Living the Good Life - mortgage free and living in line with our values

Hettyhound

I have raised 2 formal complaints with 🐙 in the last year regarding smart meters.  I’ve had a total of £280 “customer service gesture” payments, for which my mortgage overpayment fund was very grateful 🤣. I feel your pain.

Suffolk_lass

Remind me where you are going in Germany - I had to skip some of your diary with my exams and I think I missed it - guessing it's a Christmas market. Mr Sl has lived all over the mainland, mainly Germany, Austria and the Low Countries

themadvix

We’re going back to Berlin for the Christmas markets. 😊 We love Germany and Austria - would be very tempted to live in either for a bit, or the Netherlands. Couldn’t do France as there’s not enough choice for veggies . But realistically we’re probably too attached to family and friends here to actually move. When Mr MV is retired we’ll definitely be going on longer (campervan?) trips round Europe - taking advantage of our freedom of movement due to Mr MV’s Irish citizenship.

themadvix

Hettyhound said:

I have raised 2 formal complaints with 🐙 in the last year regarding smart meters.  I’ve had a total of £280 “customer service gesture” payments, for which my mortgage overpayment fund was very grateful 🤣. I feel your pain.

What I find really frustrating (and have mentioned in my complaint) is that we’ve been customers for a long time and have always been super happy and recommended them - we just feel so let down as a result. I suspect they aren’t going to do what I really want them to do, in which case I will expect some money knocked off the bill as we’ll have to spend out to mitigate the aesthetics. Thanks for the empathy!

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning tmv - did you see that article on the beebeecee news site, comparing UK Christmas markets (Brum specifically I think), to the European markets (Germany/Berlin specifically I think)?  Naturally it won't tell you anything you don't already know, but it was an interesting little read.  I do think the European markets would be much more my particular bag - one of the utoob knitters (she's from the US) went to several in Germany last year, and her footage/commentary was a really good travelogue for regional German Christmas markets! 

ARTICLE

Hope you've had a wonderful celebratory weekend.  

Greying X

Suffolk_lass

There's a lovely bi-annual Christmas market in Dordrecht in NL that is very near the Harwich-Hook crossing, for anyone in this part of the country. Cheap crossings with car or bikes, stay somewhere local (we stay in Zwijndrecht) and visit two or three local markets over 2-3 days. We went to a lovely one based around a windmill last time, and I bought some artisan pieces including  knitted fingerless gloves for our (postie) son. He loved them!

themadvix

Morning all,

Very quick update from me as need to get some work done before heading to Cambridge for a less-than-festive festive lunch (given the unresolved threat of redundancy over the team). 

GP, yes, I did see the article. I mostly thought 'don't tell everyone how good Berlin is - the place will be overrun with grotty British tourists!'. Never tried Birmingham, but Manchester used to be really good pre-Brexit - they'd have lots of Dutch bulb sellers and it was very European. Now it's local companies, usually selling extortionately priced items that you could buy cheaper elsewhere. I agree, European markets are *very* different - much more choice, much less unpleasant boozing etc. SL that's good to know about those markets - thanks! We really liked what we saw of the Netherlands in May and plan to return - a ferry at this time of year might not be an option for Mr MV (unless I can get some strong tranquilisers and put him out for the journey!), but we could probably drive there too.

Expensive weekend celebrating Mr MV's birthday. Actually, it was mainly the tapas that was expensive and I was a bit annoyed with SIL - she wanted more of the expensive (fiesta) sangria, after they'd already decided they couldn't taste that it was fiesta (i.e. it has spirits in it too). And I now feel that the third couple with us need some drinks bought for them at the pub for a couple of weeks as they *definitely* paid over the odds by splitting the bill 😔 Country music club night in London was also expensive, but that was because the new venue was considerably more expensive than the old one - we only had two drinks each (bottles) and each round was £16+. Outrageous. We weren't impressed with the venue either, so won't rush back to that one. FIL and MIL took us out for lunch on Sunday, which was lovely - and they paid!

Yesterday was my trefoil Christmas lunch and I was cooking (with others). This meant that Mr MV got a free dinner from the leftovers and I brought various other bits home. Unfortunately I also popped into Mum's on the way home and managed to prang the car on the stupid VM box outside her house. I am so cross with myself. 🤬 The car is driveable (and it's not actually that noticeable), but of course it will need fixing and either be an insurance claim or we'll pay to have it fixed (likely a whole new bumper 😢). And to top it off, I got home to find Mr MV had just had the boys' insurance renewals through and Ginger Cats is now £900/year. 🤬

MS things (and we definitely need them!):
* Free meal for Mr MV and a free piece of salmon for me
* Have ordered (again) the flea treatments online (from the cheaper, no TCB seller)  -got all 12 tablets in one order so free postage and won't forget to get the rest before the prescription expires.
* Lunch yesterday cost me £14 some months ago (and there may yet be a refund as I barely sat down all day - although I certainly don't expect one, especially with all the leftovers)
* Free lunch in Cambridge today
* Have paid in cheque for yesterday's expenses already
Gratitudes:
* Lovely lunch company yesterday and they were all appreciative of the cooking team's efforts
* Got to sing some carols at full volume in the little church service we had (the 'sermon' was on gratitude - I felt I was doing well on that front!)
* The sun is shining here

Better get on with work now, have a good day all!

themadvix

I forgot the big news! Mr MV has an interview on Friday for the job he applied for in another division of the company!! Have sent him all the tips I harvested from Ed and Cheery's recent interview discussions. Please keep your fingers crossed for him! 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

Greying_Pilgrim

🤞 Consider ours crossed and put out into the ether and Mrtmv's way! 🤞

🤞Greying & Fam  X🤞

greenbee

All extremities crossed for Mr MV!