Simple living in the country - back to basics

Tescodealqueen

Well, saving all those letters proved to be valuable though to hear you did it today after being so poorly the last couple of days makes my head spin

Cheery_Daff

Ha, I suspect I wouldn't have made quite such a meal of it if I'd not been so poorly! 

Just spoke to my mum, she's been signed off work with stress for a couple of weeks 🙄 Honestly, I thought I had a few more years before my parents started to become such a worry - they're only 65!! 😱

Right, need a bit of a list to focus for the rest of the evening

PRIORITIES

* check the mouse trap - just been watching a mouse run round the living room while I've been on the phone 🙄 There's a trap set, but it's at the other end of the house 🙄

* draft this HMRC letter and make a pile of evidence to photocopy

OPTIONS TO CHOOSE FROM

* Set up Internet banking for L bank and check dosh has arrived 😃

* make packing list for holiday (bizarrely I found my packing list for the last time we went to Berlin when I was looking for this paperwork 😂 But it was summer last time, and we're both on considerably more medication, so need some amendments 😂)

* finish making stupid video!!

* bit of flute practice (not sure i can do this without coughing but might try)

* sew hem up on jeans and darn socks to take with me

That's it, and clearly I won't get all those done. Could do with having tomorrow off as well! 🙄

teapot2

Hope your mum is ok Cheery, how is your dad now, have you heard?

Re NI contributions, years ago I had a problem with mine which turned out to be because randomly, my NI payments were being credited to someone else's NI account.  I was employed rather than self employed at the time.  I did get it sorted eventually but I seem to recall it involved a home visit from someone [maybe from a local DHSS office??] to check I was legit!!  All turned out ok in the end and I am now receiving a full pension though claiming it was tricky too but thats another story 

Cheery_Daff

Gosh, a home visit sounds very exciting and overdramatic! Can't imagine they'd bother with that nowadays.

Dad's still in hospital, it's been 5 nights now and they're not showing signs of letting him out yet 🙄 (my parents have been divorced for 40 years so won't be either comforting or distracting each other 😂) 

Raking through my emails looking for potential fires to put out before going away - not that there will be any 😂 Instead, I've heard that I've got a small pot of internal money that I applied for (shhh it's still a secret for now), and I've been invited on an advisory board for a large national charity. Very exciting. Will the third thing be my new job?? (Preferably without an interview 😂😂)

LadyWithAPlan

Well done on the cash age the advisory committee! Brilliant news 

I also have an ni issue - I back paid some years after wrong allocation  in March 2020 and it’s still not allocated! For 5 years! 

I call every 6 months they say it will be sorted and to give them a few months to process .. and then nada… they can see the cash I paid .. 
I need to call again ..

beanielou

Woohoo on the cash and the advisory committee. 

Cheery_Daff

Urgh,what a palaver LaPlan! Everything takes so darn long 🙄

I managed to mess up changing the PIN on my new bank card 🙄 In my defence, I haven't done anything more complicated than put a bra on since last Wednesday 😂😂 Still don't know what i did 🙄 But I had the opportunity to test out the legendary customer service of FD Bank, and can report that they are delightful 😂 Obviously I didn't know my phone password 🙄 and then obviously the Internet wouldn't let me log into the app, despite having done it 10 mins previously 🙄 but they managed to get me in, and confirm that I had in fact changed my PIN, and although I was currently locked out, that would change at midnight and I would be able to get in then with the new PIN 🙄😂

NOT what I was planning, but my own fault, and clearly why we should have done this earlier - and indeed would have done if I hadn't been bedridden 🙄

So, we'll try again at the airport, fingers crossed. Mr Cheery has been forbidden to even attempt changing his PIN, he's just going to have to use the one they sent 😂

If all else fails,we can just use the normal bank cards and pay the extra fees, but obviously I'd prefer not to!

Have come to the cafe for a consoling coffee and a bit of flapjack 😂

Karmacat

Cheery_Daff said:

* check the mouse trap - just been watching a mouse run round the living room while I've been on the phone 🙄 There's a trap set, but it's at the other end of the house 🙄

This is really something  I mean, I love mice, but I'm not sure about this 😂

Funnily enough, I had a mixup with my NI too - back when I was a student and taking different temp jobs every holiday.  There was a secretary in Leeds with the same name as me, and even the same birthdate as me but two years older than me - not really surprising they got us a bit mixed up.  Sorted once I got full time permanent jobs.

The secret stuff sounds great - though sorry *both* your parents are having difficulties now.  

Anyway, it's just finishing up now - you're nearly off!  Yay!

Elisheba

Hope you have a great time in Germany!

When I was a student we used to have mice in one of our flats - totally brazen, would run through the rooms no fear at all. We put out humane traps but the mice were canny and never got caught.   Eventually one of my flatmate's pet hamster escaped, and and there was no sight or sound of the mice ever again!  The pet hamster was recovered eventually by the downstairs neighbours, but I do like to imagine him having knock out fights with the mice 

themadvix

Just having a quick catch up Cheery - hope you are feeling much better now and Mr Cheery isn't showing any further signs of coming down with anything. Hope your dad gets let out soon - and they sort him out of course. And your mum too - what a pair!

Excellent news about the cash and the advisory board - fingers crossed the third one is that job.

Most of all though, have a fantastic break in Berlin! Macht ihr Spaß!