Of course, I'm being almost ironic here, because the weather's fine... Lovely, in fact. I have windows open all over the flat and, while the sky is a little hazy in places, it's shaping up to be a bright, sunny day.
The problems are everywhere else.
When I went to bed last night, my front teeth were feeling a bit odd. Well, I say 'my front teeth', but I mean the gums they're set into. Slightly achy, but not terrible. That is, until about 5-5.30 this morning, when the pain woke me up, and was severe enough to warrant a dose of ibuprofen. At that point, I'd probably only been asleep for two hours at most, because I had another of my bordering-on-insomniac nights.
Cut to about 10.30, when I'm woken up by my phone. Nothing new there - it's normally a recorded message about Payment Protection Insurance. Not this time, though.
My grandmother has had a fall - sometime on Tuesday, it later transpired - and has been in hospital. She still hadn't been seen by a doctor when my mother phoned, but wasn't keen on staying in hospital and, it seems, had to be sedated last night because she had been found stalking the wards, trying to find her way out. After a rather longer conversation with my mother a short while ago, I have learned that my grandmother is in a far worse condition than my mother generally lets on - she can't hand-write, can't dress herself, and keeps putting things - clothes and groceries - in the wrong places. She probably should have been put into a nursing home years ago - my mother says - but was always very vocal in her desire to stay in her flat. Being in her own home made her happy... and you can't argue with that.
After the first chat with my mother, I got myself up, showered and dressed (she apologised for calling so early but, let's face it, 10.30 is pretty late to be waking up, so I should have apologised for being so lazy!) and phoned my dentist to arrange an appointment. "Can it wait till Monday?" I was asked. Since the pain has faded (not gone... I now feel that hollowness/absence of pain that says 'the problem is still there, but the pain killer is working') I agreed to that appointment... I hope I won't regret it. I do worry about my teeth - possibly more than I should, based on my dentist's assessments of their state of health, but I kind of prefer to stay paranoid.
The next order of business was taking meter readings for gas and electricity and, based on the results, phoning my utilities provider to discuss (a) altering my gas to quarterly billing, to match electricity and (b) reducing my monthly payments because - sweet Jesus - I'm over £200 in credit on my gas at the moment.
The operative I spoke to did some quick calculations and determined that I'm neither a heavy user of gas nor of electricity. Thankfully, though, I've not been heavily overcharged on both. For electricity, I'm paying less than £30 per month, and my average usage over the last year (while I've been unemployed, and on the computer almost all day, almost every day!) suggested that my payment could be taken below £25 per month.
Gas was a different story, however.
My payments were increased twice last year, effectively doubling my 'contribution' (as I've probably mentioned elsewhere). I'm currently paying over £60 a month for my gas. Now, based solely on the fact that gas prices are coming down next month, my own - admittedly shakey - mathematics told me I could afford to reduce my monthly payments by about £9. The operative's more detailed computations went a little further.
And by 'a little', I mean it turned out I'm paying about £30 too much.
Per month.
That'd be more than £300 over the course of a year.
Rather sensibly, though - considering the vagaries of British weather, and my instruction to switch to quarterly billing for gas - it was recommended that I wait till my next bill comes through to change my payment. I'd almost certainly get a refund - as I did on my last electricity bill - and that, coupled with the price reduction, would put me in a better position to make the call and them in a better position to advise me on how much of a cut to make to my monthly payments... But I'm guessing I can take about £30 off.
While I was on the phone, I was offered the opportunity of a free assessment for (and, potentially, free installation of) cavity wall insulation. I took up the offer, but have subsequently realised it might be more than a little pointless as my flat was built before cavity walls became the norm. Can't hurt to have someone out, though, and they may be able to advise me on alternatives which could help cut my bills further.
To finish on a further positive note, my niece was discharged and taken home earlier in the week, but will be returning to London tomorrow, in theory, to get her stitches removed. Of course, it wasn't all plain sailing - her father got sick at home while she was down here, so my sister decided to wait an extra day before heading back home from our parents' house. There had also been mention of an extra 24 hours in the hospital prior to discharge due to a possible irregularity in her heartbeat... but it sounds as though that was given the all-clear.
No comments:
Post a Comment