Double Bah Humbug This Week November 29, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General, WTF?.Tags: burglars
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I was lying in bed this morning at around 3.30am tossing and turning thinking about all the stuff I haven’t done for the emigration. Then around 4 ish I heard this tapping noise. Looked out the front cos I thought someone was trying to break into the car. Nope nothing, security light not on. Made a quick toilet break and I heard the tapping noise again. So I lifted the bathroom blind and opened the window to survey the garden. WHAT???? 2 dark hooded figures are doing something to the shed door. I shouted Hey – Get away and they scarpered quickly. Shouted at hubby that someone was breaking into his sheds. He got up super quick and looked out the window and said there was noone there. I said, there WAS! Front security light then went on. Switched on all the house and garden lights and lo and behold wooden shed door wide open, brick shed door 1/2 crowbarred. Hubby panicked as he’d only just that evening put a load of stuff into the wooden shed.
Called police as hubby went outside – first time I’ve ever called 999. How exciting. Mostly I was just scared as our back garden is totally enclosed I thought the burglars might be hiding in a dark spot of the garden waiting to pounce. The police, full credit to them arrived just as I put the phone down with the operator. They got in their car to cruise the area for random people wandering about at 4.30am. About a min after they drove out of sight a young lad in a dark hoodie walked out from somewhere in our cul de sac and stopped at the bottom of the drive before bending down behind our car and picking a baseball cap up. Hubby opened the front door, v scary and told the guy that the police would want that. Odd the guy didn’t run off, he actually came up to the front door and gave hubby the cap. Very odd as it’s definitely not someone from the cul de sac, he looked a little spaced out TBH. Then the police with dogs arrived to track/see if anyone was hiding nearby. Apparently they hid behind a caravan a few houses away before leaving the estate. So we emptied the shed contents into our lounge and went back to bed (I couldn’t sleep a wink). Policeman came totake details at midday today. Apparently a shed 4 houses down was broken into as well, so it would appear they were just opportunistic burglars. The copper told us they wouldn’t be able to get any evidence from the sheds and that hubby could fix/secure them he also took the cap back for forensics. 2 hrs later shed doors are fixed and then police ring up again to arrange some fingerprinting. Do wish different bits of the police would talk to each other.
Funny they broke the wooden shed containing all hubby’s toy soldiers and science gadgets which were ready and packed in crates, but they decided to leave them and attack the brick shed door, which does have a hasp on the outside but also a heavy duty internal mortice lock too. They totally buckled the hasp but couldn’t snap it and then realised it had a bigger lock. At which point they then started to split one of the wooden slats (hence the tapping noise). After all their hard work they would have been sorely disappointed had they got in as we’re moving in 2 weeks and all the contents have already been sold/cleared out.
So.. yay me! I managed to scare off some burglars by shouting at them…. or perhaps it was the sight of me with be hair at 4am in the morning that did it. Either way I’m relieved that nothing was taken and more importantly none of us hurt. I’m a bit spooked and paranoid now. Thank God for looking after us. His angels have protected us 2x this week already. We so need to get outta this country.
Paperwork Volcano November 28, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General.Tags: sorting paperwork
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Our double bed became a paperwork volcano today. In preparation for the move I decided to get all our paperwork in order. Yikes. Piles of the stuff from all over the place. Old bills from 7 years ago! Piles of payslips and forms and things I needed to send off. I’ve been sending letters off to various places for the last 2 weeks or so to advise about us leaving Blighty butit seems never ending. So about 10 piles of paperwork and 2 ful metal box files full of paperwork ended up being put into more permutations of piles on our bed. I figured this was good incentive to get it done and out of the way, otherwise no getting into bed 😉 I was quite ruthless with things and I managed to fill 3 shredder loads and 2 recycling bags full of paper. I think I’ve finally finished writing all the remaining letters and there are a few more forms to do but they are in a pending pile with post its on saying what needs to be done and when. I fell so much better. It really was like looking at a volcano erupting with paperwork – and because I was using those polypocket ones they were super slippery against each other and at various points they started to slip off the bed like lava flowing down a slope! Spent a grand total of about 14 hours doing it all. Felt miles better after doing it. Another thing checked off my To Do List!
More Jabs November 27, 2008
Posted by graciek in Evie, Life in General.Tags: baby vaccinations
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Poor Evie had her 4 month vaccinations today. One second she was happy doing tummy time on the nurse’s bench/bed and giggling at the nurse next second the giggles turned to big wail, followed by bigger wail, followed by very pissed off wail that is inaudible. Poor poor Evie had to have 3 injections one after the other today. She’ll be glad to have a little break as the next set aren’t till 6 months now. You’d have thought that she would remember the GPs surgery as everytime she goes in she gets stabbed with something and cries, but everytime she goes in she likes to play and smile at the receptionists.
Also went into my old workplace to drop off my old work laptop and some books I borrowed. It was really sad as my desk and PC were still there. The place just didn’t seem to have the same atmosphere anymore and it was so quiet with everyone’s head down. It used to be such a social place. I miss the workplace as I knew it.
My Poor Car November 25, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General.Tags: car accident
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So, with exactly 25 days to go till we emigrate to Australia some idiot has driven into my car! Meh. Hubby was driving to work as usual in the morning when someone pulled out of a side road infront of him. Thankfully no one was hurt but my poor car got blinded (lights smashed) and it’s nose broken (crumple zone, well crumpled). Hubby managed to limp it into work and call insurances etc. At least it should be a pretty straight forward claim as the other party have admitted liability to their insurance company. It was a 4×4 with bull bars, hence made the damage even worse. I can’t believe hubby always has such bad luck with cars. Since I’ve known him this is the 5th car he’s been through (and we’ve only been together for 8 years). The first car was a micra, which he melted by going too fast. The second car someone drove into him (at a side road again), the third car one of the cylinders stopped firing and was too expensive to fix so got traded in for the fourth car, which lasted 2 years before the brake discs and pads and ABS sensor needed replacing (again too expensive to fix for just a few more months use). This car was MY car, my lovely road coloured Almera. This was my first car that I owned and had only 25,000 miles of the clock. If it gets written off it’ll be such a waste of a good car – and will make me wish I hadn’t just replaced some of the bumper/plastic off the front last month as it’s all got damaged anyway. It’s been religiously serviced every single year and had it’s air con redone in June!
We have a courtesy car in the meantime – it’s and orange coloured Ford Focus (no problems with people seeing it in that colour!!). It’s just such a pain for my car to get totalled at the moment. This weekend we need to drive up to Lancaster to visit hubby’s relatives for the last time before we leave UK. Then two weeks after that we need to drive me down to London, and then a few days after hubby needs to do the drive from Nottingham to London. If the car can be fixed then it won’t be too much of a problem, but I guess it’ll be harder to sell now, if it’s totalled, then there’s no point trying to buy a car for only 3 weeks use! May either have to hire a car or borrow my parents’ car (which then involves another drive down to London). So sad – hopefully the car will be towed to the car hopsickle soon and they will diagnose whether it’s going to need surgery or euthanasia 😦
[In other news, the parking fine that they tried to lay on hubby has finally got cancelled off us! Hubby got totally fed up with providing all the evidence over and over again that he contacted the manager of the person who was chasing us. 30 mins later and a stern phone call and it was all sorted out on the spot. Monkeys/Organs/Grinding anyone?]
Antipodean Dog November 24, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General, Mocha dog.Tags: dog emigration
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Yay, Mocha made it to Australia safe and sound. We woke up early at 4am in order to call Eastern Creek Quarantine Station. Mocha arrived on Monday morning (AUS) and her handler is called Rachel. Rachel said that she was a little traumatised and hadn’t yet had any food. I suspect that Mocha is being stubborn and holding out for some better morsels of food – none of that dried doggy kibble (she does usually eat Complete formula so is used to dry food). Poor Mocha – being in that crate for so long. At least by now she’ll have had a quick bath and getting used to her new doggy hotel room. I bet she’s lying there panting away with her stomach splayed on the concrete floor trying to keep cool. We’ll call her again on Thursday morning to see how she’s settling in. Hopefully she’ll have been seen by the vet by then and given the all clear for visitors next week. My brother is in Sydney and will visit her for us.
Bye Bye Mocha November 22, 2008
Posted by graciek in Australia, Life in General, Mocha dog.Tags: dog emigration
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We sent Mocha off on her big adventure today. Soooo sad. She’s flying out to Sydney for quarantine and should arrive there on Monday morning before being incarcerated for 30 days. We can spring her from doggy penitentiary on Christmas Eve. My poor baby Mocha knew something was up and hubby and I cuddled her loads. She was so well behaved in the car to Heathrow when usually she is squeaking and trying to do a houdini impression with her car harness. Instead she was quiet and just rested her little paw on us. It’s awful as she doesn’t understand why Daddy put her in a crate and abandoned her!! I couldn’t bring her to Heathrow as I wouldn’t have coped. Apparently she was crying and whimpering and scratching at the crate door asking “daddy, please don’t leave me, where are you going, take me with you”. Makes my heart break just thinking about it. Hopefully she’ll recover from the trauma and forgive us. Hubby says he’s going to buy her a big steak when we get there. It was awful getting back and seeing her doggy bowls, her food, her lead, and even her little bag of doggy treats. Boo hoo. I love you little furry Mocha baby – please forgive us. I’ll be much happier on Monday when I know she’s arrived safely.
Not My Parking Fine November 20, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General, Money.Tags: sold car, unfair parking fine
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We sold hubby’s car on the 26th October to a used car dealer. He gives them the V5 and duly sends off the little yellow signed slip (V5C I think) to the DVLA. 3rd November a letter arrives stating that we have been fined for parking the car for 9hrs at a motorway service station on 1st November (now, who would voluntarily want to go to one of those for 9hrs) and that according to DVLA hubby is still the registered owner!! Hubby rings up DVLA to see why they haven’t processed the V5 slip yet. Apparently it’s disappeared into the ether at either DVLA or Royal Mail. Hmm. But it’s OK as we have a sales receipt from the dealer. Which we then fax to them with a letter. A few days later DVLA say they have put a note against the car registration, but that they cannot complete the transfer until the new owner sends in the V5 bit. Hmm so we can’t get proof from DVLA that it’s not our car anymore even though we sent them a sales receipt. Now we send the solicitors who are chasing us from the service station parking company a new letter and a copy of the sales receipt. Today we got a letter acknowleding receipt of our letter saying that DVLA still has hubby as the registered owner and that we need to prove it’s been sold by providing documentation such as a sales receipt. WTF – that’s what the last letter was about. It feels like we’re going round in circles and if we don’t pay within a month then they’ll take us to court. I’m so stressed about it as no matter what we do to prove we don’t have the car anymore all parties seem to just ignore it! I’m quite worried that if this isn’t resolved in the next few weeks we’ll have moved to Australia and next time we come back to the UK for a visit hubby will have a CCJ on his head without even knowing about it. So the question is, unless the buffoon who eventually bought the car sends in his V5 slip will we keep being chased? Even more alarming is the road tax is expiring end of this month and they keep sending us the SORN. Now I don’t want to get a fine for not paying the road tax, but we don’t have the car anymore!! The other bugger who owns the car won’t receive the SORN and won’t be able to tax it. Or maybe that’s the new owner’s plan to just rack up fines and not pay the tax. At any rate, we sold it to a dealer, so they should be able to provide the DVLA with the details of who bought the car – so why is everyone chasing us? Grrrrrrrrr RANT RANT RANT.
Purging Purging Purging November 19, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General.Tags: purging clothes
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I purged all our clothes today. Now I have 6 bin bags full of reasonable clothes for a lady to pick up (she’s having a clothes/jumble sale for charity) tomorrow. We had about 1 bin bag that were unservicable clothes (holes/paint stains/mishapen etc). Now we only have 1 suitcase of clothes left. Boo hoo how sad. I somehow got the Rawhide tune stuck in my head, apart from instead of signing “Rolling, rolling, rolling” I was thinking “Purging, purging, purging”. It really helped get going with it. Some clothes at the back of the cupboard I’d forgot I had, other clothes I didn’t even recognise!! We’re slowly but surely getting there with getting rid of all our stuff.
Evie Weighing Again November 11, 2008
Posted by graciek in Life in General.add a comment
Took Evie to the weighing clinic again. She’s now about 3.5 months old and she’s 11lb 13oz. She’s put on 7oz in the last fortnight. She’s slowly settling 1/2 way between 9th and 25th percentile weight. Poor Evie is so petite. My mum of course thinks that I am starving her. How can that be when she feeds on demand? She’s very long though (63.5cm – 91st percentile height). She just takes after her Daddy, who when we met was 6ft and only 60kg. Of course now he’s still 6ft, but after almost 8 years of my cooking (and not to mention the takeaways and chocolate) he’s far more than 60kg and is developing a rather distinct “archer’s gut”.
Farewell Party November 8, 2008
Posted by graciek in Parties.add a comment
We had our final hoo-hah party today at our house. We’re not actually moving out for another 5 weeks, but if we had the party in the final week there’d be nothing to sit on and no time to tidy up after!! I quite enjoyed my eclectic menu – otherwise known as “what is this I have found in the back of the cupboard and what can I make with it”. We had all sorts of stuff, chinese, italian, indian, snacks, etc. I may have a gone a bit overboard with the invites as we ended up with about 35+ people in the house at the same time. In a 3 bed semi this is quite impressive and it ended up like one of those sliding-tile puzzle games where you have to move other tiles out of the way to get the tile you want to a certain place. Why is it at parties people always congregate in the narrowest bits? At the early stages of the party everyone was standing in doorways and no one was on the sofas!! I’m going to miss everyone so much and I think I’m finally coming out of denial and realising that this might be the last time I see some of them. Of course everyone is welcome to come visit once we’re all settled but I suspect that we’ll not see most of our friends again (boo hoo hoo).
We managed to get rid of all the food; I even had to cook some more mid party, which is unusual for our parties as there’s usually way too much food and leftovers. We got rid of almost all the alcohol (3 bottles left from probably about 30 bottles of spirits). Managed to drink up most of the champagne during a toast (cringey trying to work out what to say – hubby NOT helpful at all as he just kept schtum). Everyone left with something – only 2 potplants and a few candles left to get rid of.
We do however seem to have gained an awful lot of fireworks! And the house was a bombsite the next morning as it was like a monsoon outside with the fireworks and everyone came back in with wet shoes, clothes, coats etc leaving small puddles all over the place. Good thing we don’t have any carpet downstairs.
Gracie's Life Experiment 