled in for 930/10am.
I was supposed to be going out on Friday night with a few peeps from work and Green but that has now been cancelled as Vicky is also moving house this weekend. I do think this is possibly for the best as it means that I can do some moving on Friday night and by the time the big furniture gets moved on Saturday I will be sorted. Then I can help everyone else. Although they all have next week off work so they have plenty of time to get themselves unpacked I however will be back at work and I really don't want to be living out of a suitcase and boxes if I can avoid it.
I am back at work today after having my three days off, I was hoping coming back would be less stressful but apparently that is not the case. The last few days have been manic apparently and everyone seems to be feeling rather stressed. I feel like I am the only one in a good mood, will be interesting to see how long that lasts.
Not long to the weekend!! haha!!
xoxo
Monday, 24 January 2011
Almost Mugged Off....
My lovely little car has been waiting for a good service for a couple of months now and as I have got a couple of days off work decided to be productive and book it in for a right old seeing to.
So off I went to Southampton, got to the garage and handed over the keys. Was told by the very spotty boy behind the desk it would be 2 hours including the cleaning so headed off to West Quay and Ikea for some time wasting.
Went to Costa and had a coffee then to Ikea, Alan asked me to look for a wardrobe and mum wanted me to price up some chest of drawers so with mission in hand I very slowly wondered around Ikea taking photos and noting costs of relevant items. After about an hour I wondered over to Next Home ware store. I wasn't even half way round when I received a phone call from the garage. I was advised that my front break pads were almost completely worn and my break discs were in need of replacing and this work would cost me £209.98. I very politely told them I couldn't afford it right now and would get it sorted as soon as I was paid.
As soon as I had finished that call I rang Auto Tyre Centre in Gosport to see if Jo (the god of all mechanics) could check over the service sheet and the brakes as I had a feeling the garage were trying to mug me off being as the car is no longer under warranty.
So I picked the car up from the garage and headed straight to Jo's. He took one look at the brakes and said if they did need doing it wouldn't cost anywhere near what Renault wanted plus there is nothing wrong with the discs and the pads are barely half worn. Renault lied!!!!! I am not surprised as soon as they know the car isn't in warranty, and the fact it was a girl who bought it in they clearly thought well we've got one here lets rip her off!! Sorry lads you aren't getting one over on me. No one does anything to my car until I have checked with Jo.
Moral of the story, never trust a corporate garage not to rip you off and always seek mechanical advise from trusted source.
Rant over!!
xoxo
So off I went to Southampton, got to the garage and handed over the keys. Was told by the very spotty boy behind the desk it would be 2 hours including the cleaning so headed off to West Quay and Ikea for some time wasting.
Went to Costa and had a coffee then to Ikea, Alan asked me to look for a wardrobe and mum wanted me to price up some chest of drawers so with mission in hand I very slowly wondered around Ikea taking photos and noting costs of relevant items. After about an hour I wondered over to Next Home ware store. I wasn't even half way round when I received a phone call from the garage. I was advised that my front break pads were almost completely worn and my break discs were in need of replacing and this work would cost me £209.98. I very politely told them I couldn't afford it right now and would get it sorted as soon as I was paid.
As soon as I had finished that call I rang Auto Tyre Centre in Gosport to see if Jo (the god of all mechanics) could check over the service sheet and the brakes as I had a feeling the garage were trying to mug me off being as the car is no longer under warranty.
So I picked the car up from the garage and headed straight to Jo's. He took one look at the brakes and said if they did need doing it wouldn't cost anywhere near what Renault wanted plus there is nothing wrong with the discs and the pads are barely half worn. Renault lied!!!!! I am not surprised as soon as they know the car isn't in warranty, and the fact it was a girl who bought it in they clearly thought well we've got one here lets rip her off!! Sorry lads you aren't getting one over on me. No one does anything to my car until I have checked with Jo.
Moral of the story, never trust a corporate garage not to rip you off and always seek mechanical advise from trusted source.
Rant over!!
xoxo
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Its all go....
So on Wednesday Green sent me a text at lunch time to see if I fancied going out for dinner, well its Wednesday of course I'm up for dinner. So after a quick phone call we decided it would be rude not to do Orange Wednesdays and as she had a voucher for money off food we decided to break with routine and go to Giraffe for dinner rather than Nandos.
I must say that food was lush and not all that badly priced either. I had chicken wings to start and thought it would be best to try and eat them with a knife and fork but after half of the first one gave up and resorted to eating with my fingers. Sometimes there is just no place for being elegant while you eat. I had a chicken Schnitzel bacon burger for main. Yum Yum!! I will most certainly go back. It was a nice atmosphere and the decoration was nice. Although I love Nandos, it is always nice to have a bit of variety in life.
We decided to go and see the Kings Speech, see if it lived up to all the hype and award nominations. Thankfully we managed to get through the ice cream queue without Emily ripping another £5 note like she did on our last visit. There was however some confusion regarding the screens. We were in screen 1 and there was a huge queue going right out of the door which we believed to be for our screen so we stood in the foyer with our ice cream for 15 mins until we discovered the queue was in fact for a different screen!! Fail!! Whilst standing eating our ice cream, which half way through defeated me, possibly due to too much chocolate I managed to spill some down my purple coat. I really cannot be trusted.
The film was very good. It isn't a comedy but there were some good comedy moments. I am a bit of a history fan so films about things that actually happened do interest me. Colin Firth certainly deserves his awards in my opinion. It can't be easy to learn to stutter the way he does in the film. I think I might purchase it when it comes out on DVD.
The rest of the week was pretty quiet, things are getting better at work and my level of responsibility is getting higher. I had a meeting with the teams on Thursday to launch our new process which I have been working on and I got a lot of praise from my boss regarding how good the work I had done was. More brownie points for me! Good Times.
This weekend has been unbelievably busy. I was at the hairdressers for 10am yesterday, was lovely to see Nathan as haven't seen him since the beginning of December. Its always nice to have a chat. I now have purple hair, was getting rather bored with the red and it as it fades so easily I decided to go a bit darker. Totally love it.
When I finished there I popped into the Natwest to open a new bank account for our bills when we move. Now I can start sorting out the direct debits for all the utilities and the TV licence. Once I finished there I met Alan and we went down to leaders to sign our tenancy agreement and pay the deposit. We have done it early because he is working on Saturday and it means I can get in the flat first thing and check things over before we start moving stuff in. Then I went with mum to her new house to help with the measuring of furniture. I still don't think they have realised the actual definition of down sizing but they will get there. Or at least I hope they will as its only a week until move day!!
Today I spent the afternoon with Mrs Coote, having a good old chin wag. Now that we don't work together I don't get to see her as much so its nice to have some time to just sit and put the world to rights. Then I went and picked up my Peter Kay Tickets from Lynne's. Busy Busy Busy.
I have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off work next week so will be getting my car serviced and cracking on with the packing ready for the move. I will be glad when we are moved and I can have a weekend of just chillaxing!
I can honestly say for the first time in a long time I am happy with everything going on in my life. 2011 is treating me well so far.
xoxo
I must say that food was lush and not all that badly priced either. I had chicken wings to start and thought it would be best to try and eat them with a knife and fork but after half of the first one gave up and resorted to eating with my fingers. Sometimes there is just no place for being elegant while you eat. I had a chicken Schnitzel bacon burger for main. Yum Yum!! I will most certainly go back. It was a nice atmosphere and the decoration was nice. Although I love Nandos, it is always nice to have a bit of variety in life.
We decided to go and see the Kings Speech, see if it lived up to all the hype and award nominations. Thankfully we managed to get through the ice cream queue without Emily ripping another £5 note like she did on our last visit. There was however some confusion regarding the screens. We were in screen 1 and there was a huge queue going right out of the door which we believed to be for our screen so we stood in the foyer with our ice cream for 15 mins until we discovered the queue was in fact for a different screen!! Fail!! Whilst standing eating our ice cream, which half way through defeated me, possibly due to too much chocolate I managed to spill some down my purple coat. I really cannot be trusted.
The film was very good. It isn't a comedy but there were some good comedy moments. I am a bit of a history fan so films about things that actually happened do interest me. Colin Firth certainly deserves his awards in my opinion. It can't be easy to learn to stutter the way he does in the film. I think I might purchase it when it comes out on DVD.
The rest of the week was pretty quiet, things are getting better at work and my level of responsibility is getting higher. I had a meeting with the teams on Thursday to launch our new process which I have been working on and I got a lot of praise from my boss regarding how good the work I had done was. More brownie points for me! Good Times.
This weekend has been unbelievably busy. I was at the hairdressers for 10am yesterday, was lovely to see Nathan as haven't seen him since the beginning of December. Its always nice to have a chat. I now have purple hair, was getting rather bored with the red and it as it fades so easily I decided to go a bit darker. Totally love it.
When I finished there I popped into the Natwest to open a new bank account for our bills when we move. Now I can start sorting out the direct debits for all the utilities and the TV licence. Once I finished there I met Alan and we went down to leaders to sign our tenancy agreement and pay the deposit. We have done it early because he is working on Saturday and it means I can get in the flat first thing and check things over before we start moving stuff in. Then I went with mum to her new house to help with the measuring of furniture. I still don't think they have realised the actual definition of down sizing but they will get there. Or at least I hope they will as its only a week until move day!!
Today I spent the afternoon with Mrs Coote, having a good old chin wag. Now that we don't work together I don't get to see her as much so its nice to have some time to just sit and put the world to rights. Then I went and picked up my Peter Kay Tickets from Lynne's. Busy Busy Busy.
I have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off work next week so will be getting my car serviced and cracking on with the packing ready for the move. I will be glad when we are moved and I can have a weekend of just chillaxing!
I can honestly say for the first time in a long time I am happy with everything going on in my life. 2011 is treating me well so far.
xoxo
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