Everyone loves a good rant

Enjoy, someone should get to smile out of these bloody situations.

Ref: xxxxxxx
Council tax due for XX the lodge doobeedoo road.

Dear Whoever,
I was happy to finally receive today written confirmation of the amount owed on the above property, however I was not so happy to discover that part of this balance appears to be 'court costs' for £60.00.
I would appreciate it very much if you could explain this charge by calling me IMMEDIATELY upon receipt of this email. My mobile phone number is 07779 xxxxxx.
I have absolutely no issue with paying the council tax that is due, I was simply awaiting confirmation of how much it was before I could pay it. I hardly see why I should have to pay £60 of mysterious court costs when you, the council, have been so slow in responding to me.

After vacating the above property, I phoned the council several times to ascertain what, if any, tax was still owed and never managed to speak to a real live human being so I left several voice messages asking to be called back. This never happened and so I sent an email (attached at the bottom of this email) dated the 31st of July to try to get a response from you.
Last week (nearly 1 month later) I received a phone call from a lady who informed me of the amount owed but was reticent in revealing any further details when I commented on the amount seeming rather high.

I now have a letter telling me I owe £60 in court costs, and yet I was never once reminded or warned that I still owed money (which I would have happily paid immediately) and was never informed that 'court costs' would be incurred.
Surely I have to be informed that something is going as far as the court, and incidentally, what did the court do? Decide that yes, I did owe some council tax, and charge £60 for the privilege of deciding? That is, to my mind, simply ludicrous.

I have proof (below) that I informed you we would be vacating the property on the 14th of July. This proof is dated 31st of July but if you had actually responded to my repeated phone calls you would have been aware of this fact mere days after we moved out.
Therefore any correspondence sent to that address after the 14th of July would not have made it to me. This seems incredibly obvious to me, just a brief employment of brainpower should have deduced that sending letters to a property that has been vacated is possibly not the smoothest form of communication.
This shouldn't be a problem, in this modern age there are many forms of communication, you have had my mobile phone number (07779 xxxxxx which is always switched on) and email address throughout this time. It would not have been difficult to make one short phone call to check I was receiving your letters. It couldn't possibly have been the case that you had very little interest in making sure I was receiving your correspondence, as it just means another £60 in the Council coffers for absolutely no effort on your part whatsoever. That couldn't be the case, that wouldn't be very public spirited at all, would it?

All of this would have been irrelevant had the TWO direct debit forms I sent to you actually have worked, most of the time I was living at The Lodge I assumed I was paying my council tax by DD until I received a letter telling me I had never set any such thing up. TWICE.

I have absolutely no issue whatsoever with paying the COUNCIL TAX that I owe (briefly employing some brain power, I make that £xxx.xx) but I object most strongly to this ridiculous charge of £60. I know it won't happen but I would dearly like to be called back (07779 xxxxxx) IMMEDIATELY upon receipt of this email by someone who can actually do something about this situation.
I see from your paperwork that your office opens at 8.30a.m, so if I have not heard from you I will be calling at 9a.m, this should give you ample time to actually start doing some work, read my email and respond to me.

I look forward quite eagerly to hearing from you, but I don't honestly expect it to happen any time soon, why not surprise me.

Dan Verge
danverge@hotmail.com
07779 xxxxxx (in case you missed it the first three times I wrote it)

this one is for Anonymous

Delivery Driver: (upon hearing on the radio that the chinese got a day off when the olympics opened) Lucky bastards, eh?

Me: What's that?

DD: Them Chinese getting a day off for the olympics.

Me: True, but then again they do have to live their lives under the oppressive yoke of a communist dictatorship.

DD: Yeah, I suppose...

Me: Swings and roundabouts then, eh?

Public service announcement

Hello, anyone still here?

Well if you are, then first off, apologies for the lack of posts recently, I only have access to the interweb at work and I don't know about you but my work environment is not really the place for me to write hilariously witty, incredibly intelligent blog posts. Some would say the same for anywhere I write blog posts, but that's just plain rude.

Anyway, I thought I should just say that instead of feeling guilty all the time about not writing anything here, I'm going to unofficially close the blog, so that any posts I do put on it are kind of like a bonus. I'm moving house again in July so I may find myself with interweb access again, in which case I will possibly manage some more regular posts.

So you might want to remove me from favourite lists, or take down links or stuff like that, and that way I feel a bit less guilty about letting anyone down with my complete lack of any new material.

TTFN for now, i'll see you around. :)

Buy my car

Actually don't if you know what is good for you, but have a look at my ebay auction anyway, I think everyone should list items as honestly as me.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=320231061269&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=011

Hello, i'm back, for now.

I've been skiing, plus my computer is still broke, so it looks like the infrequent posting is going to continue for a little while at least, sorry.

Anyway, skiing was awesome, apart from Rachel breaking her hand, which was obviously a bit of a downer, but aside from that we both had a great time. When I get a chance (possibly not any time soon) I will post up some of the pictures I took, I don't know how you could ever get bored of the views from the top of mountains.

oops

Sorry about the lack of posts, my computer is still in pieces on my mate's desk, which makes it quite hard to access the internet with it.

Normal service will resume one day, I imagine.

In the meantime, why not ask yourself some interesting 50/50 questions, like 'if you had to give up music or hot food forever, which would it be?' or how about 'you only have one bullet, who would you shoot, Adele (sp) or Kate Nash?'

TTFN for now.

Alanis Morisette has nothing on me

I cancelled my PC technical support contract yesterday morning.

My computer died in a spectacular fashion yesterday afternoon.

There's a link here somewhere...

My Girlfriend isn't posh but....

I'm not sure Rachel is quite au fait with the delicate social structure of football and the basic make-up of your average football fan, as I think this conversation shows:

Rachel: I'm going to watch a football match at the Saints stadium! It's a free corporate thing with work and we will have our own box to watch the game from.

Me: Yeah? thats cool. My friend Chris from work is going to watch that match too.

Rachel: Really? What box is he in?

This week I have been mainly...

Arguing with estate agents.
It's actually quite fun, especially when you know you are in the right and you can sit back and wait for them to figure out their own operating policies in order for them to realise they are wrong and then apologise to you. (they are still at the figuring out stage at the moment.)

It has made it a bit hard to get any posts in so I'm sorry about that but the whole situation is generating some blogging gold for use when I have the time to write about it, like when my dad almost physically shoved the lettings managers head inside our newly-rented, mouldy fridge to prove it was not fit for storing food.

You can't make that up.
Well, you could, but then it wouldn't be true and it's much funnier when it really happens.

Pogonophobics, you're ok by me

I always thought people were faking it when they professed to having weird irrational aversions to things like pumpkin seeds and men wearing floral shirts, but then I realised that I really can't explain why I retch when I smell overripe bananas.

Discuss.

Punch someone today, you'll thank me.

Have you ever noticed how, when someone is killed in an accident or possibly murdered in a gruesome manner, it always turns out that they were, according to their friends and acquaintances, the most incredible person that ever lived?
Perhaps a schoolboy gets killed crossing train tracks or gets blown up in a freak science lab experiment (slightly less likely these days due to health and safety laws meaning the most dangerous chemical you can use in school is lemon juice), which isn't nice obviously, but then the headteacher is recorded as saying he was the smartest, nicest, brightest boy in the school, then his friends say everyone loved him and he was always happy and smiling etc etc.

It's kind of odd isn't it?

So I have a theory about this, that may one day save your life.

If you find yourself being told constantly how great you are, or you never seem able to upset or annoy anyone, then be a bit worried.
If the absolute worst happens and somebody remarks "you know what, you are the most popular person around here, you're really great you are." then I recommend that you run, fast and far, 'cos your life is in the balance.
I reckon the world has an inscrutable plan to rid itself of the nicest, friendliest, most popular people (I don't know why, it's a theory, not a law), so if you think that might be you, then start being a bit of a nobhead, and quickly.

I'm off to pour tea on the bosses lap, just in case.

I went to fit some signs at the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport today, it was pretty cool.
Aside from having to carry a van full of signage around the site on foot, (no trolleys allowed yet, and no little electric buggies either, another dream unfulfilled) we got to see bits of the terminal that the public won't see, and we got to experience the bits that the public will see in a very different context, i.e completely stark bollock empty.

It's really weird walking quietly through a 1/2 mile long tunnel under the busiest runway in Europe and then realising that you can see both distant ends of the tunnel and not spot a single person. It's a bit like being in a Bond film, sneaking through the evil kingpin's secret underground lair, only Bond probably doesn't carry a toolbox full of masking tape and surface cleaner with him.

We also found ourselves at a departure gate in building B (which is just plain massive, as compared to building A which is the largest free-standing building in Europe or something like that) without another soul in sight, and we could see the length of the building, past about another 20 gates. It felt like 28 days later, a completely normal place that becomes incredibly odd simply due to the lack of any human life.

Blimey it's all gone a bit philosophical round here, sorry.

I rode the second longest escalator in the country too, misses out on the top spot by one step so I was told. (beaten by the Angel tube station) Personally I would have re-designed that bit of the building to require a slightly longer escalator, say about two steps longer, but that;s my competitive nature for you.

Better late than, er, later.

Don't worry, im still here, just put the lack of posts down to the holiday season or something.
In fact I have been busy doing the christmas thing, this is the first christmas I have spent with a proper, serious girlfriend (not saying that Rach is particularly stern, just that she means a lot to me), and it turns out she has a family that needs visiting at christmas too! What a coincidence.
So I have had to do double the family gatherings this year, which isn't a bad thing as I got more presents and Rach's family are actually very nice.

In other news, I got an Xbox 360 from Rach for Chrimbo, and I bought her a Wii so I have a feeling that between the two of them, I may be busy for a few more months ahead too.

Ooh, ooh, the most important news of all of course, is that I am finally moving out! Yes, sadly I am a 25 year old child and I still live in the family homestead, but as on the middle of next month, me and Rach are renting a flat in town, hurrah! I am very excited, we have been shopping for toasters and kettles and I am still excited, so it must be exciting.

Feel free to express your happiness for me via the medium of the comments page.

It's all about the willpower

It has finally happened, I have at last succumbed to the only remaining geeky vice that seperates us from them. (although now I might be a 'them' and not an 'us' anymore, so you are all 'them' to me and we are now 'us'. Uh oh.)

Yes, the other day I downloaded the free trial of.....

World of Warcraft.

I mean that's it, that's the end, I am now a MMORPG'er, and I must succumb to all that it entails. All my free time will be spent at this desk, I can no longer socialise like real people, my only friends will be those that I know of as things like Throgborn Skullsmasher (Peter, 12, from Uxstable in Kent) and Elviras Smutmistress (Arthur, 59, Bognor).

I will lose all interest in physical activity, my skin will fade to a pasty, light-starved grey colour, and my muscles will atrophy into formless blobs.
I will feel compelled to buy the least fashionable pair of glasses possible, and make sure they don't quite fit properly so that I have to keep pushing them up my nose. I may also develop an odd nasal condition that affects my voice.

I'll end up - Oh, hang on I'll have to finish this later, I have to go to the pub with my girlfriend.

Reality - 1, WoW - 0.

All parties shall remain nameless

And bloody right too, I saw an old friend from school in the pub a couple of nights ago, and he explained to me exactly how he made a vibrating model of his penis out of latex as a gift for a girlfriend.

He didn't come right out and say it as soon as I saw him, (Hi there, how are you? Want to hear about my cock-moulding experiences?) we did the usual pleasantries first, but he was suprisingly forthcoming with his description considering I haven't seen him for probably 5 years or so.

I won't go into details, but rest assured, he did.

I may need counselling.