I’ve Been Quiet For Too Long

Yet again I’ve neglected my blog for over a week, but I have been a bit too preoccupied with life in general with fairly mundane things. Yes, even more mundane than the first crop of strawberries from my previous post…

There have been a few bits of good news and some bad news, though the bad news is somewhat tempered by previous experience and the fact that it wasn’t unexpected. So let’s start with the bad stuff.

I have definitely lost my job at Mytchett. Hey-ho, I was told when I started that the job would be moving to the Midlands within three years. It’s been just over three years now so I knew it was coming. As of the 3rd of next month I will be in the redeployment pool and therefore I’ll be given first dibs on any job within the Ministry in my local area before they are advertised internally and then publicly. There’s one problem there though, as I have been looking for jobs at the same grade as I’m in at the moment and it does not look good at all. In fact it looks like I may have to move from defence to the prison service. We’ll see how it pans out, but as I say, it does not look too good. The only up side of this is the government’s reluctance to lay me off as the redundancy payment would be too much for their tight arses to squeeze out.

The biggest down side of the loss of my job is that I now have been told asked to train our analysts on how to use the software that I use to scan in the feedback questionnaires. I’m not a teacher, I’m a learner and even after three years I’m still learning how to use the damned thing.

OK, on to the good stuff.

After following the advice of Mohammed – no, not that one, this one was a customer support agent from my phone provider – I have bought myself a replacement phone (same make and model) for the princely sum of £274 including postage via eBay. Not bad for a BB Z10. I had to pay another £3.50 for a SIM card for it though. I’m now debating whether to transfer my old number to the new SIM, but at the moment it’s too much hassle. I’d love to be able to do it online, but one of the required bits of information is the number of the SIM card I’m transferring my number from. That would be the SIM card that is probably lying discarded in some bin in Berlin since it’s been blocked. Still, at least I’ve got a phone that works, but I must get in touch with them about my contract as they’ve taken £50 off of me this month for my stolen phone. That’s higher than the usual monthly contract would have been, so I really need to query that.

My car insurance came up for renewal this month. It’s hard to believe that I’ve had Tessie for a year already. Unfortunately the insurance company tried to take my payment (thankfully much lower than last year’s) via my bank card. That would be the bank card that is probably lying discarded in the same bin as my phone’s SIM card for much the same reason. After a brief 12 minute discussion with “Neville” – who had a distinct Indian accent, whereas Mohammed was definitely a Brummie, but that’s beside the point – I managed to arrange to pay the insurance off on a monthly basis. I know it’s more expensive in the long term to do it that way, but my finances are still reeling from that one night in Berlin and I could not afford to pay off a full year’s insurance with what’s left of my overstretched overdraft. The best thing, though, is that as I was a bit too late to make this month’s payment it will be spread over the next eleven months. OK, it increases the amount I have to pay per month, but it means basically that I’m insured this month for absolutely nothing. Free. Gratis. Nil. £0.00! I’m definitely sticking with this insurer.

And then today I was asked if I would look after a dear little soul while her mummy was away doing important things that I cannot disclose here. I jumped at the chance. Why?

Here’s why:
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Aww! Dear little Scrumpy the beagle. 🙂

by notbob29