Is everyone like this?

Well, things are a little quieter, and a lot has happened over the past few weeks. Company was brilliant – let me take a few days off, and work from home for a few days while Grete was really bad, which helped. She’s feeling much better, although still suffering, but at least she can think again and function, and get the help she needs.

*fx : Another Rant

When you are ill, and suffering, you are most likely not in much of a position to force your opinion or to ask lots of questions, and yet, ‘professionals’ appear to avoid providing any useful information or taking the time to ask the right questions. Friends got us through the last bad patch, friends in Nottingham and friends on IRC. When someone you’ve never met before asks questions a doctor never bothered to, you know the world is a scary and worrying place.

*fx : Rant off

The house still looks like a bombsite, but Grete is getting it sorted (I’m too lazy/knackered). Had some excellent weekends and evenings with friends here in Nottingham, which make the whole moving thing that much easier.

Bought CIV : CTP – waste of money.

Spend most of my time worrying about the things I should get sorted, like the garden, and bills, and payment schemes, and then spend the evening messing about, or eating too much take-away food, or on-line. Is everyone like this? All other folk seem to have organised lives where things work as they expect.

Struggling

Grete’s not very happy – the move has hit her quite badly, and the last few days have been stressful for everyone. She’ll be better again soon – especially due to the kindness of our friends.

People and Me

(I can’t remember when I wrote this, I’m guessing some time in 1999)

Well, obviously and most importantly, there’s Grete. Without her I would be lost. She is my soul mate, my other half, and a wonderful wife. She also has her own webpage, which you are now obliged to visit 😉 Leave a guestbook entry, she likes guestbook entries!


I’m lazy when it comes to friends. I take them for granted, I rarely keep in touch if long distances are involved, I often say things which I shouldn’t and sometimes things which no one should say.

For some reason, some people still put up with me, for which I’ll be eternally grateful, without my friends I’d be a self-centred old boar. My friends keep me on the straight and narrow.

I wouldn’t say I have a lot of friends, but the ones I do have provide quality enough to fill the friendship role a thousand times over. Some of these people are listed below, not all of them mind, so don’t worry if you’re not there 😉 Thanks,

  • Simes

    For acts above and beyond the call of duty. For having a bigger appetite than me. For many things, but mainly for being Simes.

  • Chris & Christine & Andy

    For reminding us that getting pissed in front of the TV, with friends, is just as enjoyable as ever. For roleplaying, for curry, for wargaming, and a whole host of other stuff.

  • Mark

    For showing me Ireland, for keeping in touch after university when I was being lazy and for keeping me sane at 64 Carterknowle Road.

  • Shorty

    A list too long to count. For teaching me that insomnia didn’t have to mean boredom, for saving me from myself at school, for still talking to me after that incident in Newcastle town center, and for making the effort to keep in touch when I forget.

  • Ness

    For trusting me when she had no reason, for reminding me that I sometimes am a nice person, and for putting me back together after Ken McKenzie pulled me apart.

  • Charles

    For teaching me about beer, and curry and having a good time, for giving me a place to live and then letting me move Grete in as well, and for a whole load of other things we did at university.

  • Tony

    For saving me from GLB, and for reminding me there aren’t many hobbies better than roleplaying.

  • Paul

    For never, ever, ever, letting me win at Warcraft, and for coming to two of our wedding receptions and also for having a bigger appetite than me 🙂

  • Lynda

    For lots of things, but above all, for giving Grete someone to confide in.

  • Steve

    For letting me win a few games of pool every now and then, and for getting me out of the Royal Bengal without too much of a problem.

Back to work

Well, first day back at work, went ok – lots to do and get ready for. Working late tomorrow putting in some anti-virus software for Notes. Not sure what I expected, and not sure if it lived up to expectation.

Hopefully we’ll be back on-line some time tomorrow when Diamond Cable get us installed, although they’ve not done a pre-installation interview/check type thing, which worries me, hopefully they won’t do that tomorrow and tell us it’ll be a week before we get on-line.

Online!

Well, we’re in. The computers are finally setup in the back bedroom, much nicer layout than the last place. You can see how it’s all configure here [grin].

Moving was a complete nightmare as usual. Van hire place were great, van was excellent, John German were annoying (it turns out that our Landlady wanted to move back in over the weekend, not the Friday, but John German said Friday or Tuesday, not the weekend, which of course made it much harder for everyone concerned).

Christine, Chris and Andy were a godsend. We’d never have managed it without them, we can’t thank them enough. The new place is nice, different from the flat, obviously, and it’s messy with everything still lying on the floor and stuff, but we’ll get used to it. We’re close to town which is nice. Can’t upload this tonight, since we’re not back on-line until Wednesday at the earliest – waiting for Diamond Cable to connect us. Back to work on Tuesday, my Bell’s Palsy has almost totally gone, the left side of may face still isn’t as strong as it was, but everything works again as it should!

Offline

Well, less than a day before we move, and we’re knackered! Still got the Kitchen and Sitting Room to pack and clean, and the toilet to clean too, but we’ll make it.

We won’t have a new phone until May 5th, so don’t expect us to be on-line until then.

This is us, signing out for now.

Rant!

Warning, this is a rant.

*FX : Rant on

Why do people make things so hard? Why is moving house such a difficult activity? John German claim we owe then three extra days rent, because we pay our direct debit on the 27th of the month. I thought the whole point of ‘per calendar month’ rent agreements was that you paid the same sum, regardless of how long the month was, and that sum covered your whole month’s rent. If you live in the property for 14 months, you pay 14 times the same amount. John German are claiming that because our direct debit goes in on the 27th of the month, that we’re paying from the 27th of one month to the 26th of the next, and because we’re moving out on the 30th, we therefore owe some rent.

I can’t believe it. We moved into this place on the 28th of February, last year. So while our first payment did indeed leave our account on the 27th, it covered a single day in February. And, since that assumes we paid for the day we moved in, while the previous tenant was moving out, then we can’t be paying for Friday the 30th of this month, since the new tenant moving in must be. I just can’t get my head around it, the whole bloody point of paying per calendar month is to avoid this kind of shit.

What’s more annoying, is that we decided to stay with John German, because it should make moving house easier – and in fact – we didn’t want to move, the day we were supposed to re-sign our contract, the landlady suddenly decided she wanted the place back – so we’re being forced to move. The whole thing stinks. It’s all very annoying.

Why does it cost £120 to sign a contract, that smells bad to me as well, but we just put up with these things because we think they must know best, they do this for a living

I want to be able to trust people. I want to be able to buy a product or service, and know that the seller wants to do a good job for me, not just wants the money, but wants to have pride in what they do. But it can’t work like that any more – people need money too badly – so they take jobs they have no interest in – they do them for the salary, and if the customer doesn’t seem happy, so what, who cares, they don’t.

All I want is someone to explain things, to give a shit about how I feel, to say, “yes, we should have told you there’d be three days of rent to pay, when we said your contract expired on the 30th of April”, not “oh by the way, pay the £35 you owe us or we’ll take action”.

When someone says, “we’ll ring you back”, I bloody expect them to ring back. Hah, stupid of me I know.

Aaaaaarrrggggghhhh, the whole thing is just so bloody frustrating. The nurse last week told me I had high blood pressure, I almost laughed, it’s not bloody surprising, I’ve got Bell’s Palsy, and only one of the four professional people I saw about it seemed to give a shit, and I’m moving house (being forced to move house) and I can’t get a straight answer about anything from the company, because none of them know anything.

I don’t want an easy life – I don’t want everyone to help me through it – but I bloody expect to be given the same amount of consideration that I give other people if they come to me for assistance. People have a right to expect a certain level of personal attention surely? At the very least I’m paying their bloody wages, but that’s not the underlying point, the underlying point is they would expect it if they were in my position, and yet they fail to consider that and provide it when the tables are turned.

o Am I being unfair? Probably.
o Why do I feel so guilty about blaming these people? Social conditioning.

The most frustrating element is the ‘there’s nothing you can do’ feeling. They have the high ground, because I don’t have anywhere to live if I don’t follow their lead. I wish I had more courage, to tell them where to get off, but that’s cutting your nose off to spite your face, so instead, we just put up with it, pay the money, grumble, moan and get on with life.

I’m sick of doing that.

I’m sick of just putting up with other people’s shit attitude.

I demand the same level of service I provide.

I demand the same level of consideration from people, that they would expect if they were asking for it.

*FX : Rant off

Confirmation

Well, time draws on, the move is ever closer, and the packing, while slow going, is at least going. I’ve got no pain today at all, but the response from my face is still pretty bad, no movement in the middle-left at all, a little at the bottom and a little at the top. I can’t tell if it feels better because I’m used to it, or if it feels better because it’s getting better. My eye isn’t as bad – and it doesn’t get tired as quickly, although looking at the screen for more than 20 minutes causes it to water!!

Finally got confirmation today from John German’s that we have the house we were after – they say that they told us this in our last conversation, but all I remember them saying was “yes, you can have a cat in the place”, not, “yes, you’ve got it, and you can have a cat”. Ah well, at least that’s one less worry.

I still can’t believe how helpful our friends are being – I keep trying to work out why they are bothering with us since we just seem to be hassle most of the time, but I guess that’s what friends are about.

Confused about Blade

Spending the tidying up the web site still further – instead of packing obviously. My Bells Palsy is still present, the pain is worse today, although I do have more movement back in my face. Anyway, back to the website stuff – it’s odd, more and more people from my place of work are finding the site – and I’m wondering more and more about how wise it is to keep these diary entries ‘honest’. I’ll keep doing them I guess. I should imagine it’s rather confusing for most of the people I work with to find pages about ‘Blade’, but it’s a hard concept to explain, and while I was going to try a little ‘what is this Blade crap’ on my site, I’ve decided against it. Which is odd, because just before I started writing this paragraph, I was all for it. See, now you’re even more confused than ever. I know I am.