The Garden Fence - help and support in tough times

pollyanna_26

Very shocked and sad to wake early this morning to the news of David Bowies death . One of the real soundtracks through my life . May he rest in peace .
polly

pollyanna_26

Floss - I hope all goes well today and the weather is kind .
Monna - Your walk along the beach sounds wonderful , very good for the soul . Quiet headspace can be such a healer .
Mrs LW - Many years ago I used to live near the sound of ships sirens and used to love the sound . On foggy nights it was lovely to be snuggled up in bed and fall asleep to the sound . At new year all the ships in the river would form a choir and I do miss that now . I'm afraid Disney is a whole other matter !
Nurse Maggie - I hope things settle down for you both . Take care .
Mardatha - Hope you're tucked up warm by the fire .
Thanks for your kind words Ivyleaf .
Hello to everyone else . I have a basket of ironing with my name on it so I'm going in !
polly .

ivyleaf

Pollyanna Yes, when i put the News on this morning I couldn't quite believe it!

Is anyone else finding it difficult to "get back to normal" after Christmas and New Year? I still feel completely in a muddle. I'm just about starting to cook "properly" again, but the house seems to be in chaos (not helped by OH putting loads of his "stuff" in Amazon delivery boxes and leaving them on the living room floor though he assures me he "will sort it out"), plus we bought a new vacuum cleaner and the box for that is in the living room too atm as he says he's "got to find somewhere to put it". I'm not sure we need to keep it at all, but he will fret if I try to put it out for recycling.

I also find myself eating too many biscuits etc, in a desperate effort to get rid of the food left over from Christmas. We'd bought ourselves a tin of shortbread, but then DGS gave us a tin as well, and DD2 gave OH a tin of biscuits because it was such a nice tin (has a pic of vintage racing cars on it.). And DS brought home a tub of Celebrations, which we haven't even opened. Very kind, but I'm constantly moving the tins around from table to worktop and back again according to which area I need to use.

Please tell me I'm not alone!

And the "bin men" missed my food waste caddy two weeks in a row, so DS has now taken the contents away in a black bag to put in the "industrial waste" bin where he's working today. Not ideal at all, but it was full and we were desperate! I filled in the council's "missed bin" online form (they missed the paper bin last week too) and it was meant to be collected within 2 working days, but of course it wasn't.

OK, finished ranting now

lillibet_dripping

Morning all!
I find 'normal' only happens when the rubbish collection gets back on track! It's sometimes the only way I know what day it is:rotfl:
Monna - I'm glad to hear that you seem to be on the way up again!

THIRZAH

No we're not back to "normal " yet either. We had to move a lot of stuff out of the little spare bedroom so we could fit a bed in there at Christmas. DH decided to decorate before we moved the stuff back. It has taken him 10 days to paint a small room and in the meantime there are boxes on the landing, curtains on the other spare bed and a pile of stuff waiting to go into the chest of drawers once I can get near it!
Since most of the stuff we moved out belongs to DH he's planning to go through it all before putting it back.
He's done a good job of the painting,much better than I would have done- but I want my tidy house back.

ivyleaf

Thank you lillibet and THIRZAH, that makes me feel better! And they came to empty my missed bins a little while ago, too. I was glad I hadn't yet got around to sending the council a stroppy email!

I've given the food waste bin a good clean, as the caddy bags had started to compost themselves :eek: so it was a bit smelly.

fuddle

I don't think I've started my normal yet. I've had a day bashing my head against a brick wall!

Dorset doctors won't give me my NHS number over the phone. I need to go in with ID before they will release. I now live 6 hours away. My new doctors won't take us on without me supplying our NHS numbers. I have been going round in circles for days. Called NHS helpline who tell me both doctors are in the wrong as no doctor can refuse a patient entry as they can access the numbers themselves from the doctor in Dorset and the doctors in Dorset should supply my number if and when requested according to the access of information act. Called/visited both today and both still as stubborn as each other! The NHS helpline will deal with it for me but I am now drained with frustration.

I've also been trying to chase up my sewerage suppliers in Dorset to close down my account. The water side did this back when I submitted my change of address request. The sewerage bill is taken from the readings of the water bill but it seems I owe an extra 10 cubic meters. I now have that to sort. Thank goodness I have an email receipt of the change of address request and final water bill with readings. Still, I guess another headache is heading my way.

I have had my new council tax bill in for my new council. Seems they ignore my dates and go from what Dorset have told them billing me for the week we lived with MIL upon moving. I'm not paying £18 council tax when my whole family was bunked in an attic space belonging to MIL. I flagged it up when the first bill came in December. The revised bill says exactly the same.

So all in all I'm still having to sort out a move that happened 6 weeks ago. Nothing go grumble about other than the fabric of life... so nothing to grumble about then

I can deal with a lot of things but this sort of stuff depleats energy like no other.

nursemaggie

Sympathies Fuddle I have same sorts of problems with water and council tax due to housing association telling everyone we move on 7th December GG we only looked at it on 8th December and we did not get electricity until 11th.

We had threatening letter from TV Licensing on 11th December. I don't believe any of previous three tenants have paid water rates or council tax. I'm not paying them!

I have 100% council tax benefit. They owe me nearly £90 and they are demanding another £54 by 21st January. I fail to see how they worked that one out????

Water: my water company tell me I will pay £80 a year more with a water meter, MSE says save over £100 a year. I think it is more because I cannot see how we can use more than we did at last house.

Shower makes most peculiar noise as it suckes wast water away, glad DS warned me. :rotfl:

Thank God we did not have to change Drs they are nearer now.

silvasava

Fuddle - and Breathe!
It's so frustrating when no one will take responsibility, I'm having a grrrrr on your behalf even though it won't change the situation

ivyleaf

When we registered with our surgery we were sent our NHS cards with our NHS numbers and address on them. Do they not do that any longer? Another way to save money I suppose What a nuisance fuddle! I hope the helpline can sort it quickly for you.

nursemaggie I expect by now you are unsurprised at anything your housing and council tax benefit dept does! :mad: