Ageing (dis)gracefully!
Archive for August, 2008
ARRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
Aug 29th
* Bad language alert! *
I just spent an hour and a f*cking half in the car ….and did just 9 miles!
I went to fill my car up with fuel and to get some Lucozade to perk myself up a bit (shattered after coming off nights). Got to Morrisons and the road going in was jammed, so I gave up there and went onto the BP garage further down the road ….. However, Diesel was 4p per litre more there (fuck that!) …so I didn’t bother going in. I carried on and went to swing around a roundabout at the end of that road so I could go back the way I came, but it was gridlocked! I went round it 3 times trying to squeeze in but it was jammed and the offending people wouldn’t acknowledge me!!!!!!!!!!
Short of getting out of the car and getting myself into a bit of a road rage moment, I had no choice but to go to the Motorway junction – the idea being i could zip up to the next junction and come into town from the other end (Bwater has a junction either end for some reason). Anyway .. I pulled onto the slip road for the mway ..and guess what? …. fucking gridlock …..
1 HOUR later i make the 5 or or so miles to the next junction ..then it takes me another 15 mins to get back into town cos of the traffic … With this, I decided to sod the Fuel and the Lucozade and headed home……
Nice waste of my time eh?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* It really does feel better to rant about it! 
*
Week Off
Aug 24th
I am nearing the end of a week off work. Lucy has been off aswell (well she’s off for 6 weeks actually!!! ..perks of being a teacher eh?!) so we have made the most of this week and have barely stopped.
- Monday: I was working on the Sunday night so was pretty knackered on the Monday, meaning we did very little.
- Tuesday: Was supposed to goto a place in Wales with my Dad & family, but that got cancelled as the weather was shite.
- Wednesday: Took my niece and nephew (Jack & Lily) to Cricket St Thomas for the day.
- Thursday: We went to visit my mum (she lives near Bristol) and took my sister Gemma aswell as Jack & Lily again.
- Friday: Went to Lyme Regis in Dorset for part of the day and Sidmouth in Devon for the rest of it. Lucys Grandad lives in Sidmouth, so did some visiting aswell
- Saturday: Went to Faringdon near Oxford to see Lucys brothers new place. Didn’t end up getting home till 9:30pm, and got nicely lagered up whilst there when we went out for food! (Lucy drove back).
- Sunday: Lazy day – new grand prix in Valencia (which was dull) followed by Lucys folks coming round for dinner.
And thats the week!
Am back in work tomorrow night …… time really does fly!
Sweet Caramel & Cookie Dough
Aug 13th
We decorated the hallway, landing and downstairs bathroom a few weeks ago, but didn;t change a great deal. The hallway/landing remains magnolia and the downstairs bathroom is now a shade of apricot. Today we made a rather large change and painted the living room in 2 tones … ‘Sweet Caramel’ & ‘Cookie Dough’ …. certainly better than magnolia! looks awesome!
Next step, the dining room ..then the kitchen ..then the bathrooms …then the bedroom …then the spare rooms …then finally we can rest …maybe.
Brand New Customers Only!
Aug 2nd
Had a nightmare trying to renew my car insurance earlier!
I had a renewal quote through from Marks & Spencers for pretty much the same i paid last year, £370. I went onto confused.com and did a search to see if i could get it any cheaper with anyone else, and lo and behold, M&S popped up in 2nd place with a quote for £310. Lucy then reminded me to change my marital status and her name, and shockingly that reduced the price to £240! So on the phone i gets to M&S to take out the policy. This is where the plain sailingness ends.
Problem 1: I am still an exisiting customer so can only renew at the best rate they can offer me, which is £303. I am not eligible to for the web price as its for ‘new customers only’. To take advantage of this I am advised to cancel my insurance with them and and take out a new policy once my current one has expired.
errrmmm …no …f*ck right off M&S, you aint even my cheapest quote, I am YOUR customer, if you don’t want to make it easy for me you can say goodbye to my renewal.
After being transferred to virtually every single department and every single person in their call centre, I more or less said the above and decided to go for the cheapest quote which happens to be with a company called AIG Direct. So i phoned them, went through the policy details, they gave me the price that confused.com quoted, all done and dusted within 10 minutes.
Now the funny thing is, M&S and AIG seem to be brokers for other insurance companies. My insurance with M&S was via a company called Fortis. My renewal through M&S was with Fortis …and guess what? my new poilicy through AIG is with, yep thats right, Fortis!!!!
So for the sake of using my noggin, shopping around and not laying down and let M&S rob my blind, I have gotten fully comprehensive insurance for the grand sum of £222! Thats a saving of £150 on what M&S first offered me! Result methinks!
