OS Singlies - We Do It Our Way!

Winter_Phoenix

Coming to this a bit late, but REALLY sorry to hear how you were treated, JustKeepSwimming. That is shocking - he doesn't deserve to stay in business. Just don't let him put you off booking next time you want a weekend away - there are thousands of B&Bs who would be glad to have your custom, and would treat you with the respect that you deserve.

And good luck with casting your vote on this momentous occasion. I wish I had a vote on the issue!

mum2one

Horace - the cake sounds lovely.

Hope everyone ok xx

JustKeepSwimming_2

Morning All - for some reason the quotes button isn't working for me today, so I'll just witter on & aplogies if I reply to the wrong people Hope all are doing well & thanks again for all your kind words.

The horror of that B&B won't put me off traveling at all - I've stayed in some fantastic places as a singlie over the years & this was the first vile place I've ever dealt with, so it is a tiny minority. Maybe he's usually a pleasant chap & was just having a really hard time & now regrets how he treated me (trying to be charitable). We've all had off days where we've been sharp, haven't we? (Haven't we - please say yes or I'll think its just me).

I thinks its just been the proverbial straw - I'm so fed up with having to deal with stuff with no support (& in the case of DD & DSS being told I'm doing it all wrong by their perfect Dad & current wife) that its knocked me for six. And mad as it may sound, I can't help feeling that my work colleagues feel there must be something seriously wrong with me since I'm still single (& what relationships I have had have all been disasters). Like I've said before, my work mix isn't a normal distribution of people, so please don't think they're all nasty bullies because they're not.

What is playing on my mind is that yes, of course they're right, there is something wrong with me.

Does that make sense to any of you?

I know on one level there really isn't anything awfully wrong with me, so I'm not falling into some black pit of despair - but something is upsetting me on another level & I'm struggling to give it a name or deal with it very well.

I expect its just that I have too many things on my plate, & things keep going wrong with a new level of bizarreness. I've been reported for benefit fraud (& I'm pretty sure I know who reported it) - the fact that I don't & never have claimed these benefits hasn't stopped them sending me a letter; they still need to investigate. No idea how/what they're going to investigate that one :mad:

I'm hoping its a hoax letter. I have a very spiteful neighbour in the next street who revels in causing trouble. I'm not worried since I'm not fraudulently claiming benefits, but its extra shoite to have to shovel & I'm so tired of shoveling.

Mum2one - hows your Dad doing?

Horace - I've had GF cakes before & not noticed. Yum. Bad luck about the job, & I hope something that suits you better comes along soon. The Nordic Walking sounds fun - I've not seen that kind of activity advertised anywhere where I've lived before. What type of group are organising it?

Big waves to LB, Byatt, LessonLearned & others - you've all been a bit quiet lately so I hope all is OK.

moneyistooshorttomention

JKS - more !!!! to shovel as you say indeed re that reporting for benefit fraud.

Can I clarify? Presumably you mean unemployment benefit (but you haven't been unemployed) or disability benefit (but you don't qualify for it)???

If its unemployment benefit, then it should be pretty easy to prove you've never been unemployed (if that's the case) or only got the correct amount if you have been.

If its disability benefit, it should be pretty easy to prove you aren't disabled (if that's the case), eg a letter from your doctor might help.

Hence my wondering which type of benefit it is that you are referring to? It might assist us in thinking up how to deal with this if we know possibly.

There are two reasons for reporting fraud that I can see:
- either the person really is doing so and has upset the "reporter"

OR

- the "reporter" knows very well there hasn't been any fraud, but is just sh*t-stirring to be nasty.

It sounds as if you are in the second category in that respect and I expect DWP are well-used to people in both categories being reported and start off an investigation on everyone automatically, in order to ascertain which category the person reported is in. One of those automatic "computer things" iyswim.

Horace

hello peeps

Just a mad dash in - I have tea brewing in the pot (I normally sling the teabag in the mug but not today).

JKS - the group that has organised the Nordic Walking and all the other free sports activities in our park is the Friends of our park (basically me). Active Parks started in 6 Birmingham parks last year and it went so well that the scheme has been rolled out to 50 parks this year with another 10 coming on board next year. We were allocated £2000 which the council paid to us to pay for instructors. As we have no indoor space, we have tai chi (it will continue through the winter), zumba (will finish next month), now Nordic Walking, we also have Couch to 5K which is being offered by another council for 9 weeks but after those 9 weeks Birmingham will pay (the other council wanted to start charging so the response from on high - you do that and we will start charging you to use the park). The Nordic Walking and Couch to 5K will be funded by Be Active and the Tai Chi & Zumba are funded via Park Lives (we now have coke sponsorship). This funding enables the local community to participate in activities without having to pay (our leisure centres are closing and some people won't use them anyway). Other parks offer other activities, a local woodland does something with the rangers which they call Woodland Workout - basically conservation work.

If someone would pay me a salary for doing what I do then I would be very happy indeed.:D

LavenderBees

Isn't there any kind of comeuppance for maliciously reporting someone and wasting fraud officers' time etc etc? If not, there should be! Easy for me to say, JKS, but I'd be tempted to do absolutely nothing until asked for some information.If there is no fraud, then they can't find any fraud, iyswim.

But I'm not surprised you are feeling low...just one more !!!!!! thing to shovel on your own. I know the feeling far too well

I've been quiet for a few reasons, tbh - been on holiday (had a fab time, great company, laughed, danced, ate and drank (not much sleeping:rotfl:) and generally forgot real life) but am now back. Felt very low when I returned last week due to post hol blues, and didn't want to infect you all. Suddenly real life issues needed to be addressed again, but then on Sunday, got a very unexpected issue to deal with....

...my two youngest pusses, Little Miss Millie-Mops (6 mths) and Young-Boy-Cat (3 years) have come down with a strain of cat flu. They are, of course, vaccinated religiously, but even so, they have been so poorly, poor Babes, and I've been run ragged with vets appointments, trying to at least look like I'm interested in working for a living etc. My goodness, how this virus has felled them, and the vet says they would be ten times worse if they weren't vaccinated!

On the plus side, LMMM has gone from wanting to die, bless her, to perky naughty kitten again, and is blowing bubbles from her nose like a good'un :rotfl:. Yesterday, having been up from 4.30am, I finally sat down to a meal at 9pm last night, and just as I picked up my fork, she tucked herself into my side with her paws on my knee to watch me eat as normal, and promptly sneezed on my meal. Do you know, I was so tempted just to still eat it, so exhausted was I :rotfl:

YBC was very ill yesterday and had another emergency run to the vet. He was drooling and foaming at the mouth, and so very distressed (as was I ). Some injections later, and a very spaced out pusscat came home with me. He is quiet today but showing signs of his normal lovely affectionate little personality, so hopefully he has turned a corner. I'm leaving work early (again!) today to check on them all.

All, of course, also includes Old-Boy-Cat, who miraculously is still with me, and who, even more miraculously, is showing no symptoms of this flu. He is in solitary confinement in the spare bedroom, poor soul, and will remain there until I am satisfied the pusses are free of it, and have fumigated the whole ruddy house.

So, that's a wee update. I haven't gone into the other myriad of problems I face alone - like potentially no job soon after I demanded work that would give me job satisfaction or redundancy just before going on holiday :eek:, or the fact I have to face toxic sibling again next Monday to try to finalise my Mam's estate :mad: or...well, anyway, you get the gist....

So, yes, JKS, I am with you completely on the trying to face problems on your own, sometimes even the teeny ones tip the balance to making life seem very hard. But some of what we face are not teeny problems.

I am trying to grasp the concept of "this too will pass", as surely it will. The problem is that there's always another problem to replace it, but c'est la vie, eh?

Anyway, am not supposed to be taking a lunch break as must leave early so had better get on

Big hugs to you all. Let's keep plodding on...We can do it! :T

LB xx

BookWorm

JustKeepSwimming wrote: »

I thinks its just been the proverbial straw - I'm so fed up with having to deal with stuff with no support

Small consolation I know but you have us

Hopefully you can sort out the benefits mix up easily. As you say - nothing for them to investigate so should be straightforward!

BookWorm

LavenderBees wrote: »

...my two youngest pusses, Little Miss Millie-Mops (6 mths) and Young-Boy-Cat (3 years) have come down with a strain of cat flu.

Sorry to hear your puss cats are poorly. Hopefully they are now on the mend. Lots of TLC (that I know they will be getting) will be helping

Keep your chin up hun - you are doing great with everything that has been on your plate and you will get through these tough times x

BookWorm

Morning all

Up early today as lots to do (well early for a non work day ). I've got some errands to run this morning including taking 6 bags of books :eek: and 1 bag of other various stuff to the CS.

Late morning I'm seeing a friend & baby for a coffee & cake catch up

Then this afternoon, the electrician is due to come to carry out some work for me (I'm hoping he does arrive. No reason why he shouldn't but I always have a bit of a panic about people turning up when they say having been let down before)

Love being off work during the week - somehow feels a bit naughty knowing others are at work when I am not :cool: That probably sounds nuts but hopefully you know what I mean :rotfl:

Have a great day

BW

Horace

hello

Meeting held last night, the Secretary has been given the task of preparing the minutes and setting up an account with Bookers. That will do for now and when those have been done, more tasks will be given.

Alas the cake wasn't ready for the meeting but it was afterwards - I managed to cut it in half (I used the loaf tin to make it) and spooned sour cherry conserve on the base and then using my Be-Ro cook book (best 84p ever spent) made some buttercream for the first time in my life. Smeared the buttercream over the other half of the cake and put the lid on. The cake is low fat which is cool.

Was asked a daft question by the work programme peeps today - about a possible interview next week (in an area of Birmingham where I will be honest I am scared to visit) - do I have any holiday coming up? Well, I am on the dole and holidays don't appear on my radar. Will have to wait and see what happens because to be honest I don't want to go to this area of Birmingham at all - the job will be in Redditch and I can get there on the train. Need to work out if I can afford it as the job is National Minimum Wage which will be about £6.50 from 1 October.

Am off out later for a meeting (will walk there and bus it back) to talk about the festival of light. It is all go here, lol.

Have a great day peeps.

BTW I guess I am lucky, an electrician was recommended to me and he charges a flat rate of £20 and he recommended his brother who is a carpenter - he has fitted doors for me (via my landlady - mum). They are both reliable, clean and tidy.