Easter-rific
Posted: Fri 30 March, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, House Purchase Leave a comment »Yes, at long last the house purchase is close to completion. We exchanged yesterday, did all the money transfers, and it looks like we’re going to be completing next Wednesday.
Of course, what this does mean is that it looks like we’re going to be pretty busy over the Easter weekend, getting the first bits of work done before moving in. Should be fun.
Personally, I’m just glad that it’s all finally happened, and that we can stop having to deal with wankhand slowcoach solicitors.
Weight Loss
Posted: Sun 18 March, 2007 Filed under: Depression, Domestic, Health, House Purchase 3 Comments »When I had my medical a couple of weeks back, (which reminds me, I really must write about what fuckwit scumbags Friends Provident areHell, and most people who read D4D™ on any kind of regular basis) know, I’m never going to qualify as a lightweight. Or even a middleweight. Unless I opt for at least a double-amputation, I will always be large, and heavy. It’s unavoidable.
Back at the start of ’06, I did lose a fair amount of weight, admittedly – about three or four stone. I felt a lot better for it, and I managed to keep most of it off. But when the doctor weighed me, I was 21 stone. (That’s about 133kg, for the metric among you) Nowhere near what I used to be (roughly 24 stone) but heavier than I’d expected to be, if I’m honest.
So when all’s said and done, yes, I know I should lose some of that, and at some point I probably will. But right now, I’m just at a point where I can’t be chuffed to do it. Some of it is down to the entirely crap experiences with Holmes Place at the arse-end of last year, which has left me with a pretty negative perspective on the entire fitness, gym, and health-club thing.
Some of it is down to the way everything else in life is going at the moment as well. In short, it’s chaotic – there’s the move, the house-purchase, the wondering what to do next when it comes to work (of which more later in the week) and more importantly the where of that work, and it all just puts the gym and weight-loss things into perspective at the ‘lalalalalala-can’t hear you’ end of the spectrum.
But really, when all’s said and done, and if I’m being completely honest, at the moment I just can’t be bothered with it. I’ve no heavy motivation to lose the weight, and I’m having trouble finding any motivations. Again, if I’m honest, I’m not actually looking all that hard, either.
Even the life insurance and so on that caused me to hae the medical in the first place isn’t a sufficient motivator – at the end of the day, when they decide my premium should go up because I’m a fat bastard, that’s what the premium will be. They won’t change it in a couple of years time, if I’ve lost the weight. Even if I baffled medical science and dropped down to my so-called ideal weight of 13.5 stone, the premium wouldn’t change. I’d still be paying fat-bastard-rate, regardless. Hardly a motivator, is it?
Contracts
Posted: Thu 15 March, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, House Purchase Leave a comment »Hallelujah.
After eight weeks of chuffing about, we’ve finally got the contracts through for the house purchase.
They’ll get signed and sent back this week, so we’ll hopefully be exchanging before the end of the month. Yay!
It’s still a bit of a scary step, but at the same time I can’t deny, I’ll just be happy when it’s all over and done with.
Organising That Health-check
Posted: Sat 24 February, 2007 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Health, House Purchase 1 Comment »So yes, the healthcheck that finally happened on Friday was an utter nightmare to organise.
It started off with being told that I needed to sort one out, and that the insurance company had engaged a third party who would contact me to organise an appointment at my convenience.
Yeah, right. What actually happened was that the company called me up and said “We’ve made an appointment for one of our nurses to come and see you at home on Tuesday at 4pm”. Which is hardly at my convenience. So I called them back and told them so.
Them : “But why don’t you want an appointment at home on Tuesday at 4pm? We’ve made all the arrangements”
Me : “Because I’m not going to be at home at that time. I’ll be at work. If your company is willing to pay me to take half a day off work to come and see you, I might consider it”
Them : “No, we can’t do that. But we don’t understand what the problem is with this appointment, it’s at your home at 4pm”
Me : “Amazing as this may seem to you, I work. Maybe I’m the only person you’ve ever dealt with who works, but there we go. So 4pm on a weekday is not convenient. I’m home for about 7pm, if that helps”
Them : “Oh no, our nurses only work 9-5”.
At which point I ended up going back to the insurers and telling them they could stuff their business. The people they engaged would have problems discerning between an arse and an elbow, and there was no way I was using them. So they promised to organise something else, a proper medical at a proper doctor’s surgery. However, it would still be organised through a third party.
And then I got another call about a week later, from the first third party, still trying to make a ‘convenient’ appointment for me on a workday at 4pm, and which for an appointment ‘at my convenience’ was strangely immovable. This time they got told to sod off.
When the second third party finally called, the first thing they said was “So, you need an appointment in Norfolk?”. At which I think I growled. The woman at the other end certainly seemed surprised. I re-explained the situation (actually, that’s probably more like re-re-re-re-explained, but there we go), and they finally discovered a surgery that was close to the workplace. Halle-bloody-lujah.
But all told it’s still taken four weeks to organise a poxy medical. But if my blood-pressure is too high (I doubt it will be, but still) I’m going to blame it all on the poxy fucking insurance company and their medical third parties. So there.
Health Check
Posted: Fri 23 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Health, House Purchase, Sweary Leave a comment »One of the real pains (and one I haven’t yet written about on D4D™ – believe me, it’s coming) with our house-buying process at the moment has been that as part of the entire mortgage malarkey, we’ve both been advised to get some proper life-insurance, that’d cover the whole amount of the mortgage should one of us suddenly develop a ‘critical’ illness or drop dead. Of course, that also means having to deal with another load of financial scumbags – insurers.
Back in Jan 2005, I got one lot of cheap-ass life insurance on Herself’s insistence (in fairness, she got some too) which became not-such-cheap-ass insurance when the insurance scumbag underwriters at Norwich Poxybollocks Union decided I was overweight, and whacked an extra amount on my premium. Not a lot, to be honest, but still rather more than the initial quotation had been. Bastards.
Since then, I’ve lost a fair amount of weight, although (as I’ve commented many times) I’m still never going to be 12-15stone without going through at least one limb amputation. That’s a fact of life. I’m not unfit – OK, I’m not fit either, but there we go – and… oh, chuff it, you all know the score by now.
Anyway, with the mortgage application and insurance guff, the scumbag insurance underwriters have – again – thrown a wobbly. And they’ve insisted that this time I don’t just pay extra, I have to have a ‘health check’ too before they might deign to take my money.
So while you’re reading this, I’m in a random doctor’s surgery, having a basic medical and healthcheck for scumbag dirtwad insurers . Whoopee Doo.