Have a vent

[eeyoresmum]

Sept 14, 2024 18:27:40 GMT jenny said:

Sounds like the time Woodsman failed to find his Stanley knife so bought another. And then failed to find that one and bought another. And then found all three of them. I hope he remembers where they are now.

That reminds me of the moment ex and I came home from a day away, and right in the middle of the sofa there was a cluster of plastic combs, covered in lint.
None of us put it there, knew where they came from, we didn't recognise most of them...
*cue Twilight Zone tune*

Oh, and that leads me to the diamond ring my neighbour lost; it was her late mother's, and much treasured. She (neighbour) turned the entire house upside down, several times, looked inside duvet covers etc - nothing.
About a year later, she comes home, goes upstairs to change, and spots right in the middle of her immaculately made kingsize bed, on top of the bedspread - indeed. The Ring.
Spooky.

[celebaelin]

I am very nearly recovered from the mystery illness of the last 3 weeks.

Not much of a vent so far is it?

The thing is 'very nearly' is not the same as 'fully' and I've been sitting at my PC for about 3 hours waiting to do some admin (bill paying etc) but am now feeling so tired I don't think I should be dealing with money matters or anything technical.  If I grab some zzzzs will it be a repeat of Tuesday?  Will I wake up to find it's 5:40pm and the day has run its course as regards my purposes?

I've no real choice in the matter but to find out...

[RLDavies]

I've come down with some kind of virus, which I can only guess I picked up at the pharmacy last Thursday. That place is full of sick people. Was a bit sniffly and cold-y for a few days, but it's really hitting hard now. Sneezing and sniffling, a pretty hard cough, and even wheezing. Possibly feverish -- I'll check my temperature again later.

I took a COVID test last night and it came up negative, so presumably it's just a really solid cold. But I'll try to keep isolated for a week or so, just to be on the safe side. I've got a meter engineer booked for Tuesday, so I'll have to phone them and postpone that AGAIN.

[jenny]

You probably don't need to postpone, Robbie - you could just put a mask on and stay well away from him.

[amanda]

And by Tuesday you might be better anyway, at the tail end which is not usually contagious.

[RLDavies]

Well, to be honest I wanted to postpone the appointment anyway! Being able to cough and croak into the phone made a good excuse, and I didn't get scolded for making a second postponement.

I need to do a LOT of tidying up in the hallway and kitchen before letting anyone in, and there was no way I could get it done over the weekend. And my hours are so screwed up right now that "he'll turn up some time between 12 and 4" covers exactly the time I'm asleep.

[crissdee]

crissdee Avatar
Sept 20, 2024 8:02:09 GMT 1 crissdee said:
Due to my ongoing financial issues, I am expecting collection agents at the house today. They told me they would be here (and I wish I was making this up!) anytime between 6am and 9pm. I kind of understand why they might want to turn up early, when people are not fully awake and clear-headed, so I have been up since 5:30 am. .....It is now a few minutes before 9pm and it's p*ssing down and pitch dark out there, so I'm assuming they're not coming. I have spent the whole, long, day going no further than my front gate or the shed in the back garden, all for nothing.

After this, I heard nothing from them until today. I got a message that they were planning to take my car away. Strangely enough, I must have seen the ANPR helicopter yesterday as it circled round the area. Anyway, the message said I should phone the number to discuss the matter. So I phoned it, left a message, got called back by a guy who seemed unable, or at least unwilling, to discuss the matter to any extent at all. So I called the agency, but they can do nothing except accept payments, they cannot discuss anything,so they put me back through to the guy I spoke to the first time, who still seemed unwilling to discuss anything, and barely seemed to understand the process in the first place. The fact that they made one appointment to come to my house, failed to keep it, then moved on to trying to take my car without trying another appointment was, according to him, only reasonable. I managed to get through to him that leaving me without a car round here would severely limit my opportunities to get out of this hole, and they are making another appointment, but it shouldn't have been so hard to arrange this.

[suze]

Bailiffs can only remove (or immobilise) a motor vehicle if it is parked on your property, at your place of employment, or on the public highway.

They can't break into a locked garage to remove a vehicle that might be there, and they cannot go on to someone else's property to remove a vehicle that might be there.  So if you're able to borrow someone else's garage or driveway ...

Car parks are a bit grey.  It depends on who owns then, whether or not they have been "adopted" as public highway, and half a dozen other things.  If the Head Caretaker saw bailiffs attempting to remove a car from my school's premises he would probably call the police - that's just what he's like - but others like a quiet life.  So don't rely on a car park.

 

[crissdee]

They have already seen it on the public road, so if I now move it somewhere else, might it not raise the question of deliberate obstruction? Anyway, I am hoping that they will accept that having no private vehicle round here is a major handicap in just getting through life, never mind getting a job to get myself out of this hole, and take something else. Several of my antique swords are worth a figure that should settle the bill, as are some of my airguns. While I would regret their loss, my life would continue without them.

[suze]

The sentence asked in the first question is one for a lawyer, or perhaps for the Citizens' Advice Bureau.  But as I understood it, until such time as bailiffs have "taken control" of an item, moving it or hiding it is fair game.  They are not the police and they do not have police powers, however much some of their number might like to claim otherwise.

Bailiffs like cars, because they are well understood and easy to sell.  Mr Bailiff will already have been on the Internet to get an idea of what your car is worth, and he already knows when and where there's an auction to which he could take it.  

Weapons not so much.  Unless he happens to be an enthusiast himself, he won't have a clue what's what and what any of it is worth.  For that he'd need to consult an appropriate  dealer, and - unless that dealer makes an offer there and then, which would be the exception rather than the rule - he's then got to find a suitable auction at which to sell the stuff.  It's all faff which Mr Bailiff would prefer to avoid, but cars are easy.  That is how he will be thinking, anyway.

[amanda]

Here I've seen cars with wheel clamps on and a sign on the windscreen about it. Some of it is the sheriff as it's called here, others is for what is perceived to be an abandoned car.

[amanda]

Got home after being at my neighbour's the hairdresser, pulled the keys out of my pocket, forgetting I had put the $3 for tomorrow's newspaper in that pocket and the $2 coin fell out, rolled along the ramp I have at the front....then went down the gap and I can't retrieve it.
What's worse is that I'm a bit broke until Friday now.

[jenny]

Crissdee - as the mother of a man who has frequently had issues with collection agencies, you might find this useful. fair-debt-collection.com/disputing-collections/phone-script.html#:~:text=Always%20find%20out%20who%20you,we%20arrange%20a%20payment%20plan?

To be honest, I'd suggest resigning yourself to selling some of your armory. You need the transport more than you need the weaponry.

[crissdee]

Thanks for that Jenny, I will take a proper look at it in the morning. Regarding the weaponry, I have been trying to sell some of it for a month or so, but things are tight for everyone (or at least most people) right now, and air rifles, particularly £1,000+ air rifles, are something of a luxury purchase.....

[amanda]

The return of the colder weather here has meant a return of the body aches and pains. Including a painful twinge in my big toe, probably related to my fibromyalgia but could also be related to the bunion on said foot. Pain's been ongoing for two hours now and is wearing a bit thin. Due to my IBS/reactions to everything I can't take pain killers or anything else that could help.

[jenny]

Woodsman hears you, Amanda. Because of his chronically bad back, he used to take ibuprofen frequently (maybe three times a week) and in consequence now has kidney damage so he doesn't take any NSAIDs at all, and claims that Tylenol (acetaminophen) doesn't have the required effect.

[amanda]

Whichever member of the rose garden committee thought it was a good idea to put a few kgs of chopped raw onion in the spare fridge down the corridor near the bathrooms, in the clubhouse, and then not turn that fridge's power on 'because it wastes money' ought to be shot.

We'll now have to throw out that onion and remove the smell from the building before a High Tea event at the weekend.

[jenny]

I'm surprised you haven't got to bleach out the fridge.

[amanda]

Given that the rest of us are only there three days a week (hence the clubrooms/fridge being closed up the rest of the time) I don't know what they'll do. Those kgs of chopped onion were to supplement the weekend's BBQ stall at the local hardware store - by being pre chopped etc, saves time. Now someone will have to do it again.

[amanda]

Jenny said:

Sounds like the time Woodsman failed to find his Stanley knife so bought another. And then failed to find that one and bought another. And then found all three of them. I hope he remembers where they are now.

In another tidy up of the spare room today, I found two MORE tape measures. Awhile ago I knew I  had a couple but couldn't find them when needed. I now have at least four, to join the neighbour's eight potato peelers. 

And that dog in the place behind mine is barking constantly. I don't know if the owner's home and ignoring it, or out and that's the problem - the dog's alone. 

I did a complete council complaint/form fill out two months ago and heard nothing back. 

[RLDavies]

Oct 12, 2024 11:04:24 GMT amanda said:

And that dog in the place behind mine is barking constantly. I don't know if the owner's home and ignoring it, or out and that's the problem - the dog's alone. 

I did a complete council complaint/form fill out two months ago and heard nothing back. 

The council is unlikely to do anything. Try contacting the RSPCA, or whatever the Australian equivalent is, and tell them you think a dog is being neglected. They're much more likely to look into the situation.

[amanda]

We have the RSPCA and while they are good where it's needed, they won't act on this one as I can't provide an exact street number nor breed of dog as I can't see it. (a problem for the council as well)
The barking went on until after midnight. 

And is continuing Sunday. Surely the dog would be exhausted after awhile and sleep? 

[amanda]

Some warm days at last and despite taking the hay fever pill morning and night, I have an itchy eye and stuffy nose tonight. A catch 22 is that the smell of the eye drops sets off the nose.....

[alexanderhoward]

I have been blocked for some months from a web system I subscribe to. Every few months I yell at them to get unblocked, only to be blocked again. The system works in the background so I rarely need to log on and I cannot just unsubscribe because my emails run through it, but I have been quietly insulting them as rubbish to anyone who asks, while planning how to move to another system. The time I have spent on their support line must far exceed all the money I have paid them to subscribe to the service.

Then this week it started swallowing emails I needed, so I went at it again. Finally yesterday they disclosed the IP address that is causing the problem, and it is not the family computer. I spent much of yesterday evening haring round, finding any machines that connect to the web (so many - such is modern life) including laptops, mobiles, and even the television, to check their IP address. Eventually I found it. I have not worked out what that device is doing, but I must have done something while trying to be clever, so it was not the company's fault after all. This coming week in scraps of the evening I have to work out what is wrong on my side.

[crissdee]

Oct 22, 2024 8:42:24 GMT alexanderhoward said:

 .....any machines that connect to the web (so many - such is modern life).....

Not for me.  This laptop is the only thing I own that connects to the internet.  My phone could, but I don't allow it to.  As far as I am aware, nothing else in my possession even has the capability, nor can I see any reason why it should.

Hang on, I suppose my SMART meter will do it, when they finally get round to fixing it....

[amanda]

Same. I turn my phone data on and off as needed (such as to access the internet when out for the day) but otherwise that's turned off. I have what may be called a 'smart tv' but don't use its smart facilities.

[efros]

I believe SMART meters operate on their own standalone network and don't use the internet.

[crissdee]

I trust your opinion on the matter, so that's back to one then....

[suze]

Older smart meters use the mobile phone network to connect to the special smart meter network.  They use spare capacity on O2, which is why O2 alone still has a 2G network.  That is supposed to finish at the end of next year, by when everyone is supposed to have been upgraded to a newer smart meter that doesn't need the mobile phone network - although there is some skepticism that it will actually happen on time.

As for the special smart meter network, it's operated by someone called Data Communications Company, which is owned by Capita plc.  Oh well.

[RLDavies]

Oct 12, 2024 21:31:58 GMT amanda said:

We have the RSPCA and while they are good where it's needed, they won't act on this one as I can't provide an exact street number nor breed of dog as I can't see it.

Can you take a stroll down that road and pinpoint where the barking is coming from? Don't confront anybody, just walk past the houses and note the number.

The RSPCA should be able to act without a precise description of the dog. They can hardly expect that if the main complaint is that it's locked up all the time.