Roll with it

Just yesterday I was thinking that life is feeling pretty good again in most ways.

Today I went into work and within an hour had recieved a firm-wide email telling us that (despite their assurances to the contrary just a couple of months ago) we were feeling the bite of the economic downturn, and a "strategic review" of staffing was underway.

18 lawyers were made redundant today, and support staff will be reviewed and redundancies, if necessary, will happen probably in July.

I am not overly optimistic about keeping my job - they say they will look at skill sets & requirements etc, but it seems fairly obvious to me that PT central staff will be the first to go, regardless of how wonderful we are (or otherwise).

Still, I'm actually not that concerned. If I keep the job, that will be great, if I lose it, at least I'll have the summer holidays off:) And I can certainly keep myself busy!! And I've been made redundant before, something else will come up. It's not as though this is my dream career-making job.

Although I think perhaps this is an opportune time to send in an updated CV and remind them of all those wonderful skills I do have:)

no more superwoman

We just got agreement for direct payments to help Aggie out round the house & with the kids for a few hours a week. WHOPEE! When it's all organised that will mean we can have someone in to vacuum the main rooms, take LMD to pre-school at lunch-time, peel potatoes and generally keep the house a little bit up together. I reckon we may even get an occasional evening babysitting otu of it. And all on those nice tax payers money!

I really did feel a weight lift off my shoulders when we got the letter:) It has been the subject of many long discussions recently. I'm not the most houseproud person in the world and will happily find more interesting things to do instead, but even I have a minimum standard, and we were not reaching it. I know Aggie finds it hard to physically do some of it, but it was really getting me down.

So some good did come from all that trauma at the end of last term when Mstr A was suspended:) There is always a silver lining......

But it does mean I can't claim to be superwoman any more, just having to care for Aggie, and Mstr a, look after the other kids, work for my employer, keep my hand in with my self employed work, study, volunteer at the CAB and re-enact, with only some housework required:)

Silver lining

Every cloud has one, and I am pretty good at finding it in even the worst thunderclouds.

Mstr A's suspension was a pretty ugly cloud, but it did make me decide to be a bit proactive and get some help. First off, the return to school interview was very good, with a bit more explanation about what actually happened from the school, and no difficulties agreeing the best ways forwards. Now we have that "violent behaviour" tick box ticked, we may even be able to get him properly statemented and apply for some funding for the school to get hi more one-to-one time.

I also spent friday afternoon looking into what help might be available to us. If was a fiarly unfruitful search in that there was a lot of "you may be entitled to..." and "some people can get...", but it did culminate in me contacting social services to see what they could offer.

Sadly, they haven't answered. I mean, it's only been a week since I emailed saying that I didn't now where to turn with a violent son & disabled husband, no money and two younger children to care for...... I've been told that the only way to get an answer is to personally turn up, with kids in tow, and annoy them until they do something about it! I may have to get round to that some time, but I don't feel like it right now tbh!

However, having decided that if we're going to get social services involved in any way, we might as well get them involved in every way, I also contacted the disabilities team about getting a carer's assessment for me. They seemed a bit confused as to whether I cared for an adult or a child, as different teams do the assessments, but today I spoke to a ver sensible woman who agreed I cared for both and therefore either needed a joint assessment or two separate assessments - depending on what the teams liked best. So I am waitng to hear back from them.

I also discovered that I don't have to wait for social services to refer me on to other things, and self referred myself to the local Children's Centre and applied for a family support worker. I don't know what they can offer, but some suport would be welcome:) I think I only qualify for that because of the younger kids, but it may well help Aggie out during the summer holidays.

Finally, although work was not overly impressed by the whole situation, they also did let me have the time, and let me take leave at short notice to attend the meeting at the school. Although I did mention that I was a carer before this, it has made it very official - which will make it easier when I ask for some carers leave later in the year to attend the National Autistic Society's course on managing ASD's. I'm hoping they might let me swap my days for the ten weeks, as carers leave is unpaid, and I need the money. But we'll see.

So now it's just a matter of waiting for everyone to get back to me and see what help they might be able to offer. And see where they suggest we go next....

Hitting home

Mstr A was suspended from school yesterday. He's not allowed on the school premises until Tuesday morning, which means he is missing the end of term party for his after school club (which he absolutley adores and was really looking forward to), and the school fete today.

Yesterday was not a happy day:(

I don't think he's grasped the severity of suspension, despite the fact that I have tried in every way I can think of to explain it, and terrify him into believing that school is his best option by far....

I was at work. I KNOW that nothing would have been different if I'd been at home. But I was at work. He's 7 years old, suspended from school, and I wasn't even there to talk to the teachers.

I spent the afternoon adding up the sums every way possible. If I leave work we would have to sell the house. Renting a property would be more expensive than paying the mortgage, but welfare benefits only cover rent, so that would be the only way to have a roof over our heads. So I'm staying at work. I'm quite concerned about the summer holidays, but.....

I'm all for workers rights but

They want £40,000 BEFORE overtime to drive a bloody lorry?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7447548.stm

That's FOUR TIMES my wages, and I don't have the option of overtime to top it up (theirs is compulsory).

I'm off to get my tanker licence.

well, waddya know?

I was uneccearily pessimistic. They didn't sack me, and agreed to me dropping down to 3 days a week:-) As of next week I only work Mon, Tue & Fri's. They even offered to keep me full time to the end of the month, which would have gotten me full time pay for the easter break, but I would rather start immediately and feel I'm not taking the piss. Anyway, it means I have Maundy Thursday off and can go to the kids Easter fayre with them, and win a load of easter eggs again. mstr A wouldn't leave until we had won 5 last year (one per person in the family).

The three days a week will be permently as a floater - which means I don't get a desk, boss or department, but go whever I'm needed to cover holidays/sickness/workload on a day by day basis. It's not my preferred way of working, but means I can learn a little bit about lots of areas of law. And I don't have to stress about getting to college on time any more. We have agreed to another probation period, and we'll see how it goes.

60% pay might be problematical - it's less than I was earning when I worked locally, and I still have the travel costs to pay. But we'll see how it goes.

Now all they have to do is make sure there is enough work for me to do - i have been bored for some time on most days there so far. I know I've got to learn all the systems and stuff, but I'm not used to running out of things to do!I'd far rather be working hard than sitting around. If nothing else, it makes the day go faster.

Time's up (almost)

I got my official letter today. The one that told me I'm losing my job. As I suspected, they are not being charitable and I finish on the 23rd January, exactly 364 days from when I started. Just in case I wanted to claim a full year:-) I'm not surprised, but a little annoyed as I specifically went to see the personnel manager (ha ha - he really can not manage his personnell!) before Xmas to ask if they were expecting me to leave when the family department closed in Feb or before, and was told that I would have to go by mid-Feb. Lucky i know how these people's minds work really! Although, it would cost about £400 to keep me on for the extra 21 days. Remembering that a solicitor's chargeable time racks up at £200 per hour, you'd have thought a bit of goodwill was worth 2 hours work. I rather doubt I'll be working incredibly hard for the next 3 weeks:-)

Still, at least I knew pretty much what was coming. Everyone else was pretty upset. Before Xmas, we were told the Family dept would close when the head of department left in mid-february, and everyone else would go when the firm closed in June. The letters given out today gave two unexpecting staff a leaving date of mid-feb and another two the end of March (I had told them that I doubted they would keep them past the end of the financial year, but they seemed disinclined to agree - this was the person who thought that they would pay her redundancy even if she left early, despte the fact that they wouldn't need to. yeah right!).

Oh well, that gives me exactly 20 days to find something else. I had best crack on with my begging letters! Although the 2ic in the department was pretty much offered a job today and said she would like to take me with her, which was nice:-) But i don't think I'll count on it. Plus there is a query over the location atm, so would like some other options. Suffice to say, we won't be spending any of my dad's xmas pressie yet - it may need to cover the mortgage for a while.

Happy 2008

It's going to be a good year. I've decided! :-)

I could have done without the BBC pundits telling me that 2008 was going to be the worst year for over a decade for redundancies, and that eveeryone was going to be letting staff go, but no-one wold be taking on. Thanks. I get to be the first statistic of the year then? Or perhaps I can sneak in there before they all realise:-) still, those same pundits have been giving dire warnings about the "credit crunch" and falling house prices for years, without the country seeming to actually turn any of it into actuality at all!

But all in all, I've had a pretty good lead up to 2008. Certainly it's shaping up better than 2007 was at the same point last year! Aggie is finally retired so we can make proper plans as to how we are going to be living in the future. It certainly means I have more options available work-wise, as I am not tied to school times any more. Money wise we will obviously be getting much less in (although more than when he was getting nothing!), but we have paid off almost all our debts except the mortgage, so we can budget what we do have better. As long as i get a job, we should survive! I'm going to have to relaly crack on with looking now the holidays are over.

The festive period has gone rather well really, even considering LMB's bloodied head - which she had near enough fogotten all about by the next morning anyway. I got a rather nice knife from Aggie which I can threaten him with all summer:-) We went off to the Crazie party on Thursday night and I recieved more books to read and a films to watch, and an unexpected gift from Naomi (Old Old Lady of the Hills) which was such a surprise and so doubly nice! I never really expected to make friends in the blogosphere, let alone make a "profit" out of it:-)

Then we spent the long weekend at my mother's in London. The kids were all well behaved. I had plenty of time to catch up with family news. I got called beautiful for the second time in just a few months by one of my mother's friends - which is nice, if a bit weird:-0 And my father decided to give away a small fortune as his Cristmas present to all his kids, wiping out the debt I still owe him from when we bought the car, and giving us enough of a lump sum to pay off our bank loan, and put enough aside to cover any unexpected major purchases that may come up. So when the car started playing up yesterday I just thought, "never mind, we'll have to get that sorted" rather than getting dead stressed about what we were going to do. It was a lovely feeling!

Also, my mother was rather nice to Aggie this weekend. Perhaps, after 15 years, she has finally decided to accept him:-) What is the world coming to? AND, we saw Aggie's brother and his family yesterday, and the chioldren lll played togethyer without problems, or even noise for a couploe of hours! This is amazing because despite the fact that Mstr A and boy cousin K are only a few weeks different in age, they are as bdifferent in temprement and outlook as possible, and previous metings have always ended in tears - from both boys and within minutes usually. Girl cousin K has always loved playing with the girls, but now they are old enough to be played with properly she was able to take them off and keep them occupied the whole time. Cool!

Last night we just stayed in with a couple of friends and drank a lot, played a stupid board game, drank a lot more, and stayed up much to late (well, early) . which was fine, but now it's morning, and the kids all want to do stuff;-( Bah!

Bugg'rit millenium hand & shrimp

As foul ol' Ron would say. Some days are just downright depressing:-(

Today I discovered that Terry Pratchett probably only has a "few more books" in him with the onset of Altzheimers killing off one of the greatest literary minds of our time. I love his books, which are usually laugh out loud funny, with an added dollop of wry wit and observtional humour thrown in to keep it interesting. Plus he just seems like a jolly nice chap from the things I have read about him.

although it is his fault me and Aggie got together, so perhaps I shouldn't be too praising;-)

Then at work today we all got called into a meeting and told that the company was closing in June. But the Family department would be gone by February. So it's job hunting for me again.

And despite it being the 12th, and therefore the draw date, I didn't win anything this month:-) Nor did we get our working tax credit for some unknown reason, so I'll have to chase that up. Hurumph! And I spent the last bit of my car money on a trailer - which will be very useful, and will make our summers much easier, but it is still depressing to say goodbye to a big bank balance.

Some days are just shit! lets hope tomorrow is better.

Lets make spend lots of money

My mother sold the car this morning. Wayhey - 6 months gross salary in one go:-)

Of course, she has to pay it in to her bank, wait for it to clear, send me a cheque, wich i have to pay into my bank, and wait for it to clear before it's real, but what's that got to with it? This morning, once I had dragged myself out of bed, groaned about my hangover a bit and tried the traditional cure of eating a large fried breakfast, we all wandered down to the horror that is PC World and bought 2 new laptops one for me and one for Mstr A.

Aren't credit cards great sometimes?

Aggie had been researching the best ones to get for a while, and unfortunately PC World was doing the best spec for the right price (I had set a lmit of £1k for the two). So they got our business. Which was a shame, as they are abysmal in so very many ways. My laptop was th last one in the shop, wich meant i got the display model. I tried for a discount for that, and salesman has to go off and ask the floor manager. No luck "it's already been discounted by £30off book price and we don't make much money on the machines". Yeah right. I tried for a discount for buying two too, and he went of again to ask, but no luck there either:-) I think the salesman was a bit disappointed in us by then. We did make it worse by refusing to even look at any of the dodgy insurance/tech support policies he tried to flog us. "It even runs right alongside the manufacturers guarantee, it doesn't replace it" No shit sherlock, it's illegal to "replace" the manufacturers guarentee, which I did point out to him.

Anyway, we get to the paperwork bit. I pay, and we point out that the PC World website tells us that we get a free cover for Mstr A's computer with it (it's got interchangeable covers you know - to look cool and up to date!). Salesman does not know anything about that. We ask him to look it up, and there it is, on their website. He's not sure that they have any in stock. I suggest he realy ought to go check. Off he goes to see the floor manager. Again. Eventual he reappears with a football one. Mstr A does not like footall. I ask for a different one, but he cliams it's the only one the have in stock. We take it anyway, on pinciple. And soon it will be on Ebay:-)

He goes off to find out if my display model has been packed up ready to take. No, the've lost the key to unlock it fro the display. Salesman spends several minutes running around in a panic. Eventualy he finds the key. The floor manager comes and whispers in his ear. Uh oh They need to do a full system restore because it has been used. I say we'll wait. He goes talk to the tech guys. I may be up to two hours. To do a system restore? Huh! But I give him my phone number, and say I'll come back to collect it when it's ready and off we go.

3 1/2 hours later I've heard nothing, and the shop will close in 30 mins. I go back to find out what's going on. The tech guy said he was just given a laptop and told to do a system restore, no-one said why, when or that I would be collecting it. I told him I wanted it toay and would wait. However long it took, and no, I didn't cae tha the shop was shutting in 30 mins! 20 mins later, i get my new laptop. at last.

Aggie has spent all afternoon setting it up and putting everything on. It's hardly plug and play! i wonder ow much PC World would have charged to do that? But still it's done. I should now be able to get online whenever I want! Whoppee:-)

I think perhaps I should wait until I have the money before I spend any more though.

Money isn't everything

I know that. I understand that. I even believe that and have acted upon it, giving up a well paid job for a very low paid one. But sometimes it can be a baffling way of keeping score...

I've been holding the fort at work for the past couple of weeks. Last week the head of dept was on leave, and this week he is in court. No 2 in the dept is on leave most of last week and this week too and the junior person only works a couple of days a week anyway. It's not been a problem. They have sorted out as much as possible, left notes on what to do on everything foreseeable, and I can always pass on anything complicated to another solicitor who won't be able to help but is qualified to tell someone that:-) But it does mean that I have been doing quite a lot of "real" work - stuff that is actually costed and claimed for.

Yesterday I received a bill for a report that an "expert" had completed on a part of one of our cases. I am sure that the expert was well trained and experienced. I am sure that they put a lot of work, time and effort into their report. Indeed, they billed us for just over 100 hours work - which includes preparation, travel and observations. Their bill for this was slightly more than my full year's salary! For 100 hours, on one case.

i think I'm in the wrong job:-)

Oh well, i'm expecting 6 months pay for my car to turn up at the weekend. Of course, i have mentally spent it already, but still £6k is £6k :-)

Money & fun

We've been sorting stuff out this week. Today we sucessfully sold LMB's old bed (well, it wasn't that old...), and Aggies cross trainer (ha ha, had it for two years, used it two times - well worth it!). This has made a little more room in the house (not alot, but it's a start) and put enough money into our getting rid of stuff fund to buy Mstr A his own tent for next season, which will be nice for him, and us:-) Now we just have to find one we like for the right price!

It's been a very sucessful morning all reound really. More space should mean Aggie will be able to get on with the bedroom walls again (yeah right). The kids and I all made a nice banana cake which kept them occupied and means we have yummy cake to eat:-) Now they are`all fired up to cook all the time. Aggie and I have both made some bread - I made a loaf first thing this morning when I woke up, promised the kids toast for breakfast, then discovered we didn't have any bread in the house. Oops. When he saw it he decided that he would ahve to make his own loaf to see whose was best! I ask you. MEN!

Later this afternoon Nanny is coming over to babysit the kids while we go off partying for CQ's birthday. We're going bowling, then for a meal, then for drinking and dvd's:-) Aggie is designated driver as he can't drink anyway due to antibiotics for the plueresy, so i may well have a tipple or two.

tomorrow is the company archery tourney. I am reasonably confident that I will come last anyway, having hardly touched the bow all season, but it should be fun. Plus it will be a good time to discuss our plans for next year - I know they are not too happy with the idea of dual grouping, so i'd rather get everything out in the open and explain our reasons nice and early. Looking at the other groups nevent list (ours isn't finalised yet) I think we will only attend a couple of tem anyway - too many are too far away, and the whole point of dual grouping is to not make long journeys!

The kids are `all being rather sweet still. I don't know how or why! At the moment Mstr A is glued to the computer, and the girls are running round and round in circles in the front room talking on their phones. Aggie asked why they had to run round in circles to talk on th phone. "becasue we want to talk fast"

Obviously dad! :-)

Radiator Pants

That light at the end of the tunnel is definitely getting brighter:-)

For the first time in ages, we made it through to the end of the month without hitting our overdraft limit. Obviously being in the black would be better, but not taking out more than we put in is a good start:-) Admittedly this was helped by Aggie getting the back pay he was owed, and my mum coughing up for all my travel to London (she even sent me a cheque to cover the extra train fare which was nice), but still, finances are `starting to seem manageable again at last.

This weekend we're off to try out our new re-enactment group. It's one we've had connections with for some years, but never joined for various reasons. Some of thise reasons do not exist any more and others are less important, and we're hoping to dual group next season so that we can still do plenty of events, but only local(ish) ones as the travelling is getting too much. Plus it gives us the chance to learn plenty of new stuff, and for the kids to make some new friends as there are more children in this group. Hopefully it will go well this weekend.

We've even had a couple of nights out - I went off to see Spamalot with sister S while in London for her birthday. It was very entertaining. I did not think much of the London Saturday night crowds though. I'm sure it's got worse in the past decade or so. I felt very provincial, which was strange. I know that i haven't lived in London for the whole of my adult life, and that I don't like it much, but it was strange to feel provincial in a city that I grew up in.

Then last night me and Aggie went off to see Russell Howard. Best known from Mock the Week, but he was far better than I expected. Not only laugh out loud hilarious, but spouting off some fairly fantastic political hits too. If you get the chance, go see him. If not, check him out on YouTube - but you'll have to wait until his 2007 tour is shown to find out why my life is feeling like radiator pants again at last.

Bloody tubes!

Bloody idiot tube management!

I took the coach into London yesterday. It dropped me off at Marble Arch, so then i travelled right across the central line to meet up with my brother. Later yesterday evening I took the overground in to Liverpool street and the tube right into the west end, then back out again at the end of the evening. That covered a fair bit of london throughout a fair bit of Saturday.

I am a competent tube travellor. i know my way around all the major stations without worry. I do not have to concentrate or search where I am going. I have time to look around me at the people and places and pretty murals.

I was travelling either with my mother or my sister. Both Londoners who use the tubes pretty regularly.

NONE OF US SAW ANY SIGNS suggesting that there was any planned works this weekend.

So when it was time to return to Marble Arch to catch the coach back home again today, I confidently left a full hour to do a 20 minute journey. My mother dropped me off at the station, and even waited while I looked in to see if there were any problems. Nothing. No signs, no tannay announcments. Nothing. I waved goodbye and she drove off as i walked over the footbridge, and paid to go onto the correct platform.

THERE, after I had paid, there was a notice board up telling me that half the central line was not running today due to planned engineering works!

It was too late to go to another station and take a different line. I was stuck with going a couple fo stops then taking the train replacement bus to Stratford. Time was ticking by - I had to wait for the train from the first station, wait for the bus, wait in the traffic.... I thought there might have been a bus from Stratford to Marcle Arch, but apparently not, so I had to wait for the next train to Liverpool Street. It was looking unlikely that i would make it to the coach on time.

I got to Liverpool street and there they had put up a sign telling us that half the whole bloody network was cancelled for planned engineering works! I couldn't get anywhere without at least another few changes. I had no hope of making it anywhere near Marble Arch in time to catch my bus.

I thought about gouing as far west as possible and hitching home, but it was already getting dark and Aggie was not happy with that idea at all, so in the end I trundled around pretty much every bit of London transport that was still working to get to Paddington and caught a train home. It cost £50.

£50 on top of the £30 I had already paid for the coach that i couldn't get to because they couldn't be bothered to put signs up about PLANNED works the day before.

I am VERY VERY VERY pissed of now.

As luck would have it...

Yesterday it seemed our luck had turned. everything started to come together.

I've spent the past week at work downstairs with the rest of the admin staff covering while the main typist is sunning herself on holiday. It's worked out OK - they have seen that I'm not hiding away upsatirs drinking coffee and chatting, but actually work pretty hard;-) I have helped a couple of them with some stuff, and got a better understanding of the problems/issues in the company. All in all, I'm feeling pretty happy there at the moment, which is nice. I'm starting to really get an understanding of the cases - it's much easier when I've been there from start through to finish! And to be trusted to do a fair bit of stuff myself, which makes me feel happier.



Aggie received his letter from work saying he is permently disabled from his profession. this may not sound great, but it solves a lot of problems. not least the stress of worrying about him as really he is not able to work full time/regularly. Although it also reduces the time pressure on me as he can cover the occasional school pick up and some holidays. By being disabled out rather than sacked, we get a small pension paid, which means that, added to my salary, we may be able to afford to live. Not well, but live:-) The lump sum will (I think) cover all of our debts other than the mortgage, so our outgoings will reduce and finances will become manageable.



Of course, none of that will actually happen until they do all the paperwork - currently we're looking at the end of November. But it is all agreed and sorted and we can plan our future again.



Also I looked at our small critical illness insurance policy. I read it, and read it then read it again. then I read through all the exclusion clauses, and compared their term to Aggie's letter of medical retirement. i reckon they will have to pay out! I can't see any way out of it. I'm sure they'll try, but I think we may be able to pay of a good £40% of our mortgage! If that works out, we may even have a small disposable income each month! WOW - I can't remember what disposable income is!



Oh yes. I got a distinction in my first essay for college:-) Although, it's easy when you have the book in front of you. I'm a bit more concerned about when I have to do the essays under exam conditions.



And I think i might have won one of these:

It's a G-Wiz electric car.

I'm not getting too excited until I actually see it. But, I entered an internet competition a few months ago - one of these things where you answer some consumer questions and get entered into a prize draw for your time. And they have phoned and emailed me to say i've won. I can't find anything on the email that says it is a model car, or that i have to pay anything, or that the prize requires me to do anything. So Maybe........

I've asked for it to be delivered to my mother's as it's really only any good in London. Then with luck, it will sell easily and buy me a holiday or something. Maybe a motorbike:-)

Whaddyaknow?!

It's official

Aggie is a drain on society, a layabout, part of the non-working classes and absolutely, without doubt, a cripple.

Yep, he's finally been retired from work on health grounds. Yipee, now I can get back to my favourite passtime of planning for an improbable future:-0 It's certainly better than worrying about an actual present;-)

Of course, although it means that it's all official now, and he won't have to go back to work, it's not all finalised yet with dates and amounts etc, so no money has materialised yet! Not even the back pay for the last three months which he is owed (they stopped paying him anything when he hit 6 months sick, but they were supposed to pay him pension rate as he was going through the pension process....) But it will come. One day.

The lump sum should pay off all our debts (other than mortgage), and then we just have to re-learn how to live within our means. As no-one will be stupid enough to lend us any more money, that shouldn't be too hard:-) My salary will slowly increase - eventually. The light at the end of the tunnel is finally appearing.

Aggie is hoping to go off to uni next year - which gives him a full year to get himself and the house sorted out. he has to do it in slow time nowadays, but stuff still needs doing, so hopefully he'll have the time to do it!

It also means I will stay in my local job for a while yet - which is the easier option:-)

Here's to the future!

It's all new

Everything is changing at the Aginoth household.

Mstr A is a junior, and seems to have settled in as well as can be expected to hus new class. His teacher is still a bit confused about how one makes him sit still for more than 10 seconds (i can't help - I've asked that if she finds the answer she pass it on to me!), but he is enjoying the harder work and seems happy with his new class mates.

He starts school swimming lessons tomorrow. I feel terribly bad that at age 7, he can barely struggle accross a width (10 metres). I am, after all, a qualified swimming teacher and adore the water myself. But, he is a natural sinker, was terrified of water as a toddler and still dislikes having his face covered (with anything, including water). Plus, I do not have the time to take him regualrly - they won't let me in with all three kids, they won't let Aggie in at all much of the time, and I can't afford the creche (and even when I have done, they won't keep crying babies (what kind of creche is that?!), so struggling across the width front and back is not that awful:-) But 12 lessons from now until Xmas will do him the world of good! At 8 years old he is allowed to go swimming on his own (regardless of ability - how stupid is THAT rule?), and I had promised myself that I would get him safe to do so by then, so this will help him get there.

LMB started school today. She went for three hours this morning. She happily went running in, and wasn't remotely interested when we left, so it seems to have gone pretty well. She could tell me who and what she played with, what her teacher was called, and what she ate, which is more information than I got out of Mstr A in the whole of his first year! Aggie said she was exhausted this afternoon though:-) Although some of that may be from the playing with another little girl at the re-enactment at the weekend - from dawn to dusk, non-stop running, chatting and dancing:-)

Clever Aggie found a fund that will pay for a new boiler for us cos he's a poor cripple;-) So that was fitted today (well, half of it - it will be finished tomorrow). As well as being quite a bit smaller than our previous boiler, this one has the bonus of a) working all the time (the old one tended to break down every couple of weeks during the winter) and b) being much more economical to run and enviromentally friendly, which will save us a bit of money each year. Yay Aggie.

I've had a letter back from both the holiday company and the insurance company saying they have recieved my complaint and are looking into it. Hopefully one will refund us some cash, and the other will redecorate LMB's room:-) well, they will eventually anyway! Which will be good, because Aggie is currently not working and not being paid anything either. Even civil servants run out of sick pay eventually! My £800 per month will not keep a family of 5 going for long:-( Although at least the nursery fees have halved from £205 per week to £135 per week now LMB is at school. (they put the prices up on 1st sept - Bast***s!), which will help. A bit. Not much really, as that is mostly covered by child tax credit, but not totally, so a bit. Whenever I get really pissed off with the gov't, I have to admit that child tax credit was a great concept. Although sometimes I wonder why I put myself through the stress of going to work for a net income of 0. Then again, when I was a SAHM, I wondered why I bothered not going to work and doing stuff with my kids for all the hassle it gained me! i guess the grass is always greener, and I am never satisfied.....

Which is nothing new:-)

feeling better

It's always good to have an argument debate - and you can always guarantee a good response by slagging of that old queen of tarts hearts, lady Diana Spencer, (she wasn't Princess Di, they took that title away from her, along with the right to be called "your highness" when she was divorced - I've always wondered how pissy Charlie got when he heard she'd managed to get herself killed, just after he'd put all that effort into being allowed the divorce, and then painstakingly PR'd himself out of being a shit and her into being a wacko.....He could've just waited a few years and been rid of her easily whilst gaining public sympathy!), and I've managed to get the most comments for ages on my joke post about festivals. feel free to wander down there and villify me for my callousness and heartlessness because I JUST DON'T CARE that she's dead. Still, I didn't much care that she was alive either.

Now the Queen mum - that was a much sadder day. the day she died I was travelling across London to go and identify my baby brother's body. He was 25. He worked for the council and was involved in many large projects that have made 10'000's of peoples lives that little bit better. I can't think of many more revolting ways to "celebrate" the 5th anniversary of his death this year than to invite a bunch of people who did not know him to a party!

Anyway, things are starting to get back on a bot more of an even keel for me now. Nothings really changed, but I'm feeling more like interacting with the world again. Nanny A is back from her holiday, and out of hospital! She ended up there with a serious chest infection just a day after arriving home! We went to see her at hospital at the weekend, and have just got back from checking in on her at home this evening. She's looking much better - there is still a way to go, obviously, but she's on the mend. I've finally started sorting out all my out sports stuff. I'm offering it to Mstr A's school first - if they don't want it I might ebay the lot:-) I've finally booked in for next years college course.

Work is picking up again. Both types - employed work because the system is changing (again) which means it looks like I'm going to get a lot more responsibility a lot quicker that I thought. Which is good, cos I'm not good a keeping my head down and shutting up. I try, but then things happen, and I have an opinion...... Self employed work because I'm an idiot who apparently can not count to three any more - I still have over a year left on my current tutoring qualification, so have been catching up with a few courses and making a bit of money ready for our holiday in August.

Mstr A got invited to a birthday party. That's two this year!

LMB adored "big" school and wants to go again every day:-)

LMD has finally grown her legs a bit and is now out of her 12-18 mth clothes, and into the prettier older stuff - although she is 2 1/2 going on 16 at the moment in attitude!

Generally, things feel like they are moving again. I'm not sure where, but moving is good:-)

Woo-Hoo!

We got our money out of the bank! (if you don't know what I'm talking about, see Aggies blog here and here). They agreed to settle for £30 less than we claimed - the £30 court fees we'd paid to show that we really were serious about going all the way:-) that's the mortgage sorted for the next couple of months:-) Plus one over on the banks. Woo hoo! Of course, it was coupled with a very stern letter saying it wasn't their fault, they weren't a ccepting liability or admitting fault, and that if we ever deign to even sneeze in the bank's direction again the will close our account. but that's OK, we've been wanting to close our account for years - ever since they were taken over by RBS and became shit. It's just that we were alays too overdrawn for anyone else to take us on. Now we've got an extra couple of grand in the bank, our overdraft is low enough to move. we're changing banks next month anyway.

Mstr A started swimming lessons again on tuesday evening. it's a bit of a rush for me, but he managed to almost participate in the whole lesson. Also, when I spoke to his teacher (10 secs before the lesson started - even though I wrote to the pool weeks ago) about him having aspegers, she said her day job was working with autistic children, so at least she knew what I was talking about, and did a good job of keeping him with the rest of the group.

I have decided not to attend the interview for the PGCE course tomorrow. despite having put in the effort to write up my notes of Dracula:-) Bath is really a bit far, and I like what I'm doing. If this had come up two years ago it would have been different, but I'm going to stick with law for now.

And on a totallydifferent note: I see that Cadbury's schwepps are going to split into Cadbury's and schwepps. Umm, wasn't that what they were originally?

And how come the gov't regularly complains at how much the olympics is going to cost us, and is appalled that the bill for new roads, public transport, houses, facilities, total regeneration of some really revolting slums, and unimaginable PR across the world is nearing the £10 billion mark, but the same gov't is telling us that we desperately ned to spend TWICE that much on a couple of new Trident nuclear weapons, which will be aimed out into the middle of the ocean for the next twenty years?

That's nice

When I went to collect LMB today, she jumped up to cuddle me, then immediately spun arund to cries of "kiss me bye bye LMB" as all the children in her class came over for a kiss and a hug before she left:-) One came back for seconds:-0 Then we trotted off downstairs to collect LMD, and had to wait while she waved and said goodbye to each individual child in her class too. I don't think they have any problems socialising:-)

At home I found a letter from the tax credit people telling they will be coughing up the vast majority of the £1200 I spend each month on child care (which is good, considering I only take home £600) which was nice.

I also had a letter from Bath Spa Uni inviting me to interview for the PGCE course starting in September.

Which was kind of nice. Although it means my 1st choice uni still turned me down *frown* Bath Spa isn't that close - but it's not too far either. probably an hours drive or 1 1/2 by public transport. So now I have to decide again. Law or teaching? Law has the bonus that I've already got the job & started the course, and it's working out well. But the comapany I am currently with pays shite to it's legal exec's. I would almost certainly have to move on once qualified:-( And I'm still not sure how good I'll be at the job. Teaching has the bonus that I am reasonably sure I will be good at it & enjoy it. it's more like the best bits of what I have done before. And I'd get all the school holidays off:-) But I'd be a full time student for a year on an even more pitiful income than I have now, but with worse hours, and it'll be another 18 months before I even start my career (again)

Dilemma time.

Is this a case of the grass always being greener?

I think i will attend the interview (but not tell my employers). I may not even get the place! If I do, much will depend on what has happened with Aggie, and what financial support I can get I think.

I have to think up a book that i would teach to 14 year olds for the interview. Any ideas?