Progressing well

Well, the good news is that the Loss Adjuster came today and has approved our claim with no problems. They are going to be replacing items rather than sending me a cheque, which is good because it saves me all the hassle of trying to find the best deal and shopping around and all that. They also said that you can normally upgrade on items with a good discount, so now I'm going to have to try and stop myself spending loads on upgrades I don't need!

As the window is still not fixed properly (although it is secured shut - the insurance guy said it's probably more secure now than normal!) they're going to get their own contractors onto the case as well in an effort to hunt down the part. If they fail, they'll just replace the window. Fair enough.

All in all I can't complain about the way it's been handled. They've been very professional and very quick. I reported it on Friday evening, and on Monday I spoke to them again. I got immediate permission to replace the Ipod for Jess and they said the Loss Adjusters would call within 36 hours. They called within 4 hours and managed to make a next-morning appointment for someone to come. He came on time, was nice, sorted it all efficiently out with no nonsense or fuss, approved the whole thing and is even going to get the cheque for the cash made out to Jess, which is nice and I think she'll appreciate that, as then she's getting "her" money back.

So, so far Axa have been good and get a thumbs up. It's a big relief knowing everything has been covered, as you sometimes hear of insurance companies doing everything they can to wriggle out of paying. They did try to charge £150 excess instead of the £100 on my policy documents, but I'll put that down as an administrative error for now.

Burgled :(

I don't think I've ever been this angry.

On Friday, Jess came home from school to discover the house in a state. She called Ele in a panic, and Ele told her to leave the house immediately and get on a bus to her office. Ele then called me at work and I rushed home.

When I got home, sure enough, we'd been burgled. The kitchen window had been forced open and all sorts of stuff had been taken. Our PS3, Wii, PSP, DS, Laptop, Video Camera (with the dvd of Joe's 2nd birthday in it), Jessica's savings (about £200), Ele's engagement and wedding rings (which is the most upsetting of the things), Jess's Ipod for Xmas and so on...

I called the police and they came round fairly quickly. A crime-scene investigation officer went round and dusted for fingerprints but didn't come up with anything. The plain-clothes Sergeant knocked on our neighbours doors but they were all out at that time (and annoyingly usually they are in) so didn't see anything.

I had to call out a glazier to look at the window, and the whole locking mechanism was broken and he couldn't get one over the weekend, so the window is kind of secured and tied into place with wood and string and stuff until he can get the part.

Jess was very scared by it all and wouldn't come back for 2 days. Ele still doesn't want to stay in the house by herself.

So now it's in the hands of the insurers. Due to the amount of the claim (a rough estimate is £4000-£4500 of stuff gone) they have had to appoint a firm of loss adjusters to deal with it. They have given me permission to replace Jess's Ipod immediately though as it was a Xmas present.

On top of all that, Joe has been really ill and we even had to take him to A&E on Thursday night as he wasn't breathing properly. He's running a really high temperature (up to 41C at one point) and is very poorly. And I've been sick as well which hasn't helped matters.

So this has put a dampner on Xmas for us all. At least it looks like Jess's Ipod was the only Xmas present taken and there was no actual damage to the house or our other things, other than mud traipsed all over the floors.

Friends and family have been incredibly supportive. My mum lent me some cash to pay for the glaziers as we're a bit low on cash after buying Xmas presents, and our neighbour came round with some mince pies she had baked and a Christmas card for Jess with £10 in it to start her savings again which was really thoughtful of her.

Sorry

My bank appears to be annoying me.

Over the past few months, within about 3 microseconds of the Bank of England announcing a rise in interest rates, my bank has also announced it shall be following suit and raising my mortgage accordingly.

So, when the interest rates were cut last week, I expected a similarly swift reduction in my rate. But apparently, this hasn't happened. At least not yet. In celebration of the fact that today is Plain English Day, I shall ask this plain and simple question: Why the fuck not?

Sorry. They've cut the rate for savers already (within about 3 microseconds) but are obviously deciding to sit making a nice unexpected profit on the extra mortgage rates whilst they decide. And, of course, they could decide not to decrease their rate at all. In which case they are absolute and complete fucking bastards who all deserve to have their dogs killed and their houses covered in cow shit. Sorry.

There really should be some law against this. It means the cut in rates, lauded throughout the media, has absolutely zero effect on me, because the fucking bank wants to keep all the fucking money for itself. Sorry, again.

As you can see, this has slightly fucking irked me. Sorry.

Parking certainly not fine

Cost in Sutton to park for just over 4 hours on a Sunday? £1. And that's only just gone up from 50p. I think one car park is still 70p.

Cost in Croydon to park for just over 4 hours on a Sunday? £6.50. Six pounds fifty!

Guess where I'll be doing my Christmas shopping? Well, Bluewater for the bulk of it actually, but some bits will be done in Sutton.

The only reason we were in Croydon was to goto this "Christmas Market" being held at the Fairfield Halls, which was, in fact, rubbish. It had "events", such as some ugly women morris dancing, some old, ugly women bell ringing, and a magician for the kiddies who was, frankly, a bit rubbish. And ugly.

The stalls consisted of 1 selling wooden kids' toys, 2 selling handbags (at an eye-watering cost), a couple selling handmade Christmas cards, a few oddball stalls with various things from beauty products to mirrors, 1 selling scarves, and 50000000000 jewellery stalls.

Needless to say, this was not the most interesting day I've ever spent. And lunch was expensive, too. The kicker was when we went to drive out, and I discovered that one of the barriers was broken and I needn't have paid 6 pounds bloody fifty, but could have just driven straight out without paying.

But to prove I'm not about to say "bah, humbug" and all that, we went home and put the Christmas tree up, which of course involved emptying the entire loft to get to the decorations which were at the back, finding out half the lights didn't work, breaking several more lights, much swearing and shouting and eventually being pleased with the result.

So now the house looks all wonderful and festive. That is a Good Thing.