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Post by RLDavies on Oct 23, 2024 14:32:14 GMT
My vent is that I'm flat broke and likely to remain so for a while. It's my own fault, as I was late sending in my most recent invoice, and now all I can do is hang on until it gets paid.
What's especially annoying me is that I was snowed under with work for two or three weeks, and my hours were so erratic that I didn't want to order any groceries because I didn't know when I'd be awake. So I didn't buy any, and was living off the supplies in the freezer and cupboards, with the promise that I'd get more food in once the death march was over. Then, by the time it *was* over, I was overdrawn and my credit cards were cut off. So I haven't bought any food for about a month now. I'm far from starving, but the array of choice is certainly diminishing.
I also had a dentist's appointment booked for tomorrow, which I've just cancelled because I won't be able to pay them. At least it's not urgent -- it was to replace this temporary filling with a permanent one, and the temporary is holding up fine. It can hang in there for a few more weeks.
The life of a freelance has many advantages, and I wouldn't give it up, but it can be precarious.
EDIT: I just got an e-mail with a remittance advice for the invoice! That's timing for you. I'm still overdrawn at this moment, but the payment should land in the bank within a day or two.
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Post by alexanderhoward on Oct 23, 2024 14:55:10 GMT
Ouch. In my freelance days, I was always paid on time, and got used to it, and to having large sums in my account at any time.
One day I was showing a pretty girl around town and stopped for cash for whatever latest extravagance I had in mind, and was surprised the hole in the wall would not cough up. I checked and it said my balance was £3,000-odd. Then I noticed the minus. HMRC had descended when my back was turned. I had a panicky week or two until the next payment came in.
(She still married me though.)
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Post by RLDavies on Oct 23, 2024 15:42:35 GMT
Puzzler Media pays reasonably quickly, but they won't pay until I ask them! And I was late with the invoice. (I did ask them to hurry it along if possible, since I was already overdrawn when I sent it off.)
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Post by amanda on Oct 23, 2024 22:10:07 GMT
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. When keeping the records for the council back in May/June, I also posted this on the Next Door site and someone there supplied the house number (house in between two unit blocks) as that dog had attacked a woman from the units and she'd needed hospital treatment. They said she was going to complain about the dog but I don't know if that was done. All I know is that the dog wasn't heard for awhile. as the other person from Next Door said....maybe the dog's been removed so it's not there when the council check up. And my ongoing vent is about the constant headache. Started last week, partly hormonal related. Now....what is it? I can't take any pain killers due to my digestive issues. It's at the point where I can't go out. I used to be able to struggle my way through the shops etc but just can't anymore. |
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Post by amanda on Oct 25, 2024 8:40:03 GMT
After nine days of a headache which reached its peak at 11pm Thursday evening and had me in tears upon going to bed, I now have a vibrating foot and can't put it on the floor without being annoyed by that. This can be caused by either my existing fibromyalgia where nerves misfire anyway/the need of a back massage or peri menopausal issues.
If it's the former, I'll have to see if my retired bus driver friend can come by to give the much needed massage. Unfortunately due to comments from the Chinese massage place workers now about my (lack of) weight, I'm reluctant to return there for a back massage where I have to partly undress.
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Post by crissdee on Oct 25, 2024 9:23:09 GMT
Personally, I'd be reluctant to go back there, just due to the fact they made those comments in the first place. Entirely unprofessional, and none of their damn business!
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Post by RLDavies on Oct 25, 2024 18:25:19 GMT
Hooray, I got paid!
About a third of it vanished instantly to cancel out the overdraft, and I've just shelled out half of what's left to placate the credit cards. The cards should be sufficiently placated by Monday or Tuesday, and then I'll be able to order some groceries.
I'll have to send out a new invoice before long just to make sure I don't have to scramble again so soon. I haven't really got enough in my out-tray to make up a decent invoice yet -- though one of them is a very large special job, so that will help build it up a bit.
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Post by jenny on Oct 25, 2024 20:06:02 GMT
Oh the exciting life of a freelancer!
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Post by RLDavies on Oct 26, 2024 12:43:27 GMT
It's not the first time it's happened, and probably not the last!
Things went really pear-shaped a year or two ago, when there was a perfect storm of bad stuff happening all at once -- Puzzler Media was switching to a new payments system, things got held up, one invoice got lost, I didn't chase up soon enough -- and I had no income at all for something like three months. I had to throw myself on the mercy of friends to keep me bailed out enough to be able to eat and pay bills, and all my editors were helping to chivvy the accounting department along. But it got sorted out in the end.
A little bit of hardship now and then is good for reminding you how much you have.
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Post by amanda on Oct 29, 2024 22:09:16 GMT
Personally, I'd be reluctant to go back there, just due to the fact they made those comments in the first place. Entirely unprofessional, and none of their damn business! Yes, and no business of anyone in public either except the drug dealers in my suburb seem to think I'm 'one of theirs' due to my look as well. The police chased me years ago as facial acne (hormonal related for me) was apparently a sign of ice use which I didn't know was even a drug then. My short height combined with lack of weight means I apparently don't need a seat on a bus or train, or I can be squished by someone three times my size. For lower back pain I would use the vibrating massage mat, but recently that now sets off an IBS attack after use so I'm reluctant to use it. |
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Post by efros on Oct 30, 2024 8:21:50 GMT
Under the cosh this morning. I had a flu jab and a covid jab on Monday afternoon. I expected to feel like crud yesterday... expectations were fulfilled, however, I am now feeling like crud with a fever and no sleep last night. Both injection sites are sore and both arms are aching.
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Post by amanda on Oct 30, 2024 9:47:39 GMT
And I have just learnt that former bus driver friend is away at the moment, in the same state border town from where my neighbour hails. Don't know how long he's there for, I leave next Tuesday for my interstate train trip.
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Post by amanda on Nov 1, 2024 21:24:04 GMT
Got my usual prepaid mobile phone voucher yesterday - now $35 from $30 and it wasn't accepted when I tried putting it on my phone last night. I wrote the ten digit code out and ensured it was all in the right order - still no.
Expires today (Saturday) and I'm planning on going to a country town booksale but now have no ability to send messages or call if needed.
Our 3G network was turned off this week but this phone bought in 2021 the day before another lockdown would have to be at least 4G.
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Post by celebaelin on Nov 4, 2024 13:48:49 GMT
I'm sitting around waiting for a Sky engineer to arrive and install a Sky Q Box. I assume that means plug it in, switch it on and wait until we're sure that it's working but I'm short on sleep which is making me cold and cranky and the place is a mess which recent illnesses have detered me from trying to address.
As I was typing this he called me and let me know he's 25 minutes away so not too bad (the window was 12-5).
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Post by celebaelin on Nov 5, 2024 9:45:23 GMT
Some sliced ham I'd been snacking on fell out of it's container yesterday and before I realised I'd trodden on about half of it in my stockinged feet.
Not only have I lost the ham but my socks now absolutely reek; they weren't in truth in the freshest state prior to that point but they're so foul now it's almost comical.
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Bondee
KWC
Bearer of Ye olde Arcane Dobbynge Sticke.
Posts: 384
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Post by Bondee on Nov 5, 2024 21:01:59 GMT
I trod on a plate of cat food last week. It was out of the way when I went in to the garage, but Coco had moved it across the floor by the time I came back in. I didn't see it because I was carrying a massive cardboard box.
I swear she moved it on purpose.
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Post by amanda on Nov 7, 2024 20:00:37 GMT
My friend on the Sydney trip needs to modify his diet, maybe not as extreme as me, but he goes all day without eating, eats enough fast food for two men each evening, then spends the night on the toilet in pain.
He also snores like a freight train so when he was in bed, I didn't get much sleep.
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Post by jenny on Nov 7, 2024 20:03:11 GMT
Have I vented yet about how pissed off I am about the election? Well I am.
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Post by amanda on Nov 9, 2024 0:34:01 GMT
I was also a bit surprised actually. Was it the Electoral college again (white men voting for a white man?)
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Post by celebaelin on Nov 9, 2024 0:45:37 GMT
No.
It's one person one vote... theoretically.
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Post by jenny on Nov 9, 2024 18:56:06 GMT
Sadly, Trump won the popular vote as well as the Electoral College vote, and not by that small a margin.
Honestly, the difference in the candidates is so stark, and yet Harris got fewer votes than Biden did in 2020, particularly among women.
It probably won't surprise anybody that I wonder whether at least part of the reason is that despite the GOP stance on abortion (which if you happen to live in a blue state or a red state that's enshrined reproductive rights in their constitution, as some have, doesn't outrage as many people as it should) Harris lost votes over the transgender issue. I know an awful lot of leftie women who feel alienated from the Democrats on that issue, especially as it pertains to male-bodied people in women's sports, prisons, and other spaces in which women feel vulnerable. To say nothing of the issue of compelled speech or allowing minor children to take cross-sex hormones or have surgeries. I share their view, but voted for Harris anyway because I thought Trump was so much worse on every other issue.
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Post by amanda on Nov 9, 2024 22:45:00 GMT
Jenny wrote:
Similar things apply in Aus. These children are allowed to start this treatment, yet us women entering the 'change' of life, aka menopause, are denied help from many GP's because of the word 'hormones' in many of the common treatments.
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