Mad season

‘When it hasn’t been your day, your week, your month, or even your year’ The Rembrandts – I’ll be there for you (Theme from Friends)

Where to start? I left work at 10:30 yesterday. That’s 10:30am for anyone thinking that I had suddenly found a new level of commitment for my hellish job. I had already had 2 panic attacks by that stage, one on the way to work (a panic attack at the wheel of the car, really isn’t the best place). Before leaving I checked my bank balance only to discover that the £200 or so I had left was enough to cover my rent cheque (which is late going out). I must have spent a fortune in London, but anyway. I tried to speak to the bank about their dubious methods of overdraft reducing (don’t get me started on their f*cked up little brains) and ended up walking out in tears. So much for mature, independent Perfy.

I got home, cried a whole lot more & then began to figure out how to get through this. I called one of those debt adjuster people who came over yesterday afternoon & told me that not only could they make my loans paid off in “one easy monthly payment” but they could also reduce the amount I was paying by half. Fantastic I thought. He also advised me to open a new bank account, away from evil HSBC (who have done nothing but upset me with their condescending attitude and complete “well we get our money so you can go whistle” line), which I will be doing tomorrow. Of course that doesn’t solve the immediate problem of having not enough money to get to work for the next two weeks, but Duncan said he could sort something out for that & that I was to just trust him.

sidenote On the way home I almost got hit again. Someone lost control of their car & came across to our side of the dual carriageway. I drove past literally seconds before he hit the car behind me. I was braking at the time, had I been going a tiny bit slower he would have ploughed into my door. It would have been messy. But that’s the second time now in two weeks. Things come in threes.

Later on I checked my emails from work. I have a huge meeting this morning in Gateshead. This is not good. For a start, they want everyone in Gateshead, leaving our office completely empty & meaning that no-one will be up-dating the website. Secondly, TMD (my company) have already made 200 odd redundant this year & have already announced plans to up to another 1000 redundant in the next 3 years. Not good. Finally they have had some independent work done on the relationship between the newspapers & the internet & this meeting is because of that. It could mean many things, and the amount of dreams I had last night about it was disturbing. I think it’s the fact that he wants to speak to everyone in the same place at the same time that troubles me. They have never done this before & it must be pretty serious if they are willing to leave the sites unmanned for a few hours.

So I got up this morning, showered, dressed, had breakfast, made lunch & said goodbye to Duncan. 10 minutes later I was back in the house. The car won’t start. We spent a further 20 minutes outside trying various methods of push starting (which is virtually impossible when you’re parked facing up a hill between two other parked cars) and gave up. The AA won’t come out unless I upgrade my membership & I can’t get to work. I now have to get a taxi to the meeting (more expense) and hope that Sarah will let me come home again afterwards (depending on what the news is). Hopefully the car will start again once it dries off a bit – we’ve had about 48 hours of non-stop rain in the North East, and my little car isn’t keen on the wet, or cold, or winter really. Like I said, things come in threes. We need a garage. A nice billionaire who is willing to give us some of his fortune without ever wanting it back would also be nice.

Until there is a next time…

xx