Monday, April 10, 2006
Living for the Weekend
This whole inheriting-some-money thing is more stressful than you'd think. Seriously. I mean, I don't want to sound ungrateful (because believe me I'm not) but where I thought it would be a lovely relief, it's actually more of a tension headache at the moment.
The thing is, if it was just being plonked into a nice high-interest account to keep us both in the manner to which we'd like to become accustomed, then fair enough. But because it's all being split between various debts and so on, it's actually quite complicated. I seem to have spent half of the weekend on the phone with various banks, credit card companies and the like, and the other half lying on the sofa with a flannel over my forehead moaning "Make the numbers stop, make the numbers stop"... which it turned out only a bottle or three of Pinot Grigio was able to do.
[Just a quick aside here, because it's been bothering me all weekend: why, when you phone your credit card company, does it ask you to enter your account number and security details on the automated menu, only to have the 'customer service' (using the term loosely...) person ask for it all again when you get through to the real people?! (The only exception being Barclaycard, who had a cheerful chap saying "Hello Mrs _____, how may I help you today?" when I finally got through, rather than some stroppy bitch barking "Account number?" - such a shock I almost dropped the phone)]
I feel like I somehow lost the weekend, and so I am looking forward to the upcoming long weekend with gleeful anticipation. Especially since we have just acquired a new addition to the family. April is a 16 year old silver Ford Escort with a few dents and some snazzy tweed upholstery, and she's going to add a lot of value to our lives. Welcome April, we salute you.
The thing is, if it was just being plonked into a nice high-interest account to keep us both in the manner to which we'd like to become accustomed, then fair enough. But because it's all being split between various debts and so on, it's actually quite complicated. I seem to have spent half of the weekend on the phone with various banks, credit card companies and the like, and the other half lying on the sofa with a flannel over my forehead moaning "Make the numbers stop, make the numbers stop"... which it turned out only a bottle or three of Pinot Grigio was able to do.
[Just a quick aside here, because it's been bothering me all weekend: why, when you phone your credit card company, does it ask you to enter your account number and security details on the automated menu, only to have the 'customer service' (using the term loosely...) person ask for it all again when you get through to the real people?! (The only exception being Barclaycard, who had a cheerful chap saying "Hello Mrs _____, how may I help you today?" when I finally got through, rather than some stroppy bitch barking "Account number?" - such a shock I almost dropped the phone)]
I feel like I somehow lost the weekend, and so I am looking forward to the upcoming long weekend with gleeful anticipation. Especially since we have just acquired a new addition to the family. April is a 16 year old silver Ford Escort with a few dents and some snazzy tweed upholstery, and she's going to add a lot of value to our lives. Welcome April, we salute you.
