This weekend the girls were up at my parents house along with my sister, BN and their cousins/my nieces. They appear to have had a fabulous time, listing learning to play Pool (Poole?) and cake among the highlights. Josie had a lovely time with the cousins and all the issues seem to be receding between Josie and Rowan. This is good. They should be friends!!!!
Friday night Max and i went out for dinner and then i decided to login to my banking to try and fathom why my credit card had suddenly decided not to let me have any money. I’ve been paying in chunks every so often, because since the cloning incident and having heard about the hassle some people have when debit cards get cloned, i tend to use credit not debit. I thought, a couple of weeks ago, that i seemed to have spent more money than i thought, given the payments i’d made, but my spending can be a touch erratic (Amazon, Amazon, Amazon….) so i just assumed i had overspent. But when i logged in on Friday, i suddenly realised that none of the payments i had made from the end of December and all through January had actually appeared as credited against my account. As they totaled nearly £3000 (which was not all personal spending, honestly!) i was a bit frantic. (This is understatement.)
Naturally the only statement i couldn’t find was the one from the month before and i spent a fair bit of time panicking, tried to call my (newly relocated to the UK) call centre and discovered the downside of getting to speak to someone only 300 miles away is that they want to sleep and don’t work overnight. So i panicked a bit more and then after about 40 minutes, it suddenly occurred to me that the amount owing and the available balance weren’t actually adding up to my credit limit. A few sums later and i realised the difference between the two was exactly the sum of my payments, so i went to bed and when i woke up, 5 weeks worth of payments had all arrived in my account alone with an interest rebate.
*Exhales*
At which point it occurred to me that although i habitually lose my cards/get the cloned/wash/tumble dry/recycle/compost my cards, i never actually update the number of the card that i make a payment into on my bank account. Credit card numbers change when they renew, but i always just pay into the original number i had and never thought anything of it. It appears that that suddenly stopped working, but for some reason, it took my bank 5 weeks to notice.
Anyway. Phew. If only i had logged in a day later, i wouldn’t have known and would have saved all that panic!!!
On Saturday Max and i had a day in London; we went by train, did the Natural History Museum as a reccy for some kid related trips, went to the Embankment, to Covent Garden, to Trafalgar Square, bookshopped in Charing Cross Road and then to see Blood Brothers. It’s years since i’d seen it and i’d forgotten the majority of the storyline, though the music used to be one of my favourites. As it happens, the subject matter was a bit near the knuckle really and i did worry Max thought i was deliberately trying to torture either myself or him, but although i think he found some of it difficult, i was really proud of myself for thoroughly enjoying it and not getting freaked out of upset. Felt like a step forward.
Really enjoyed being in London, it felt much nicer than the last time i was properly in the centre. The Congestion Charge really seems to have made a huge difference to the air and the traffic and i loved the Busk Ear thing, there seemed to be lots of random things set up to promote community spirit and the Chinese New year stuff looked great. If that’s Ken Livingstone, i’ll have to applaud him. The other thing i noticed was that i didn’t see a since person begging in any tube station, but i’m not sure if that’s good or slightly sinister :S I can’t think of another time i’ve been in London and not been asked for money though.
Fantastic street acts everywhere too. Made me feel like i loved London again.
Today i’ve dropped Max off to go on an overnight trip and collected the girls, been shopping, fed everyone and now they are watching Surf’s Up. As i’ve got to cook for myself for a while, i’ve decided to do a raw fruit,nuts and veg detox to save myself the bother. 😆
I’ve never seen blood brothers or read the storyline apart from what you’ve told me – so that’s all good and I’m v proud of you 🙂
Good about cousins – have Flickr’d loads of pics (and lost loads … boo)
Joey named her new wooden dolls Rowan and Ella which I thought was funny 🙂 and v sweet… it is about time they were friends… so it’s all good – have in fact just blogged pic of them before coming over here..
Is anyone/everyone feeling any better??