I Am Not Dead

No not dead, merely very slow in updating the old blog these days. Thought it was about time I caught up, so here goes:

Boo went to the vet. She looked at his teeth and remarked that the bottom-right tooth needed cutting. We explained that we'd only cut it a few days before and it was too long once again. She suggested that seeing as it was growing so damn fast that it would be best to operate and remove it. At the same time she would be able to deal with the vast abcess on his cheek. I drove us home, except that the car refused to start at first; acting as though it had a flat battery. Second time it started fine. Very odd. We took him in the next morning for the operation. That night when I spoke to them they said that he wasn't fit to be picked up yet, he'd need to stay in for the night and be kept under observation.

The next morning we picked him up and he was in a sorry state. He was sitting with his nose facing into the corner of his cage and his mouth looked very sore where they'd removed the abcess. We were given antibiotics and instructions on what to feed him, then we arranged to take him back for his checkup a few days later. He looked a lot perkier when we put him back in his carry case, clearly recognising the scent. The same thing happened when he got back to his cage, he knew he was home.

At some point during all this we went to see Rammstein play in Cardiff. They were absolutely incredible. Very loud, very angry, lots of fire. Having seen Rammstein play I now have a desire to build a face-mounted flame thrower... The car was difficult to start again. Something was clearly wrong. A few attempts and it eventually coughed into life. Then we just had to navigate the ridiculous road signs in and around Cardiff.

I took Boo for his check-up visit to the vets. I ended up walking as the car point-blank refused to start that day. I explained that we were very worried about him as he seemed so devoid of life. The vet had a look at where the abcess had been removed and remarked that it was infected, and his digestive system clearly wasn't working right as the baby food we had been instructed to feed him was coming out the same way it went in. She gave him a 50/50 chance of survival. On the way back home I nearly punched some old bloke who said "Tomorrow's lunch!" was I walked past carrying a clearly not-well Boo.

We followed all the additional instructions we'd been given (making absolutely sure he was swallowing his medication, adding a probiotic to his water, bathing the wound, etc) and took him back for his next check-up a few days later. The vet gave him the all-clear and all was well again, despite the fact that he was still not full of life.

Around this time I took on some temporary typing work for a mortgage debt collection agency. That was incredibly dull, incredibly depressing work, but it paid (relatively) well. While I was there I got a phone call from an agency saying I had been offered an interview with Fujitsu. Excellent. The next day I had a phone interview during my lunch hour for a programming/consultancy role near Ascot. They liked the sound of me and so invited me to an interview too. I had that interview first.

In order to do the interviews though, I had to have a working car. With a little help from some local kids we push-started the car and I took it to a garage. They tested everything and the only thing at fault was the battery. One new battery later and I was back on the road.

The first interview was last Wednesday, for the programming/consultancy role. It lasted a rather long time but then I was told that I'd be required to come back for a second interview... D'oh! Ah well. The next day was the Fujitsu interview for which I had to drive to Warrington near Manchester. 3 and a half hours driving to sit in a waiting room for half an hour, then spend 10 minutes filling out some paperwork, followed by a 20 minute interview before being pushed back out of the door. Then another 3 and a half hours on the road.

When I got home there was a letter from Endsleigh about my car insurance. It was dated August the 1st and said "we've not been able to reinstate your direct debit," (it'd bounced too many times so the bank had cancelled it for me) "therefore you need to contact us by the 26th of July or we'll cancel your car insurance." Now, on the 26th of July I had contacted them and paid the amount I owed via credit card. I rang them the next day and found out that they'd cancelled my insurance on the 2nd of August. It was, by then, the 5th of August! I'd been driving around for 2 days without any insurance! Worse still, I had to get to Nottingham that night as we were going to go and visit my parents.

Basically, Endsleigh will only allow payments to be made to the insurance as long as they are by direct debit. They will take a one off payment by credit card, but must then reinstate the direct debit, otherwise they cancel your insurance. Nice of them to explain this to me when I rang them. So when the bank had refused to allow them to reinstate the direct debit, they cancelled my insurance - despite the fact that I was up to date with all of my payments. What a load of bastards.

So, I then frantically searched around for some more insurance and found that Norwhich Union could insure me for about half as much as Endsleigh were charging me anyway. I now pay £30 a month more, but it's only for 4 months. Splendid.

That same day I got a call back from the agency representing Fujitsu to tell me that they'd like to offer me the job. Splendid.

We drove to my parents where we had what seemed like a very long weekend. My parents have bought a scooter for my sister to get to college on and they took it up to an abandoned airfield for her to have a go on it before she goes off to do her C.B.T. etc, so they let me have a go too. Excellent fun, never thought they had so much acceleration. You get a real feeling of speed on them too. I was hairing down the little road on the airfield thinking to myself "I must be doing about 60," then glanced down at the speedometer to see it was just coming up to 30. "...oh."

We left after lunch on Sunday. I borrowed my mum's unused bike carrier to bring my bike back to Newbury. It's great to have it back, I've missed riding. I went to the wildlife sanctuary in Thatcham on it to throw some mouldy bread at the ducks. I'm so out of shape it's not even funny, I nearly had a heart attack en-route. Plus the bike needs a little work doing to it, the pedal cranks move from side to side and sometimes the gears stick. I've had to buy a D-Lock and a cable-lock and chain it to the railings opposite the flat as we have nowhere else to keep it. I doubt it'll get nicked: it was cheap when I bought it and that was 6 years ago.

Earlier I called the agency and accepted the job offer. I didn't get the £20-21k I had been hoping for: I got £23k.

Now my services are required in cleaning the flat. Duty calls...