Guess Who's Back... Back again...
So, let's try this again, shall we?
About an hour after I posted last week, the net went down. Bloody NTL. Turns out that they hadn't transferred our account to our new address, so their system wouldn't give us net access. Add to this the problems of Nick having lost my phone charger, Nick's own phone having just about the worst reception ever in this new place which ment that I kept losing the connecton halfway through phone calls, the fqact that we had no spare money to use a payphone (and, incidentally, that there are none anywhere around... very strange) and the fact that NTL's customer support are, of course, even less competent to be advising and fixing problems than my kitten who hasn't figured out how to stop running down the stairs yet and keeps bouncing off walls, and you'll understand why we didn't actually get the net back till yesterday evening. What fun.
So, what's been happening in the past week?
Well, the Crisis loan people insisted on doing everything by post, so we didn't get the money till Monday. Still, at least we got the money. We promptly went out and spent it all on things like food, a double duvet and covers for me (I only had a dinky little single which wasn't doing me much good in the cold and on a queen-size), towels and a fridge-freezer (I know, and after the SS said it was for a bed and everything!). We were lucky actually; after traipsing round the town centre for about two hours we found a little second-hand furniture shop that had cheap fridge-freezers. We got one for £79 in the end, and got it delivered for an extra £6. So one major problem has been solved at least.
Nick's wonderful, wonderful boss sent us an air mattress and a couple of folding chairs, so now both of us have somewhere to sleep (Nick and I have tried to sleep in the same bed, but not only do both of us snore too much (allegedly), but Nick is also so big he takes up most of the bed by default. Think of that ad with the hippo and the duckling sharing a bed and you'll get an idea. Furthermore, I can't keep still in bed and so the one time we tried it, I kicked Nick repeatedly in my sleep till his legs were bruised the next day. For his part, Nick nearly suffocated me when he flung an arm out in his sleep and covered my face.) and sit. So there's much less knackered muscles and joints in the house now.
At one point I bit the bullet and tried to get a Provident loan to help us with the rest of the important furniture (I still don't have a desk for my computer, for one thing, which is why I'm using Nick's) A Provident loan, for those not in the know, is a cash loan for people with terrible credit ratings. They don't do credit checks, so pretty much anyone can get one. The downside is that their interest rate is 117%. Akk. Still, I've seen worse. When I was researching similar loans, I found one with an interest rate of 621.8%.
However, I think I've become the first person in history to be rejected for a Provident loan. Why? Because we're not on the electoral roll in our new place. It always happens to me, doesn't it? We might try again in a day or two, ringing them directly instead of going through a broker (there's one in the town centre), but in the meantime Nick had someone ring up to offer him a loan last night so we'll see how that goes. I'm not too happy about the idea of getting a loan (don't want to get hideously in hock), but we so desperately need the money for things that it might be inevitable.
The cats are still... well, being cats. We've realised that Mac isn't trying to fight with Jelli, he just wants to play with her, and can't understand why she doesn't want to. Of course, this revelation doesn't improve matters too much, as Jelli will still belt him if he doesn't leave her alone and then run for cover. But at least we can now try to distract Mac by dangling things in front of him and letting him pounce them. Both cats are also greatly enjoying the large number of boxes that are lying round the house as places to sit on or in. Currently Mac is on top of a stack of crates and Jelli is sitting under Nick's desk, periodically glaring at Mac as if trying to make him spontaneously combust.
We do have some self-stupidity to report: It took us over a week to realise that the immersion heater (providing us with our hot water) was on the electric and not the gas. Up till that point we'd been trying to ration what we thought was a finite amount of hot water (no money for the gas meter) and cursing the fact that we couldn't have baths or showers. Yeah, we're dumb.
Despite everything, I still started NaNo yesterday (my lovely new duvet is wonderful to be under when writing). After one day's writing (interrupted by frequent bouts of cat management, one shopping trip, an anniversary meal and sleep) I'm on 1,822. Which doesn't seem as much as some people's (I get paranoid), but is at least ahead of the 1,667 that the NaNo spreadsheet says you should aim for each day. With any luck I'll get Nick to set my computer up leter today and then I'll see about typing out some of what I've done so far (I don't like Nick's keyboard; the keys tend to stick or not register with me because I have a lighter touch than him). Now, however, I am offf to feed the cats and myself. And put the fire on, because it's bloody freezing and we haven't figured out how the radiators work yet.
Back later (unless NTL mess up again), with the tales of my birthday and our fifth anniversary...
About an hour after I posted last week, the net went down. Bloody NTL. Turns out that they hadn't transferred our account to our new address, so their system wouldn't give us net access. Add to this the problems of Nick having lost my phone charger, Nick's own phone having just about the worst reception ever in this new place which ment that I kept losing the connecton halfway through phone calls, the fqact that we had no spare money to use a payphone (and, incidentally, that there are none anywhere around... very strange) and the fact that NTL's customer support are, of course, even less competent to be advising and fixing problems than my kitten who hasn't figured out how to stop running down the stairs yet and keeps bouncing off walls, and you'll understand why we didn't actually get the net back till yesterday evening. What fun.
So, what's been happening in the past week?
Well, the Crisis loan people insisted on doing everything by post, so we didn't get the money till Monday. Still, at least we got the money. We promptly went out and spent it all on things like food, a double duvet and covers for me (I only had a dinky little single which wasn't doing me much good in the cold and on a queen-size), towels and a fridge-freezer (I know, and after the SS said it was for a bed and everything!). We were lucky actually; after traipsing round the town centre for about two hours we found a little second-hand furniture shop that had cheap fridge-freezers. We got one for £79 in the end, and got it delivered for an extra £6. So one major problem has been solved at least.
Nick's wonderful, wonderful boss sent us an air mattress and a couple of folding chairs, so now both of us have somewhere to sleep (Nick and I have tried to sleep in the same bed, but not only do both of us snore too much (allegedly), but Nick is also so big he takes up most of the bed by default. Think of that ad with the hippo and the duckling sharing a bed and you'll get an idea. Furthermore, I can't keep still in bed and so the one time we tried it, I kicked Nick repeatedly in my sleep till his legs were bruised the next day. For his part, Nick nearly suffocated me when he flung an arm out in his sleep and covered my face.) and sit. So there's much less knackered muscles and joints in the house now.
At one point I bit the bullet and tried to get a Provident loan to help us with the rest of the important furniture (I still don't have a desk for my computer, for one thing, which is why I'm using Nick's) A Provident loan, for those not in the know, is a cash loan for people with terrible credit ratings. They don't do credit checks, so pretty much anyone can get one. The downside is that their interest rate is 117%. Akk. Still, I've seen worse. When I was researching similar loans, I found one with an interest rate of 621.8%.
However, I think I've become the first person in history to be rejected for a Provident loan. Why? Because we're not on the electoral roll in our new place. It always happens to me, doesn't it? We might try again in a day or two, ringing them directly instead of going through a broker (there's one in the town centre), but in the meantime Nick had someone ring up to offer him a loan last night so we'll see how that goes. I'm not too happy about the idea of getting a loan (don't want to get hideously in hock), but we so desperately need the money for things that it might be inevitable.
The cats are still... well, being cats. We've realised that Mac isn't trying to fight with Jelli, he just wants to play with her, and can't understand why she doesn't want to. Of course, this revelation doesn't improve matters too much, as Jelli will still belt him if he doesn't leave her alone and then run for cover. But at least we can now try to distract Mac by dangling things in front of him and letting him pounce them. Both cats are also greatly enjoying the large number of boxes that are lying round the house as places to sit on or in. Currently Mac is on top of a stack of crates and Jelli is sitting under Nick's desk, periodically glaring at Mac as if trying to make him spontaneously combust.
We do have some self-stupidity to report: It took us over a week to realise that the immersion heater (providing us with our hot water) was on the electric and not the gas. Up till that point we'd been trying to ration what we thought was a finite amount of hot water (no money for the gas meter) and cursing the fact that we couldn't have baths or showers. Yeah, we're dumb.
Despite everything, I still started NaNo yesterday (my lovely new duvet is wonderful to be under when writing). After one day's writing (interrupted by frequent bouts of cat management, one shopping trip, an anniversary meal and sleep) I'm on 1,822. Which doesn't seem as much as some people's (I get paranoid), but is at least ahead of the 1,667 that the NaNo spreadsheet says you should aim for each day. With any luck I'll get Nick to set my computer up leter today and then I'll see about typing out some of what I've done so far (I don't like Nick's keyboard; the keys tend to stick or not register with me because I have a lighter touch than him). Now, however, I am offf to feed the cats and myself. And put the fire on, because it's bloody freezing and we haven't figured out how the radiators work yet.
Back later (unless NTL mess up again), with the tales of my birthday and our fifth anniversary...