Monday, July 27, 2009

This week at theworlddrivesmecrackers.com...

Well, I have definitely picked up since last week! One of the problems is that my usual morning carers have a new team leader and, when either of them is off, she keeps sending in carers from another area instead of using people I know.

This is really stressful - partly because I have had a stream of total strangers turning up to shower me, but also because I keep having to tell them, step-by-step, what the routine is. Mornings are not my best time, and having to face a barrage of, 'Where does this live? What do I do now? Where do I find...' morning after morning has been awful. Anyway, that has now been sorted out, and from now on I get only carers I already know. (Let's face it, it's no fun for the carers either - they're coming in blind, not knowing what I want done, what the routine is or anything.)

The other problem is that the insurance company which pays my pension from work suspended my payments - they sent me a form to fill in, to confirm that I was still ill, and because I didn't send it back, they suspended my payments.

I didn't return it because I didn't receive it. I didn't receive it because they sent it to the house I left two years ago, despite having written to me on several occasions since at my current address. They sent it to the wrong address because - and I can still barely get my head round this - the rest of the company uses a central computer database of all clients, which has been updated, but the admin section, which sends out the forms in question, is still using....

...filing cabinets.

We're talking about a big national insurance company, one of which everyone recognises the name. And one of their departments still uses paper files. AND DOESN'T UPDATE THEM.

Well, I got my payments back, and a letter of apology. I am now trying to get them to pay the bank charges that accrued over the five days I was without my money. I'll let you know how it goes.

...filing cabinets..... shakes head

Monday, July 20, 2009

Back soon

The last couple of weeks have been very stressful for a variety of reasons, so I'm taking this week off from blogging. I'll be back next Monday, though!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Socks and the Single Girl

I'll say one thing for the hot weather - it really encourages me to go back to the socks that have been lying around, unloved and unfinished, in the UFO pile!

In January I received some glorious rainbow-coloured Regia Color, and immediately cast on the Broadripple Socks pattern, which is designed to make the most of variegated sock yarn. I enthusiastically knitted the first leg almost to the heel.... and then got distracted. For the last six months, they've looked like this:

Broadripple socks


When it became too hot to knit my lovely warm woollen shawls, I cast about for something light and manageable, that wouldn't end up as a pile of yarn in my lap, and found the socks again. Within a few days I had completed one sock, and then in two more days, having rediscovered the lovely and soothing monotony of knitting with very little shaping, I finished the second:

Broadripple socks - completed

I am beyond reason captivated by them :)

Having got the taste for socks, I then picked up the Paint It Black Socks which have also been languishing. I had actually finished one of these, and cast on the toe for the second, although this is the only photo I have so far:

Paint It Black

These are my first toe-up socks. I'm undecided at the moment about whether I'll do any more. The pattern (Ravelry link), 'Sock Stew' by my lovely friend Ari Ridpath, is excellent, but I can do top-down socks on auto-pilot, so I'm still in two minds. It would be good to have another pattern by heart, though. Hmm. I feel more socks coming on.....

Monday, July 06, 2009

What next?

I think Merlin has become a vegetarian.

OK, I know all cats go off their meat a little in hot weather, and goodness knows it has been hot.

I also know that cats often eat green stuff to aid digestion.

I have never, however, had a cat who would sit in front of me while I eat salad, drooling and attempting to steal lettuce from my plate. When he manages to get some, he runs off with it, growling, and eats it in a hurry so that he can get back for more. Meanwhile his cat food grows crusty in the kitchen.....

He's a weird cat. It's a good job we love him :)

Merlin says: "Be fair, Mum. I eat flies, too..."