Life is like a box of chocolates...
...no matter what you pick, it'll inevitably be some nasty coconut-butterscotch-praline concoction.
Actually, mostly, things are fine-to-good, I'm just annoyed about being shuffled between four or five different people in my attempt to register myself as an honest, electricity-bill-paying person.
A couple of weeks ago, I got a letter, addressed to the previous tenant/"The Occupant", saying that the last tenant was about £460-some pounds in arrears on her energy bill. That's a lot of money, equivalent to probably at least 15 months worth of electricity (although some of the bill may have been for nonpayment). So I called the contact number in the letter, and a nice man named Brendan told me that he'd sort it out, and I'd get a welcome letter from the energy company within a week.
Well, needless to say, I didn't get a letter. I called Brendan back and asked what I should do, and he told me to call the company with the meter readings as they stood when I moved in. These meter readings were on the inventory I signed when I moved in, and which I had returned to the estate agency. I called the agent and asked if I could have a copy of it, but was told that they'd sent it on to the landlord. I have no contact information for the landlord; all business is handled by the agent. I called the building manager and asked him what to do. He said that the agency must still have the inventory, because the landlord gives him all the inventories and he hadn't received mine. No one has any idea where this inventory is. Fantastic.
In the mean time, just to shake things up, I called the energy company, which told me that they didn't know there was a new tenant, and that the agency and/or landlord ought to have informed them... but if I wanted to fix things, all I needed to do was to fax them a signed copy of my tenancy agreement with the meter readings from when I moved in.
The only signed copy of my tenancy agreement is in the estate agency's files. No one knows where the meter readings are.
I called the estate agency back, and finally talked to someone helpful, a woman named Bethany. Bethany took my details and the information the energy company wanted, and said she would do some "independent research" into why the energy company hadn't got the memo about me being a new tenant.
So now I wait.
I'm just a little worried that I'm going to end up paying some ridiculous amount of money because of missed memos, lost inventories, or some other minor catastrophe that is in no way my fault. I already pay out the nose for rent, and I really cannot afford to pay for other people's mistakes.
...Yeah.
Anyway, you should get Skype (YES, YOU) because then I could talk to you on it.
Also, being a substitute teacher is mostly pretty fun (I get to teach history and English and math and biology and physics and music all in one day!), but it's really frustrating when you see a class run by an incompetent teacher... who nonetheless has a permanent job, while you do not. Especially when it's a class in your subject area. (I'm looking at you, music-teacher-whose-year-8-and-11-lessons-I-covered-yesterday.) Talk about depressing.
BUT... I may have a gig teaching brass lessons at a local academy. I was in as a support teacher in a music class today, and when I mentioned that I was a brass player and lived in town, she got really excited and asked if I could do lessons, because apparently brass teachers are hard to find. (I've noticed this in other schools too, that they'll always have piano, voice, guitar, violin, viola, cello, bass, clarinet, saxophone, and drums, but it's extremely rare that they give brass lessons.) That's pretty cool, because I do kind of miss having contact with instrumentalists.
I did join a choir, though -- or at least, I hope to join it, and I'll find out for sure next week after my voice test. The people sitting near me don't think I'll have a problem getting in, but of course I'm paranoid. At least I can sight-read pretty well -- thank you, aural skills!
Anywhoodles, I'm off to start dinner and then go to bed as early as possible, because I am extra-sleepy today.
Actually, mostly, things are fine-to-good, I'm just annoyed about being shuffled between four or five different people in my attempt to register myself as an honest, electricity-bill-paying person.
A couple of weeks ago, I got a letter, addressed to the previous tenant/"The Occupant", saying that the last tenant was about £460-some pounds in arrears on her energy bill. That's a lot of money, equivalent to probably at least 15 months worth of electricity (although some of the bill may have been for nonpayment). So I called the contact number in the letter, and a nice man named Brendan told me that he'd sort it out, and I'd get a welcome letter from the energy company within a week.
Well, needless to say, I didn't get a letter. I called Brendan back and asked what I should do, and he told me to call the company with the meter readings as they stood when I moved in. These meter readings were on the inventory I signed when I moved in, and which I had returned to the estate agency. I called the agent and asked if I could have a copy of it, but was told that they'd sent it on to the landlord. I have no contact information for the landlord; all business is handled by the agent. I called the building manager and asked him what to do. He said that the agency must still have the inventory, because the landlord gives him all the inventories and he hadn't received mine. No one has any idea where this inventory is. Fantastic.
In the mean time, just to shake things up, I called the energy company, which told me that they didn't know there was a new tenant, and that the agency and/or landlord ought to have informed them... but if I wanted to fix things, all I needed to do was to fax them a signed copy of my tenancy agreement with the meter readings from when I moved in.
The only signed copy of my tenancy agreement is in the estate agency's files. No one knows where the meter readings are.
I called the estate agency back, and finally talked to someone helpful, a woman named Bethany. Bethany took my details and the information the energy company wanted, and said she would do some "independent research" into why the energy company hadn't got the memo about me being a new tenant.
So now I wait.
I'm just a little worried that I'm going to end up paying some ridiculous amount of money because of missed memos, lost inventories, or some other minor catastrophe that is in no way my fault. I already pay out the nose for rent, and I really cannot afford to pay for other people's mistakes.
...Yeah.
Anyway, you should get Skype (YES, YOU) because then I could talk to you on it.
Also, being a substitute teacher is mostly pretty fun (I get to teach history and English and math and biology and physics and music all in one day!), but it's really frustrating when you see a class run by an incompetent teacher... who nonetheless has a permanent job, while you do not. Especially when it's a class in your subject area. (I'm looking at you, music-teacher-whose-year-8-and-11-lessons-I-covered-yesterday.) Talk about depressing.
BUT... I may have a gig teaching brass lessons at a local academy. I was in as a support teacher in a music class today, and when I mentioned that I was a brass player and lived in town, she got really excited and asked if I could do lessons, because apparently brass teachers are hard to find. (I've noticed this in other schools too, that they'll always have piano, voice, guitar, violin, viola, cello, bass, clarinet, saxophone, and drums, but it's extremely rare that they give brass lessons.) That's pretty cool, because I do kind of miss having contact with instrumentalists.
I did join a choir, though -- or at least, I hope to join it, and I'll find out for sure next week after my voice test. The people sitting near me don't think I'll have a problem getting in, but of course I'm paranoid. At least I can sight-read pretty well -- thank you, aural skills!
Anywhoodles, I'm off to start dinner and then go to bed as early as possible, because I am extra-sleepy today.