New job, new beginnings.

patman99

Thanks Magsnoodle.

Had a busy week this week and it ain't gonna get less busy until Sunday.

My son picked-up the keys to his new Council flat today, so spent most of the day down in Dedham helping him sort-out his gas (he wanted a smart meter and that is what is actually fitted), Electric (needed to organise a new key for the key meter) and checking the buzzer system and door keys all worked.

As he had to get a new meter key, we decided to grab something to eat in a local tearoom. He also handed-in a cv for a p/t job before we headed back to Colchester.

Tomorrow is taken-up with a job interview in the morning followed by having to take MrsP. to her hospital appointment in the afternoon.
Friday means shopping in the morning followed by dropping MrsP off at son's new gaff (he will be moving-in Friday) so someone is there should Morrisons turn-up to uncap the gas and commission the boiler.

Me ?. I'll be heading back to his old gaff to take down the curtain pole in the bedroom before taking it, and anything else that wouldn't fit in the removal van back to his new gaff and fitting the curtain poles.

Saturday means a day of rest whilst DS spends the day st his unpacking.
Sunday involves picking DS from his new gaff, driving back to his old gaff to give it a clean before heading home to mine with DS.

Inbetween all this I have managed to find time to clean my parents pond (twice, don't ask) and start to sieve my home-made compost to fill a bag and a planter which is now sown with lettuce seeds. Oh, and on top of this, apply for 10 (yes, 10) vacancies.

Skint_but_Optimistic

My word, you are a machine!!

patman99

Skint_but_Optimistic wrote: »

My word, you are a machine!!

If I am a machine, then I am about 6 years overdue for a service.
My knees creak and my back aches.

Still, son is now in his Council flat.
Got in around 9:30 last night after we had to go and help the removals lady actually move the stuff.

Went back today to hang the curtain poles in the bedroom and living room. Forgot to pick-up my drill bits so had to call in Wickes to buy some new ones and came-out with a toolbox reduced from £20 to £15.

Got to the flat only to find that there are wooden fixing bars above the windows so didn't need any drill bits to start with. Anyway, due to the windows in the new place being a bit wider than those in the old, I have had to use the pole from the old living room in the new bedroom and he will have to obtain a new pole for the living room.

As I have 'WeQ4U' installed on my phone, my son had to use it to call British Gas to arrange an engineer visit to fix his gas meter as when Morrisons turned-up to un-cap the gas and commision his boiler, the meter was showing 'Error: Call for help' and Morrisons were unable to proceed with the un-capping process.

He was on the phone for 2 hours and 19 minutes as the incompetent BG team had no idea what meter he actually had fitted and proceeded to pass him from one team to another (and then back again). At the end, they decided the best course of action was to send out an engineer to identify and fix the meter (should be done by 9:00 tonight) so DS can then phone the Council Monday to arrange Morrisons to come back and due the job they should have done today.

The big inconvenience to him is no hot water to wash-up with (his shower is an electric power shower) and to top it all, he has left his kettle back at his old place so we won't be going there to clean it until Sunday so he will have to boil water on his hob.

patman99

Nice relaxing day today. Had a lie in and then did a few surveys whilst listening to the mighty Col U. avoiding relegation with a 4-1 win over Brentford.

Checked on my seeds and I have to report that I have 1 (yes, 1) beetroot growing out of 15 seeds planted. Will give it another week to see if any more poke their heads up before writing off the rest and putting something else in their place.
Really glad I planted them in bio-degradable home-made newspaper pots.

Got to finish sieving my compost heap next week. Started this last week. Picked-up a section of my wormery instead of the sieve (well, it has got loads of holes in) and wondered why the stuff was not falling through the holes. Then I spotted the real sieve and things started to progress a bit quicker.

patman99

At last. DS is all moved in. Just got to put up his new curtain pole.
His window is 2m wide, so had to look for a new pole for his curtains. Whilst killing time, I went into Homebase for a look and they had one that was reduced and was the right length. However when I got it to the counter, we found that the fixings and one end were missing.
As a result, the till operator wrote it off and I got it for free.

I can salvage the ends and 2 fixing plates from his old pole. I can also salvage one of the supports. All I need to do is get one mounting plate.
The middle joiner screw is also missing, but I can get round this by drilling a bigger hole & gluing a dowel in place. Should be stronger as well (in fact, I am hoping that it won't need the centre support).

patman99

My attempts to salvage the curtain poles failed so will have to come up with a cunning plan B.

Signed-on today and managed to p1ss-off the Adviser. She was not happy that I had not actually applied for 1 of the jobs that she chose for me to apply for.
On the plus side, took a load of old cans and a broken hoover to the scrappie and got £20.

Measured my waist and was shocked to discover that I am 42 inches around the midriff. Need to seriously lose some poundage.

patman99

The week gets better.
Got a close-on £30 refund from Sky (not sure why yet) and a pay-out from Rewarded Opinions.

Planted some radish seeds and it looks like my carrots are starting to sprout.

Nearly forgot to add, thanks to my parents who read the Mirror, I have 3 free loaves of bread this week (so far). There were 2 vouchers for the Co-Op 'luved' sliced bread last weekend and a coupon for a free Kingsmill loaf today.

patman99

Had a nice(ish) day today. Got invited down to Dedham by my son to help him unpack. Went down before lunch and took a picnic. The three of us went down to the river to watch the local duck race before heading back to his.

Son and spouse got stuck into unpacking and I got stuck into assembling a couple of cabinets and (thanks to his downstairs neighbour who has a large collection of screws in his shed) got the curtain track up so he can hang his curtains when he finds them.

Skint_but_Optimistic

You are so giving and so caring, your son is very lucky x we all gain weight in the winter, summer will shift it. x

patman99

Not been on here for a week or so. So time for an update.

I have been given a 13 week sanction by my JC adviser. She basically told the decision maker that I had not applied for a job because I had applied several times in the past and not heard back. That is a total fabrication of the truth.
I contacted JC+ to put my reason for failure to apply (basically, there is an online data comparison test that needs to be done within a short time period and you need to get an 80% score in order to pass. I have tried to pass this test 3 times and have only managed 50% so far).
Now that the JC has the correct information, I feel that the higher decision maker will overturn the initial decision.

If this doesn't happen, then we will switch to ESA in order to keep the money rolling-in (my oh is entitled to ESA and I would be the 2nd claimant).

Also started my Mandatory Worker Activity on Friday, but as they had no work for me, I got sent home after an hour. Had an agency interview this morning, so when I turned-up at the MWA I got sent home again. Superb. Only got to find another 29 interviews that I can slot in to each remaining morning of my MWA and that's another scheme scuppered.

I really do love getting one over on the JC and their mad-cap ideas.