It's been a long time since I posted on here -- my last post (before today's posts) was July 17 when I had to self isolate. A lot has happened since then, so this post will be a bit of an update list

I had to take my dad into hospital for a prostrate operation (this was planned before I had to self-isolate) -- he already had a PCR test and was cleared. My LFT was also clear, but I still had to self isolate. This was before the self-isolation changes happened. The operation was successful, but he needed to be held a few more days to see an ENT specialist due to them finding lumps in his throat. The concern was that they might be cancerous, but turns out it was just irritation so they gave him some Gaviscon to take after means and soothe the throat. Both my dad and I are prone to post-meal throat irritation so it might mean I might be subject to the same thing later in life.

I got a ticket after driving my dad to the hospital for taking a left turn when I was not supposed do, due to badly signposted roads. My appeal was rejected on the grounds I had paid the ticket. This is how the council screws you over -- if you pay the fine to avoid the 100% charge, they will claim that admits guilt. If you don't, they delay the response until after the 2-week window so you then have to pay the 100% charge.

I finally decided to upgrade my phone and went for a OnePlus 9 Pro. The phone is classed as a "Phablet" and much bigger than the Samsung Galaxy S5 I have been using for years:

The case on the left is for the OnePlus, the case on the right for my S5

I had problems activating the new SIM and eventually Three had to send me a new one, and soon after I got that new one, I got a message saying Three were going to be doing works on the mast in my area and ever since then I have had horrendously bad speeds at home. By bad, I mean speeds of < 1Mbps and even down to 0.2Mbps. Using 3G band sometimes helps, but only marginally.

I've taken my complaint up to the Ombudsman but Three are still refusing to do anything about it -- even charging me to leave contract early.

I've been with Three many years but I will not be recommending them going forward. I will be checking other providers when my contract expires.

We've started to go back to the office. My team is doing three days a week in the office, and you pick which three days as long as there are a max of 8 people in the office (due to some office reorganisation, we only have 8 seats for the entire team).

Surprisingly many people have left jobs during and post lockdown (some might have been nudged due to the lockdown, and not just in my office, but generally.)

I won a Twitter completion by Curve for a swag bag. Just had to tweet them three images of their different adverts -- all of which showed up on the same station, so that wasn't too difficult.

Then we had the annoying as heck "Panic at the Pumps" causing shortages.

This video from my dashcam shows the queue of traffic. This is the queue leading into the Alperton Sainsbury's. I was there at around 5am and it took me 30 minutes to clear the queue even with less people in the queue. This queue will probably take 90 minutes to clear, assuming the fuel was not gone by the time they got to the front of the queue

This video, also from my dashcam shows the queues that built up outside the petrol stations -- this Esso I actually went into at 4:30am that morning and they were not open, even though there were staff in the shop (so maybe they were waiting for delivery?)

You'll get people tooting impatiently and even people cutting the queue and then blocking the lane for the people behind (they must be luxury car drivers)

My house purchase has progressed and we have moved on and are now ready to exchange. However, one of the two sellers is unable to complete his purchase (he's part of a chain and needs to complete his purchase before he can complete the sale on the current house).

Finally, I got a letter from Principia Law who are the ones trying to claim money back from the drunk driver who wrecked my previous car.

They want me to release my bank records for the period of time I had the hire car. But everyone I have discussed this with seems confused as to why this is required since the accident is a "no-fault" claim on my part, so they should not even need my bank details.

I asked them to call me today to discuss this. I may also speak to the office legal team for their thoughts.

Google Photos reminded me of some photos I took in 2006, reminding of how incompetent Barnet Council are.

The landlord in the flat above us decided to get plumbing done by people who were likely not qualified and ended up compromising the floor between flats, and causing electricity arcs in our ceiling, we had to pop the breakers manually to prevent any short circuits.

Attempts to communicate with the landlord all went to voice mail, attempts to get entry to the flat to stop the water were ignored, attempts to contact the council to get help were refused.

Eventually the water leaked through OUR floor into the floor below, and the OAP who lived there called us. We told her to call the council since they refused to help us, and lo and behold, 30 minutes later, we had the council banging on our door.

Now, due to the council's refusal to help, instead of one flat being damaged, you now have TWO.

The following day, the police and fire brigade were called to gain entrance, because the landlord STILL did not answer his phone.

After this incident, we had to redo our bathroom, toilet, and front bedroom.

We had to rip out the carpets, wallpaper and replaster the ceilings.

We had to also rewire the ENTIRE flat.

But that's not the end part of it. Several years later, the damage caused by the landlord, carried over and the ceiling started leaking again. And again, the council didn't help. The tenant who lived in the flat above (the original landlord had since sold the flat on) was a construction worker, who knew what he was doing -- mostly, I guess.

Over the course of two years we were subject to more ceiling leaks, including leads into our cloakroom where we store our coats, until he finally found the leaking pipe -- one which was severed during the time of the previous landlord and was still dripping.

He's also sound the house on now, and to the council, and now Brent Council and Barnet Council have combined and we now have new tenants who are probably worse than the previous two combined -- they sleep all day, talk loudly until around 2am in the morning, smoke pot and guess what, Barnet Council won't do anything about it.

When I escalated to the counsellors of the area, they passed the query on to the council and the council claimed I never contacted them. Well, that's BS since I have an email chain AND a case reference.

Barnet Council have done nothing but drag their feet for the past 14 years whenever there's been any complaints. They like to claim they are listening to people with things like "You Said.. We Did" but that's only for things that are easy to do.

I know the likelihood of Barnet Council reading this post are low, but I need to vent...

A great grandfather is seen crawling upstairs in a shocking video because council bosses won’t fit a stairlift

Dundee City Council says a stairlift would be a health and safety hazard because he shares a home with his young grandson.

Gordon Fraser, 73, suffers a neurological condition called torsion dystonia, which limits his movement and speech.

He has fallen downstairs three times since he moved in with daughter Lucy, in Dundee, after the death of his wife in January.

But the council says that because there’s a child under 10 in the house, which would be too risky.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/heal…