Get a grip woman!

Suffolk_lass

They are destined to be Tree decorations so that the lights from the trees shine through the crystal pendants - I need to determine the size of hook to hang from each one. Hopefully each recipient will be reminded with pleasure and affection of the deceased relative every Christmas as they hang them from their Christmas trees.

Debsnewbudget

What a lovely idea

Watty1

What a stunning idea. I'm sure those you gift them too will love them. I have some (cheap) amber glass drops on our tree and I always hang them to make sure the tree lights are behind.

Suffolk_lass

Nothing is ever straightforward here.

I need to move a couple of DDs from our bills account to the running costs one to make sure we keep getting the loyalty payments now that DH's regular ISA saver and union dues have stopped with his retirement. The two I want to move are water and Plusnet. There is no visible means to do this in either portal between two existing accounts. Added to which, the Plusnet annual line rental has not been taken (they have a computer problem), and the performance is so bad they are sending an OpenReach Engineer tomorrow morning.

Then there is the mortgage. I asked at the beginning of the month via secure message, for them to reduce the regular monthly payment from £500 to £100 and we were supposed to receive written confirmation. Nope. So I messaged again on Sunday and reaffirmed our repayment strategy (as we also got a second prompt letter, despite reaffirming we would continue to make ad hoc capital repayments to pay it off by the end date in 2022).

This morning there is a message saying they wrote to confirm on 4th September. Nope. There was a letter on 4th September but that confirmed the latest ad hoc capital repayment, the new monthly interest rate (£18.49) and confirmed the payment would continue at £500 standing overpayment. The secure message suggested they could re-send the letter if we had not received it so I have replied to say yes please and confirm that the letter I have from 4th September reiterates £500 not £100. If they take £500 on 1st October I shall be very upset with them!

The impact will be on the running costs account that DH's occupational pension is due to be paid into. Naturally, with all the teachers retiring at the end of the school year, they are so busy that we still don't know how much this will be, despite him giving 4 months notice and a further month elapsing since he officially retired. I wanted to top up the running costs account with the £400 I am no longer paying as a standing overpayment on the mortgage as we think income may take some adjusting to.

We have also had a reply from Lloyds Bank that completely misses the point of the letter we sent regarding a policy DH was sold that he could never have claimed on. And a call from them about our old mortgage that they admitted they mis-sold that also completely missed the point of the letter we sent.

Just to round things off, Barclays have written to us jointly, saying we have an old inactive account with them that neither of us can remember, (we each had a cash ISA a few years ago) and when I called the number on the letter yesterday the recorded message said due to an incident they have closed the office (the incident is presumably the volume of calls generated by the Th0mas C[STRIKE]r[/STRIKE]ook collapse). Perfect timing! Our concerns are as nothing compared with others so we will just wait.

Like I say, nothing is ever straightforward here.

Karmacat

That's a lot of detail for you to get your head around! Good to write it all down - and I really hope you manage to sort each one.

Suffolk_lass

Had an actual BT Openreach engineer in the house yesterday. Our internet performance is consistently lower than everyone else's. A quick bit of diagnostic testing and he identified that the master socket (upstairs, near where the overhead twisted wire comes in) had 2 cables running from inside it - one to the kitchen and one to the study with the router. An hour later he had disconnected the upstairs and kitchen sockets and put a new master in the study and we moved the phone in to plug in to the master with the answerphone (the rest are cable-free) with the router running off the same socket. Apparently the star cabling is the problem. It was common before broadband.

Anyway, the upshot is our download speed has trebled and the upload has more than quadrupled!

Today we are driving up to Scotland ready for my Mum's 90th birthday celebrations. Just a few days and all rather low-key but I know she is excited that we are all going (DS due here by 0930!) - I must pick some of my possessed little courgettes to take up - the rain has made them really spurt!

beanielou

Enjoy the birthday celebrations in Scotland.

Karmacat

Stopped in my tracks imagining Possessed Courgettes but absolutely loving the work your engineer did! How utterly amazing! Congratulations! And have a lovely lovely time at your mum's 90th.

Baileys_Babe

Interesting about the small changes made to your internet speed, we have telegraph poles and wires. They are laying cable in the next road, which is about 125 metres away from here, but no plans to include our road.

Enjoy your trip to Scotland and celebrating with your family.

Suffolk_lass

The saga of the changed mortgage payment continues. Still no letter confirming the regular payment will be £100 so I have phoned them first thing (at 08.00) and their latest system upgrade has not completed so they can't check at the moment. Very nice lady (they are always lovely) said she will check later and call me back. If it is still £500 it is a pain in the proverbial as it means more money shuffling than ever. Also we still don't have a confirmation of what DH's pension will be and it is due to be paid tomorrow. All most frustrating.

In other news, Mum's birthday celebrations were a big success and we did all the furniture shuffling before leaving there yesterday to drive back - accident en-route meant we did not get home until almost 6.30pm. Eat and drank all the wrong stuff and my jeans feel decidedly snug this morning. I shall make soup from fridge contents but also fast for much of today. My diet needs to be reinstated, hardcore while we are home!

A friend with a motorhome has contacted us and suggested we go away for a weekend with them. I shall investigate and book today.