Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in felesin's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
4:54 pm	There was one amusing afternote to yesterday evening. When I was putting my work stuff in the car this morning, one of my neighbours was outside. Stopping to pass the time of day with her, I was very amused when she said her husband had almost knocked on my door last night to see if I was OK because" we didn't like the look of that man who was here, and wanted to make sure you were OK". They'd seen him sitting in his car yesterday morning watching the house, then again in the evening before coming in and thought a) this behaviour was suspicious and b) he looked very dodgy indeed. Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
10:44 pm	There WILL be a murder committed soon at this rate! Don't get me wrong, I'm happy (mostly) to rescue the sister & various nephews in a time of crisis. But in return maybe a LITTLE consideration of how I like my life to run might be in order? I was content to have nos 2 and 4 nephews hanging out at my house all day while sister was off doing stuff, as they aren't any problem and just watched TV tucked away upstairs (yes, the nice Sky man came in the morning). Managed to drag a couple of updates from sister as to her progress as the day drew on, the last one being as I was leaving the chiropractor at about 7.15 this evening saying she'd be home as soon as the deliverers had finished assembling her beds and they were nearly done - probably about half an hour. Got home to find ex-bro in law with no. 3 nephew sitting in the car outside, waiting for Ann to find out who was sleeping where tonight as she hadn't discussed plans with them. I couldn't really leave them in the car, so we made use of my back garden drinkng tea & eating biscuits. Then I realised it was 8.30pm, getting dark, and no sign of Ann. Tried her mobile & didn't get a reply. Finally got hold of her at about 9.15 when she was nearly back - by now it had been 2 hours since she'd said she'd be half an hour. She arrived a few minutes later & came out to chat in the garden - by now I'd just had enough of being entertaining and wanted a bit of peace & quiet. Took me another half hour to get rid of ex-bro in law and one nephew (others all staying here again it was finally decided). Ann had said we could order a take away for dinner which she would pay for, so I hadn't eaten. And by the time she got back it was too late for me to eat - especially after they'd done the chatting bit and I'd nagged them into deciding what they were all doing. I tried saying gently that maybe she could have kept in touch a little better seeing as she was so much later than she'd said & she just tried to justify herself by saying she'd not realised how long it had been - nearly 2 bloody HOURS longer than she'd said, making it 5 times as long as the estimate! I know it seems a little petty my whining about this, but I'm used to my life running in certain ways and the sheer lack of consideration when I've put myself out was irritating especially considering how tired I am and that I hadn't eaten - because of waiting for her to get in. So she got all miffy at me for being irritated and said don't worry they'll be gone tomorrow - when i'm away at work anyway and it won't matter. She then "kindly" closed the lid on my laptop without asking - which meant I've had to log back on through all the security just to check emails, then she got all angry when I said if she doesn't know just ask or don't touch. It's MY bloody computer, and just because the nephew wasn't playing any longer is no reason for her to assume I wasn't going to want it; I'd already said it was going to take me an hour to settle before I could go to bed. And not knowing that closing the lid shuts a lap top down is still no excuse - as I said, if you don't know then DON'T TOUCH or ask first. So she's all miffy & ratty at me, because I've dared to ask for a little consideration when I've turned my own life upside down at an already very stressful & busy time just for them. Current Mood: pissed off (Comment on this)
8:49 am	It got even worse than I thought yesterday, through no fault of the sister's. thing s seemed to be going fine by lunchtime - OK she had stuff just dumped on my living room floor as she'd charged back & forth moving stuff, but she'd been told she could collect the keys just as she left for the last load that included her parrot. Called her at 4pm to see how she was in the new place, only to hear the keys had been mislaid 7 she wasn't in there yet. Finally got in at aboput 5pm. then, while she was back at my place, she realised she hadn't had a call to tell her the beds were being delivered, and also had no idea where the various boys were staying. No mobile reception where she used to live, no-one at the ex's NEW house, so we drove to her old house. There we found the ex and the boys stull trudging round with piles of crap they were leaving in the shack next door (yes it IS a shack, an unoccupied ex-mobile home) which was completely full, as were the various broken down cars he has. On further investigation, it turned out that the ONLY place the older boys had to sleep 9along with their father) was propped up in any corner they could find in the aforementioned shack - I'd already agreed with the sister that the 11 year old could stay at mine. Meanwhile, the beds (2/3 only) had been delivered to sister's OLD house! End result - the ex slept wherever he could find, no. 4 son shared with sister, the other 3 boys spread out on a mattress, on my sofa and on a camping mattress around my house. Hopefully the sister's beds will be collected and re-delivereed this morning. Current Mood: anxious (Comment on this)
Monday, July 21st, 2008
8:46 am	Eek! Having got my own move out of the way, it's the sister's turn today. Now I know I can be a bit of a worrier about this kind of thing, but I'm really really scared by her current state of un-preparedness. Consider the following.... Completion is today. They were told "probably around 2pm" so they are assuming that it won't be earlier. I have also just had to tell her that actually if you aren't quite ready by the time well that's your problem, you can't delay completion by an hour or two because you are disorganised. And that mine completed before 12 noon on Thursday. She has at least 2 car loads of stuff to get to my house still, maybe 3. None of this has been packed yet. She seems to think that £10 in cash should be enough to cover any and all eventualities. I finally kicked her out of bed at 8am this morning - she said that as she'd had a poor night's sleep she thought she'd try to catch up a bit, and hadn't seemed to concerned about time moving on. I'm pretty sure she hasn't checked her mobile phone charge, or switched it on yet. From what I can see, and knowing her current state of mind (faffing, overly laid back, forgetful), there's no WAY she will be ready and all out by completion. Takes 20-30 minutes to drive each way between my new house & her old one, so she has about 2.5 hours of driving time alone (allowing for the morning rush hour) without even getting the last bits of packing done, and a little over 3 hours to get it all done in. Oh, plus have a shower as she decided to have that when she got back to her old house before starting stuff. And probably breakfast knowing her, and a chance she will "just pop on line for 5 minutes" to tell her Warcraft guild she's going to be off line for a few days. Ah well, I've done all i can and it's her problem now (sigh) Current Mood: worried (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
5:44 pm	Oh. My. God. What lovely new neighbours I have - I met the neighbours on my left today and on hearing about my Sky and broadband woes he promptly unsecured his wireless broadband and said to help myself, just tell him when I get mine back on and he will resecure it. I knew this was a good road for friendliness, what with the other side inviting me & Jo in for coffees while we waited for the keys on Thursday, but this was going above & beyond normal neighbourliness Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
1:22 pm	Well I'm moved and in the new house sucessfully. A few minor problems, some more irritating than others. Need curtain poles for both windows in the living room. Minor, not critically urgent, and easily sorted. Need an adaptor for the washing machine drain pipe. Urgent and important, but again easily sorted. No Sky until Tuesday. THis might not seem too much of a problem, except all the aerial type sockets in the house go through a switch box in the airing cupboard and I can't find how to get the terrestrial aerial to input to this box rather than the Sky dish. So no TV at all, apart from a very fuzzy Channel 4 in the bedroom and DVDs. No idea how to work the burglar alarm. Non critical, not really important because I'm not used to having one anyway so it's just off No broadband for approximately another week! This wouldn't normally be quite as critical as it seems, but a) no TV either and b) the reception for Vodaphone is virtually non existant here so my 3G card for the laptop occasionally works very slowly indeed if I camp out in an upstairs room at the front of the house, full stop. Too slowly in fact for me to use it for work stuff, as it takes so long for it to UPload security codes that the code has changed by the time it gets there. So I'll have to arrange to stay an extra day next week in Southampton so I can be sure of being able to work on Friday. I think I may die of terminal boredom before I go back to work on Wednesday! Just hoping this loads up OK before it all freezes again. In other news, the sister moves this Mnday too. She has very little indeed to do as she's only taking personal items with her and no furniture, but I will admit to being rather irritated with her when I found she was gaming rather than packing her 8-10 boxes of clothes, books etc this morning. Te plan is for her to bring everything over to me during the weekend & put it in my garage, then stay here Sunday night so she avoids the hyterical panics and rages her ex-husband is sure to have on Monday morning. I'll contact various peple with the new house phone number & address as & when I get round to it, but in the interim I HAVE set up mail forwarding and luckily Orange works fine here for the mobile (unlike Vodaphone). I did try to set up the system where BT leaves a recorded message on your old phone number saying what the new ne is, but apparently they don't do that any more! Current Mood: pensive (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
5:12 pm	Since contracts were exchanged this afternoon I have: Managed to get a removals company (subcontracted via the one I originally wanted) Arranged for my phone account to be moved, and got the new phone number as from Thursday Cancelled current water, electricity and gas (need to give them meter readings on Thursday) Arranged new accounts for water, electricity and gas Arranged mail forwarding Organised Sky change of address Arranged for my next door neighbour to look after mail that comes before the forwarding kicks in I'm now going to eat some food (first of the day as I just haven't got round to it yet), have a looong shower, and collapse in a heap to try to get some energy up for tomorrow! Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
1:28 pm	We've Exchanged!!!!!! OK so the date has moved back to Thursday. And because I couldn't book my removals company of choice until this morning it's going to cost me a little more as they may have to hire a vehicle, but I'd still prefer that as i trust them & they are very good. But it's finally definite!!!!! Current Mood: relieved (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, July 14th, 2008
3:15 pm	House - again And now we have the first big problem of today - probably lost the use of sister and nephew no. 3 for the move as sister has just been told they have to complete THEIR move next Monday at the latest or their sale is off. I may be able to keep the use of the sister (provided things still go ahead on this Thursday that is), but as the ex-bro in law has massive amounts still to do I can't see him releasing the services of a husky 19 year old for the benefit of his loathed ex-sister in law. No mood - awaiting to hear of the next problem....... (Comment on this)
Friday, July 11th, 2008
5:42 pm	Move update This is turning out to be a VERY stressful house move, even by normal house moving standards. STILL not exchanged contracts - buyer's solicitor didn't request funds from the mortgage company until yesterday so won't get confirmation they will be there in time, until Monday now. So can't exchange until Monday, though we are still working towards Thursday to move. If I book the removals company today, and for any reason the move doesn't take place on Thursday, I get charged 60% cancellation fee. My preferred company has only 1 van of appropriate size left for next Thursday - cross fingers & pray it doesn't get booked out before i get to exchange on Monday, because i just can't afford nearly £500 cancellation fee. My boss is a wonderful guy - he's said not to worry if I can't tell which days i need off next week until we get to next week, just book the time when I do finally know. That's one weight off my mind anyway. Sky are fine, as the new house has a Sky + dish still there. Just call them after I've plugged it all in, and should be up & running within a couple of hours (4 at the outside) Electricity will be fine - just tell them the date whejn it's finally confirmed both the place I'm moving from & the one I'm moving to,. and give the relevant meter readings on the day. Same for Gas. Telephone is a different matter. Well the telephone line itself is fine - can get the new number within an hour of calling them, on the day if necessary. But broadband is a right pain. They say they can't take my instructions until I know for absolutely definite the date, as they start the set up then. But then they said it takes up to 5 days AFTER THE MOVE to set it up & get it running. So why can't I at least book it then change the date, if they don't do the set up until after the move? And how on earth can it take 5 whole days to set the broadband up? I bow to the wisdom of anyone who knows better than me, but I just can't see why it takes that long to swap the account from one line to another, surely that's just throwing a switch type stuff and maybe 5 minutes of typing stuff into a computer. I'm madly packing everything I can pack, but until I get the date confirmed there's stuff I just can't do e.g. some clothes, much paperwork, most of the non-perishable food, most of my crockery & cutlery. Current Mood: stressed (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
5:05 pm	This is getting ridiculous now. Having arranged everything else, and answered my buyer's solicitor's every question (often more than once) they are NOW coming up with new questions - which as far as we can see are total rubbish! They have kindly(!) accepted that I can get the boiler re-certified and give them the documentation for that, but now have asked for the Building Regs permissions for the central heating. There is no such requirement, as with double glazing provided the installation is done by a person/company registered with the relevant organisatrion (Corgi for the boiler, FENSA for the windows) there is NO Building Regs permissions needed. Full Stop. End Of. They are talking total bollocks. I even checked all that with Sevenoaks Council when I first moved in and before I had anything done. I also calle the estate agents to ask if they knew what the Hell the solicitors were playing at, and when I said Building Rehgs for a boiler they couldn't believe it, never heard of the like before. They also seem to have picked up on there being some (very minor) additional drainage for the bathroom, and are demanding details of that. Well I have news for them - that isn't a legal or building regs matter either. There is no reason at all why someone can't run an additional pipe along the outside of a wall to feed into the existing drainage system and no permissions are needed - we aren't exactly talking about this being in a historically sensitive area or being a listed building! And why has it taken them until this time to suddenly need to ask these questions? Until yesterday afternoon they SAID they were ready to exchange yesterday & complete Monday - now they are suddenly finding new reasons why we can't exchange tomorrow morning & complete next Thursday. They also seem to have been a little backward in coming forward to my buyer about what happens when in house purchasing, I was the one he ended up asking what happens at completion - he is French, and has never bought a house in the UK just rented until now. I'm starting to suspect that instead of the normal flat fee for conveyancing, his solicitors are charging him for each bit of work they do. We can think of no other reason for why they keep dragging things out the way they are, and finding what seems to be "make work". I'm starting to get very depressed about the whole thing. I can't keep on pushing back the holiday with my work, they are being pretty decent about letting me book the time at a couple of days notice rather than the regulation full month for anything over 3 days. And my poor vendor is in the same boat, he too can't keep changing potential leave dates. And my buyer is DESPERATE to get in asap as the lease where he is now runs out at the end of the month & there's work he had planned to do before moving in. Current Mood: depressed (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
5:07 pm	I think I'm going to cry. At 2.30pm today, it looked like everything was clear for exchange of contracts this afternoon with completion on Monday. Now if we are LUCKY we get exchange tomorrow, and Completion next Thursday. I'm stuck here in Southampton & my buyers solicitors are demanding corgi certification before they want to exchange - why they couldn't have asked for that 3 weeks ago goodness knows, but until I get home I can't even look for that. Luckily my purchaser has said he's happy for exchange to go ahead without the paper & trusts that it exists. I'm out all day Thursday, in theory from 8am until 8pm though I may have to go late. I'm at the stage of madly trying to work out if I can get home tonight instead of tomorrow late afternoon somehow Current Mood: crushed (Comment on this)
Monday, June 30th, 2008
12:39 pm	Argh! Bloody solicitors! Not mine, they are great. Not my vendors, they seem OK. No, my buyer's solicitors. Obviously an old-fashioned company, they don't seem willing to do things in parallell and are insisting that some things are dependant on others happening first, which definitely is not the case with the things they are delaying. Just about every mortgage company requires an environmental search done over and above the searches done as part of the HIPs - so why did they wait until this morning to commission that particular search? And actually no they DON'T have to wait until all the searches are in to get a draft contract signed by my purchaser, and no there is NO legal reason why I have to go in and sign the transfer in their offices some time after when all these other things are done. My transfer has been signed in front of witnesses, as has my draft contract. If nothing comes up in this last seach (which should have been done 2 weeks ago) then the draft contract becomes the final one & nothing more needs to be done. On top of all this, my solicitor wrote to them last week with proposed exchange and completion dates which, if they insist on doing things as slowly and in the order they are suggesting, won't be possible. So why weren't they on the phone to my solicitor this morning to say that? Only reason we found out was because my purchaser, who I saw over the weekend and agreed possible dates with, called them himself this morning and was told all this. So I'm angry, very angry with them. So is my purchaser, who being French doesn't know the procedures for house purchasing in the UK and hadn't realised they are dragging their feet for no apparent reason until I told him. Current Mood: angry (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
10:58 am	Summer is here finally, and it's great wandering about the park if I go for a ciggie or something. But it also means the emergence of my 2 least favorite fashions. First are those white linen trousers that are so thin they are near enough see-through - especially when teamed with a thong (well I HOPE she was wearing a thong!) and a tattoo on the buttock. That's just slutty IMO. The other is when a woman who makes ME look skinny wears leggings or footless tights with a t-shirt just about stretched across the bum. Guess what woman - it doesn't look sexy it looks dreadful. I'm not exactly in a position to make judgements on people for size but dressing in a manner that makes the most of the bulges really isn't a good look, spray on lycra over cellulite rarely attracts the guys! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
6:24 pm	I've just had a "Cinderalla" moment. Walking from the office to the hotel I saw lying beside the pavement a single left ladies shoe. Pale lilac, high heel, open toe, rather elegant and in very good condition - can only have been worn a couple of times. It justy seemed a very incongruous item to see lying by the bushes, in a reasonably well travelled area. Current Mood: surprised (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
1:24 pm	Phew That's the surplus furniture all either gone, or definitely going soon. A mate has asked if they can have the sofa and are able to borrow a small van to collect it in, and Give 2 Give charity just took the sideboard, dining table & chairs My dining room now looks immense, and there's plenty of spce for me to stack up packed boxes etc. And my lovely friends Trevor and Chris came round yesterday early evening and fixed my PC for me :) House legal stuff is progressing; both houses in the chain surveyed and all serches completed, with my solicitors intending to propose dates early-ish in July to the other people. So, so far this week is going OK despite the dreadful cold I have. I wonder what's going to go wrong to make up for it all? Current Mood: optimistic (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
11:48 am	This house moving lark is starting to get me down. May 9 I received an offer on my current house, and May 12 I offered on the house I'm buying. That was just over 5 weeks ago, and in that time as far as I can see very little has happened. I have done my fixtures and fittings list, as has my vendor. Swanley house has been surveyed, the survey for the Gravesend house was finally done yesterday. And that seems to be IT so far. Oh, and somehow my solicitors failed to take the money for my searches (despite me giving them the card number) and so haven't even done those yet - maybe if there was a problem they could have called me, rather than waiting until I found out from the estate agents, who only found out because they asked about progress? Sales on houses are down 25-30% this year so why are the sols and mortgage companies taking longer than they used to, to get things done? It's taken my mortgage company 3 weeks from making me the initial mortgage offer to even commissioning the survey. Solicitors are waiting until they have every piece of the jigsaw before issuing the questions (there are ALWAYS questions), rather than asking most then doing a supplimentary set when late information comes in (like surveys!). I'm going to have to be one of those annoying people who calls everyone twice a week to check on progress, going on the theory that they will get my stuff done just to keep me off their backs - he who shouts loudest and all that. There is no reason at all why a straightforward house move, especially one with only 2 properties in the chain, should take the 12=14 weeks they seem to think is reasonable! Current Mood: depressed (Comment on this)
Monday, June 16th, 2008
8:35 am	Techy help? My home PC has died :( It was opened up by no. 3 nephew, who has done PC tech type stuff at college, to check out the slot type for a memory upgrade it's in dire need of. To remove the RAM we also had to remove the graphics card, then while we were in there gave the innards a really good clean as it was filthy. THis had to include the cooling fan and fins on the processor, which were so filthy the dirt was attached in chunks. PC was then put back together with exceptional care, with both of us ensuring that everything was properly slotted home into place and that every connection was done properly. But it won't boot up :( On power up, we get a light showing it reading one of the CD drives then the other, but when I would then expect a flashing light to show it accessing the hard drive I get nothing. the screen also stays on standby - that seems to be fine, as if we disconnect it from the graphics card it proptly bursts into life to tell us it has no signal. So as far as I can tell, it's the processor. But why is it trying to read the CD drives and not the hard drive? Anyone out there who might have an idea please please all suggestions welcomed. I can access mail etc from the laptop, but there's an awful lot of stuff on that other PC and though I know I can copy it onto a new one if absolutely necessary it's going to be really inconvenient missing important stuff that's stored on it for ages. Plus I really don't want to have to buy a new one when all that WAS wrong with mine was shortage of RAM. Current Mood: distressed (Comment on this)
Friday, June 13th, 2008
11:49 am	I don't bloody well believe this! Spoke to the British Heart Foundation yesterday afternoon, at about closing time, and they said ofc they would love my furniture and could i call back in the morning as all the collections people weren't there. Called just now, and they said much as they would love it thay haven't got any room left in their storage at the mo seeing as another local branch is being refurbished and they have all their stuff too. This is really getting ridiculous. i have some very nice furniture in excellent condition which I would happily be keeping & using if I had the space, and i can't even GIVE it away! It would cost me money to dump it as I'd need to hire a van, it would cost money to get the council to take away & smash it up (which would possibly break my heart), it would even cost me money to get a 2nd hand furniture reseller to take it away & sell it for their own profit. It would cost me 2 lots of money to store it, one for the storage and one to get it there. I don't have the time to advertise it & sell it in the local papers, or to be available if I e-bay it. Help? Current Mood: frustrated (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
4:35 pm	Insane! Having phoned around a couple, it looks like most house clearance companies want to CHARGE me to take away perfectly good furniture that they will then sell and pocket the proceeds. I know there's a bit of an economic slump on, but surely that means more people will be considering good quality and condition second hand furniture? So that means that unless anyone else says they want it in the next couple of days, the local charity shop that does furniture will be getting some very good quality stuff for nothing! Local British Heart Foundation would be MORE than happy to collect the stuff for free and sell it for a good cause. Current Mood: angry (Comment on this)