My photo a day project, and other life stuff.
Just a small update on my ‘Bloody insurance‘ post yesterday. I have composed a letter to the complaints resolution department after I finally was able to access the relevant page on their website to find out if such a department existed. Now I just want to find my insurance policy numbers so my letter looks a little more professional. It is one and a half pages long so I’m interested to see what happens.
A little while ago I wondered if the BB4 housemates read or were allowed to read books they’d brought into the house. I posted to the BB4 forum and asked this question and only got one response saying they thought so but just hadn’t seen anyone reading this year. My question was answered for me on television last night during the BB4 nightly show when the narrator said something like, ‘Without books and tv in the house the housemates….’. Perhaps the Big Brother team read the forum and answer questions like this in the nightly show or whichever show is appropriate for the question asked. I know last year books were allowed in the house as I remember Chrissie reading books.
I had a 20 minute round and round conversation with my life insurer this morning. After I hung up I still didn’t really feel satisfied, so much so that I will be writing a letter of complaint. I’ve had life insurance for a few months so my son will be provided for if something happens to me and also work insurance incase I can’t work I don’t want to try and live on a pension as I have done that and don’t want to do it again. Anyway I got it setup so that the money is automatically debited from my bank account. Well that’s fine until it doesn’t happen because of services being down which of course is not the banks fault (note the dripping sarcasm). So after ringing my bank and finding this out I rang up the insurance company and we worked out that as it hadn’t gone through that month, next month (June) I’d be debited twice the amount to make up for the missed month and the next months money. Well this happened, but I also got debited the months amount as per normal so in effect for June I’ve paid double.
Well I rang up the insurance company yet again to explain this and they said that I wasn’t in credit. I said well please explain to me how come I’ve got all this money that’s been debited out of my account on the same day and they couldn’t to my satisfaction. Then they tried to tell me that an invoice is raised three weeks prior to the next debit which is 16 July and that I would have to ring back a couple of days after this to get a refund. EXCUSE ME!!! I was really pissed off at this stage – 15 minutes into the phone conversation and nearly told them to fuck off that I didn’t want to insure with them at all then, but I didn’t. So I said, well it’s more than three weeks until 16 July so how can an invoice have been raised already. After putting me on hold for the third time she came back and said that they would be sending me a cheque for the overpaid amount.
So, the motto of the story is to check your bank statements and persist, persist, persist if you are not satisfied with someone’s ‘Customer Service’. Even writing about it again is getting my heart rate going. God I hope I don’t have to try and make a claim with these guys. Even on their website the link to Complaints wasn’t working. I did, however, manage to find a snail mail address…
Inspired by Loobylu I’ve gone back to my knitting. I’ve been knitting a cardigan I started at least five years ago. The jumper I finished before that I started in 1991 and it took about 10 years so five years is pretty good. I thought while I’m watching tv I may as well do something so I’ve dug out the Cleckheaton Faux Fur and am finishing my cardigan. I’m doing the last sleeve then it’s a matter of doing the collar, the front bands where the buttons and buttonholes go and of course sewing it up. At least while doing the knitting I’m not nibbling on food so it’s gotta be a good thing.
Watching my fourth season of Australian Big Brother I’m interested in what the housemates do to pass the time away, given that they don’t always have set tasks. One thing I’ve noticed in comparing this year’s season to last year is that I have not seen anybody read a book. Are they allowed to bring books into the house this year or is it just that nobody is a reader? I would go absolutely insane in the house, or anywhere for that matter, if I could not read. I have things to read all over the place. On the kitchen table there’s the paper from last weekend or the weekly free paper and maybe some junk mail. I have at least one book on the go in my bedroom that I read before I go to sleep. My ex-boyfriend was not a reader and he could not understand why I liked to read so he used to deride me for reading and for my choice of books (mainly thrillers).
Back to do the BB housemates read? I’m going to post to the BB forum and see if anyone can tell me.
Have had a pretty quiet weekend for a long weekend. Saturday evening has been the only time that I caught up with friends. I had two friends around for dinner and made a roast beef with home-made gravy which I’ve never made before – the gravy that it. It tasted great but there wasn’t much of it. I think I could have watered it down a bit more. I even made a pavlova as I had some egg whites left over from my moussaka I made earlier. We all had far too much to drink; gin and tonic, red wine, some strong ale and chased with a Coopers Pale Ale and coffee and water. I felt pretty bad yesterday and as the weather was miserable it was easy to stay inside after venturing outside to get some hot chips and a video – Monsters Inc for myself and Jaycee Junior. It’s now his favourite video. Hopefully it won’t be too much of a wrench for him when we have to return it next Sunday.
After gladly putting Jaycee Junior to bed I settled in to watch Big Brother eviction show where Merlin got evicted which was pretty predictable. I think the ones that generally go are the ones that are shown the most during the week after they are nominated. Merlin was shown a lot because of his discussion about nominations and receiving two strikes. Of course he did his free the refugee protest as he was walking down the gangplank at the stadium towards Gretel and refused to speak to her. I think he’s a big hypocrite for doing this protest as if he felt that strongly about it he should have registered to vote when he could. Even his interview with 2UE this morning was pathetic when he was challenged about not being Australian – he just kept reiterating the fact that he is Australian because he’s lived here for some time and feels very strongly about this country. I don’t think he thought through the consequences of what he did last night and how it might go. Of course lots of people are going to ask him about his protest but apart from what he did last night what’s he going to do? I wonder if he will actually do the cause any good or just give people the fuel they want who are pro refugee detention.
During the first week of two of BB4 Australia I didn’t like Paul and Terri. Now they have both managed to survive some evictions I have newfound respect for them. I hope Paul stays in for a while as he doesn’t care about stirring the pot so he mustn’t be in it to win it, except on his terms. From what I have seen he appears to be a good judge of character and is trying to get people to be real.
Terri I think is coping very well with the lack of support and friendship she is receiving in the house and I don’t think she’s trying as hard to be liked as she did in the beginning. I thought last night when she talked to Bree about her hair colour and Bree just walked out of the room was very rude on Bree’s part. I should have stuck with my original opinion of Bree which I formed on the very first night of Big Brother when someone introduced themself to her and she just ignored them – a bit like she’s doing now to Terri. If I were Bree I would be worried that I might be evicted this week as Terri and Paul have both survived repeated nominations. Although my vote is for Merlin this week to be evicted. At the beginning of the season I thought he was a pleasant sort of guy but every since Aphrodite left my opinion has changed. He just seems to bitch about other housemates and if this show were Survivor he would be trying very hard to make alliances. I also think the voting Australian public will want to consciously or sub-consciously vote out a boy to even out the numbers a bit.
I hope that Wes and Kane don’t make it to the last 3 housemates just because they are slipping under the radar – that’s not the game as far as I can see. If I were a housemate I’d nominate both of them and make up some lame excuse about strategy like Dan did last year. Not that anyone else would probably nominate them though.
