Daffy's 'a nice cup of tea cheers you up' diary

patman99

Just remember, a kettle is easily moved to another room, as are a cup, tea bags, milk and sugar.

Cheery_Daff

How very true patman! :rotfl: :rotfl: Not worth the hassle on this occasion though Although I will remember it for the future! :rotfl:

KC, ordinarily I *would* have stuck my tongue out at him :rotfl: but he's *so* bad tempered when he's poorly it wasn't worth making him worse! The computer wasn't working either, and he was about to go out (for musical stuff), and he was freezing cold. I made the mistake of suggesting (a) that he could cancel his evening (apparently not), (b) that he could go without the computer files (absolutely out of the question), and (c) that he might have wanted to switch the heating on himself if he was cold since he was in the room with the boiler, while I was in the attic (which has no radiator) with a hot water bottle...

So, all in all, I should really have kept my mouth shut! :rotfl: I *do* know that... But I will admit to extreme provocation through grumpiness today (although I realise that's no excuse). Could have done with al anon meeting tonight - but got there, waited for 10 mins, then got three texts from all the other members saying they couldn't come - so I had to turn round and come back home again!

Still, got chance to say a bit more of a cheery goodbye to Mr Daffs at least

So - an evening to myself - what to do? Hot chocolate first I think :j I'm a bit out of sorts, and not really in the mood for much, so I might just let myself have a non-guilty mooch about the internet and watch some cr*p tv, especially since I wasn't meant to be here for another hour or so...

(and after all that moaning.... we *are* real soulmates ONE of us is just a grumpity old codger at times, that's all :rotfl: Our little mini squabbles never last long, there's never any lingering resentment, neither of us EVER brings up old arguments, and I fully expect a very apologetic text message before too long :rotfl:)

Anyway, off to put the kettle on - as many times as I like :rotfl:

Lemon_Tree

enjoy your hot chocolate. I've just been shopping with my OH and we had a trolley full off yellow stickered products. Got some very good bargains with leeks which will be chopped and frozen. I also more importantly bought myself some hot chocolate. I tried peppermint tea today and it was horrible, and i don't drink tea or coffee, so hot chocolate it must be.

Cheery_Daff

I have in fact just finished my hot chocolate LT! :T I'm well impressed at your bargains! :T :T Sounds great :j Peppermint tea is vile :rotfl: I don't do mint at all (apart from spearmint tictacs :rotfl:)

Pulled myself through my slight grumpiness of earlier and once I pulled my socks up I've done quite a few things! :j :j :j Washed the dishes, did Shred day 25 :j :j :j VERY impressive Then had a VERY enjoyable half hour writing a letter to British Gas telling them why we will NOT be renewing our HomeCare agreement with them You might not know the story, so I'll (try to!) summarise:

* boiler worked perfectly
* British Gas Engineer (BGE) came to do annual service
* found problem with valve - BG don't stock the part, so we'd need to replace the boiler
* offered us a discount - only if we signed up that day
* we - being good MSE-ers - were (rightly!) suspicious, and figured we could probably get it cheaper elsewhere, and he didn't want us to have time to look :mad:
* we - again, being good MSE-ers - asked for details of the part to see if we could source it elsewhere
* BGE sawed through pipe supplying gas to boiler, leaving us without central heating for several weeks over Christmas in coldest winter for 30 years
* we eventually sourced the part, and an independent engineer (IE) to fit it. Took several weeks (partly cos we're a bit slack, and partly cos it was over Christmas)
* IE reconnected the gas supply, ran the safety checks - and found ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong with the boiler. Rang BG, got through to specific engineer, asked if there was anything he was missing, and was just told 'well it didn't work when I was there'
* part returned to shop for refund, and boiler has worked perfectly ever since (just like it did before BGE disconnected it)

Of course, it *could* well be that the part managed to fix itself during those weeks, and just needed a little rest.

Or, if I'm being cynical, I might suspect that BG engineers are paid some kind of commission to sell new boilers. Especially since it turns out that something similar happened to both my sister (who was 8.5 months pregnant at the time) and my elderly nan - neither of whom are as suspicious or persistent as us, and both of whom were not at all inclined to spend 10 weeks without central heating, and therefore were VERy grateful for the discount and signed up immediately :mad:

All in all, I'm not at all inclined to renew our home care agreement! Stupidly enough, we didn't bother to complain at the time :rotfl: Far too busy being pleased that we were warm, and finding the whole thing very amusing :rotfl: And now, I am not at all inclined to give them a chance to apologise and try to sort it out - but I did mightily enjoy writing the letter

Anyway, blah blah blah, curled up on sofa now with hot water bottle, watching some kind of nonsense on the tv - best go to sleep! Sleep well all
xx

Karmacat

:hello:

Just cos you *are* soulmates doesn't mean you don't still have the odd attack of the grumps but omigod, British Gas!!! I don't think I knew you at that time Cheery, thats seriously terrible :eek:

Hope you slept well, anyway, see you later today.

x

redsquirrel80

Morning Daff - sounds like you've got a really good plan worked out for the mortgage/ bills etc.

:eek: to British Gas - was never convinced by the value of their Homecare thingy but that is ridiculous.

taka

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Wasn't my estimate Taka, it was from thesalaraycalculator.com! :rotfl: And you're probably right about the pension (daft pay amount indeed! :rotfl: that's universities for you :rotfl:) I just couldn't bear to go to look at the pension documents :rotfl: That might explain why I only get £780 a month now when it says I should get £789 too.

Only reason I know easily is because they sent me consultation documents about the proposed changes to the scheme and it they are sitting less than a foot away from my computer at the top of my paperwork to be sorted heap! :rotfl:

Peppermint tea is lovely! Mind you I'm not a huge fan of normal tea (sorry!) so maybe its an either or thing!

I'd have been raging about BG. Thats appauling! Is there no regulatory body you could have reported them to? I think the engineers definitely have a sales role. My parents were told they needed some kind of clean out of their system (despite everything working fine) - it cost them a fortune. :mad:

You and Mr Daff sound really happy (kettle access permitting! )

Lemon_Tree

taka i don't like peppermint tea or normal tea so i think i'm a freak. Many would agree with me

Cheery_Daff

I'm sure there are plenty of people we could have reported them to, we just didn't get round to it I think we were so focused on keeping warm :rotfl: then when the bloke came to fix it, we were so relieved that it was warm again that the whole thing seemed amusing rather than annoying :rotfl: And then both of us can be a bit slack, and now it seems so long ago... but I thought a nicely worded snotty letter wouldn't go amiss - wonder whether anything will come of it? Home care agreement is £180 a year :eek:, the independent engineer charged us £60 to collect the part, reconnect the pipe, do the same safety checks, and return the part to the shop - I think I'd rather take my chances with that!

Must re-read the letter and write it out neatly

Cheery_Daff

Just a *minor* PhD related nonsense here.

My 'required revisions' to my thesis included a line saying 'plus addressing all the comments in the external examiner's report' (which was ver pernickety and had LOTS of stupid detail). I've been addressing these, but couldn't find a particular reference he'd suggested reading.

Finally got round to emailing the internal examiner - who's just replied and said "I can't find anything either - I'd be inclined to ignore it, it's not something I'll be looking for in the thesis" :eek:

So.... can I ask - WHY ON EARTH IS IT ON THE LIST OF REVISIONS?? What on earth ELSE is on there that he's not going to be looking for??! Evidently I need to pluck up the courage to go and have a conversation with him (which I have been avoiding ALL YEAR) to see what else I can get away with not doing! :mad:

On a lighter note - I'm just about to email my boss about my new contract They want someone 4 days a week, I can only do 3 - but realised last night that my current project only runs for a year, so I can do 3 days a week for the first year, then 5 days a week for the second. Project still finishes on time, I do same number of days overall, they don't have to recruit anyone else, I get 2 more years of guaranteed full time work - win-win-win-win I reckon