Monster Trailer

So finally retired :o)


We've been promising ourselves for a couple of years to get a decent sized trailer for reenactment and yesterday we got one.


Had to drive 250 miles to Clacton and back to get it but even with the fuel cost it was a good price at a litle under £2000.





An Ifor Williams BV85 for those who care, about £4000 new....scary huh?

anyway our beast of a car towed it with now appreciable effort and no additional fuel consumption, not bad for a trailer that weighs 700kg empty !!!

now comes the less fun part of moving all our reenactment kit into the back of it....

No longer Trapped in the Body of a Civil Servant

I have just signed off of the Official Secrets Act...doesn't mean much except now I am no longer allowed access to any of my, soon to be previous, employers properties or documents, and I agree not to profit from any knowledge gained whilst employed by them; yeah right, I know jack-shit about anything important, and endeavoured to always keep it like that.

It also means that as of 30th November 2007 I can no longer be sacked for blogging, as I was threatened with a cople of years back, which led to the hasty deletion of my previous blog "Trapped in the Body of a Civil Servant...Help!!!"

....hastily looks over shoulder for thought police...

Went to Craziequeens Birthday Bowling Bash last weekend, and risked bowling...wrists heavily strapped and using child weight balls I just about managed 2 games, but boy did it hurt towards the end, arthritis sucks, but had a good time and took a few pictures of the Birthday Girl being Drunk for you all...




Captions welcome :)

Harvest

Today was the last day of Term 1 for the kids at school, so that meant it was Harvest Assembly day. Up until about the 1950's children at this time of year would be excused school to go to help bring in the harvest from the fields.

Thanks have been given for successful harvests since pre-Roman times in Britain. The celebrations in modern times usually include singing hymns, praying and decorating churches with baskets of fruit and food in the festival known as Harvest Festival or Harvest Home or Harvest Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving.

In British churches, chapels, and schools people bring in food from the garden, the allotment or farm, although nowadays people tend to buy a few extra cans of fod or dried produce at the supermarket and supply that. The food is then distributed among the poor and senior citizens of the local community, or used to raise funds for the church, or charity. In the case of Aginoth Junior's School the produce collectd is being donated to teh local Meals on Wheels service that provides food for the eldery and infirm in the community who are unable to cook for themselves.

In the USA and Canada, the festival is set on a certain day and has become a National Holiday known as Thanksgiving (now you know it's origins :o) ). In North America it has become a national secular holiday with religious origins, but in Britain it remains a Church festival giving thanks to God for the harvest.

The modern British tradition of celebrating Harvest Festival in churches began in 1843, when the Reverend Robert Hawker invited parishioners to a special thanksgiving service at his church at Morwenstow in Cornwall. Victorian hymns such as "We plough the fields and scatter", "Come ye thankful people, come" and "All things bright and beautiful" helped popularise his idea of harvest festival and spread the annual custom of decorating churches with home-grown produce for the Harvest Festival service.

Anyway...

Me or Mrs.A always make sure one of us goes to the shcool functions and special assemblies, even thogh we are not at all religious, we like to show suport for the school and to Agi Junior...as we should :o)

I recorded it and i'm trying to get it uploaded so you can see it :) .... I can sense your excitement :o)


That was this morning.


I spent the bulk of today buried in more paper, this time sorting out my claim on my Life insurance under the critical illness clause we thankfully activated when we took out the policy...it covers me for being declared permanently disabled and unable to work by my employers medical advisor...which they have and I have a certificate to prove it. Now I just have to persuade our insurers. It feels a little odd claiming on your own life insurance I must say...

A quick break for lunch then put up LMB's new Dora the Explorer Nightlight (a birthday pressie from Nanny A). Then I spent an hour fiddling with my laptop and playing on the various forms I frequent.

Collected the kids from school(s) at just after 3pm, armed with Lollipops I took them to their favourite playground to enjoy the afternoon surprisingly warm Autimn sunshine, they happily burnt off some energy for an hour. A quick trip into town to post my Insurance claim ended up in a new Milkshake bar across the road from the Post Office...Shake King...over 150 flavours of Milkshake on offer, the kids we're suddenly awestruck....Want to see some of the list? remember you can mix and match....

Aero Mint
After Eights
Amaretti
Apple Pie
Bakewell Tart
Banana
Battenburg
Black Jacks
Blackberry Pie
Blackcurrant Jam
Blueberry Muffin
Blueberry Nutrigrain
Boost
Bounty (Dark Chocolate)
Bounty (Milk Chocolate)
Bourbon Biscuits
Bournville Chocolate
Cadburys Caramel
Cadburys Creme Egg
Cadburys Fruit & Nut
Caramac
Carrot Cake
Cherry
Chocolate & Peanut Butter
Chocolate Chip Cookie
Chocolate Fudge Brownie
Chocolate Mini Roll
Chocolate Muffin
Chocolate Pop Tart
Coco Pops
Coconut Ice
Coffee
Cola Bottles
Crunchie
Crunchy Nut Cornflakes
Curly Wurly
Custard
Custard Creams
Dairy Milk
Devon Fudge
Digestives (Milk Chocolate)
Digestives (Plain Chocolate)
Dime Bar
Dolly Mixtures
Double Decker
Farleys Rusk
Ferrero Rocher
Fig Rolls
Fresh Cakes (Daily Specials)
Frosties
Fruit Cocktail
Fruit Salad Chews
Frys Orange Cream
Frys Peppermint Cream
Frys Turkish Delight
Fudge
Fuse
Galaxy
Galaxy Caramel
Ginger Nuts
Green & Blacks
Haribo
Hersheys Cookies n Creme
Hob Nobs (Milk Chocolate)
Hob Nobs (Plain Chocolate)
Jaffa Cakes
Jam Doughnut
Jam Tart
Jamaican Ginger Cake
Jammie Dodgers
Jammie Wagon Wheel
Jelly Babies
Jelly Beans
Jelly Tots
Kinder Bueno
Kit Kat Chunky
Lemon Curd
Lindt Chocolate
Lion Bar
Liquorice Allsorts
Love Hearts
Malt Loaf
Malted Milk Biscuits
Maltesers
Mandarin
Maple Syrup
Marmalade
Marmite
Mars
Marshmallow
Milky Bar
Milky Way
Minstrels
Munchies
Nutella
Oreo Cookies
Parma Violets
Peach
Peanut Butter
Peanut M&M`s
Penguin
Penny Mix-up
Picnic
Pineapple
Quality Street
Raspberry Jam
Reeces Peanut Butter Cups
Refreshers
Revels
Rolos
Roses
Sherbet Fountain
Shortbread
Skittles
Smarties
Snickers
Snowball
Soft Toffee
Special K
Special K Bar
Strawberry Jam
Strawberry Laces
Strawberry Nutrigrain
Strawberry Pop Tart
Syrup Sponge
Terrys Milk Chocolate Orange
Terrys Plain Chocolate Orange
Tic Tacs (Lime & Orange)
Tic Tacs (Mint)
Toblerone
Toffee Crisp
Toffee Popcorn
Treacle
Treacle Tart
Trebor Extra Strong Mints
Twix
Walnut Whip
Weetabix
Werthers
White Crunch

We settled for a couple of Wispa milkshakes to share which were on offer (and not on the main list)...I now have 3 contented children who think Daddy is great...and probably a bit of a soft touch ... OK yes I know I am :o), but all this is helping me destress after a year of faffing around with work and suchlike.

New Blog Title...New Start

It's been all go in the Aginoth Household this last week or so.

Firstly, and at long long last I have won my seemingly endless battle with my employer to be retired on medical grounds. I have in my possession now the Certificate signed by the Ministry of Defence Medical Advisor that I am permanently unable to work for the MoD due to Psoriatic Arthropy (Arthitis).

Offically my last day of employment will probably be 30th November 2007, but I am still torteceive confirmation. So I have today been filling in the forms to claim on my Life Insurance which with great presence of forthought on our part includes critical illness cover for permanent disability certified by an employers medical advisor. With my pension lump sum that means we should hopefully be able to pay of a very large chunk of our mortgage before too much longer, and clear all of our other debts. This will leave us clear to move house early next year to somewhere a bit easer for me to get around now my joints are getting worse (our current house is 3 stories high and I rarely go to the top floor now).

Second. Mrs.A won a car !!! OK so it's a quadricycle really, a REVA G-wiz, and totally impractical for any real use where we live due to Somerset being Mainly Rural and populated by Cows and Sheep. So it's getting deliverd to my mother in law's house in London where it will allow the commuter we sell it to to travel for free into the congestion zone, and be able to park for free in Westminster (I hear Boris Johnson has one!)
Small isn't it?

More details on it here if you are interested. She won it on a webite called My Offers! which is full of competitions every month.

Third. I should finally receive some pay this month, I have been off sick since March, but have not actually been paid any Sick Pay since the end of June, despite my employer agreeing to pay me as if I was receiving my pension already, as you might imagine after nearly 4 months finances are a little stretched to say the least. I am watching my Bank account avidly for the money.

Fourth. Life changing time, I have started my application to study BA Archaeology and Medieval History at Cardiff University from September 2008. I have to do something with all this spare time I have now I am retired, and as I will be receiving my pension we can afford for me to go back to University, this time to study something I'm interested in for myself and not for work.

Fifth. I know I have been neglecting my blog over recent months and I will try to do better ... honest... no I will... probably :o)

PS did you notice The name of the blog changed :o)

Back and busy

Hi all,

Yes I am sporadically blogging again , for the first time in months. Been very depressed, still am really, but felt the urge to blog again.

Still waiting to hear about medical retirement from work, haven't been to work since the end of March though.

Felt quite good joint wise today so I have been hard at work shifting rubbish and dead wood in the back gsrden.

TRY THIS ...
Been playing with a review site

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk

best thing about it is they pay you in dooyoomiles for reviews of anything (and I mean anything) plus you get extra dooyoo miles everytime you get a review rated as useful by another user.

DooYooMiles????

Well they can be cashed in for Amazon Vouchers or Cash, or given to charity.

I have written 7 reviews in 24 hours and currently have almost 3000 dooyoo miles, that’s nearly £3 in vouchers (you can cash them in when you get to 10000)

Unlike many pay for users sites this one actually l;ooks like it is worth using, I reckon I could easily get £20 - £40 in amazon vouchers in a mnth without a lot of effort.

Btw my user name is Aginoth as usual….be sure to rate my reviews if you come on and add me to your circle of friends.

Call me Marvin

Just been signed off work for a month by my GP, for depression;also had my prozac dose doubled.

So kind of looks like I have a few weeks of pretending to be retired whislt waiting to be retired...I live in hope.

Did I tell you about the pain in the diodes in my left hand side?


Anyway....the vegetables we planted in the garden have finally shown signs of life, after 12 days we have a single sprout...purple broccolli. Hardly gonna feed us for a while but at least it means we have planted it all correctly, or at least we will find out if more sprout or not :)

So at lest I have time to get some stuff sorted out for the impending re-enactment season.

How to take on your bank and win !!! + Retirement update

You may recall that back at the start of February I decided to ask my bank back for all the charges it had levied on our acount for the last 6 years.

Last week when I hadn't heard from them in several weeks I began court procedings against them for the money.

Surprise surprise on the very day they were served the summons from the county court they have written to me and offered me over £2000, a little less than I asked for but we are going to settle. That'll cover the mortgage for a couple of months.

They of course say they do not accept the have done anything wrong or broken the law as that would require them to carry out a comprehesive review of their charging practices, and that the payment is a good will gesture...that's a bloody huge lump of goodwill (sic).

Anyway the whole process has taken about 8 weeks and I would recommend anyone in the UK who has been charges anything in the last 6 years by their banks to visit MONEY SAVING EXPERT and you'll find templstes of all the letters and the proces alid out in simple steps...you have nothing to lose.

Previous posts....
Give me My Money
Give me my Money Part 2

Now to get on with getting retired. I was denied medical retirement last week, however, I have right of appeal and grounds to do so. They agree that I am unfit for work and no adjustments would make it possible for me to give regular and effective service, but as my Family Doctor's report didn't specifically state that my Arthritis is permanent and going to effect me significantly for the next 23 years of my working life they couldn't retire me.

So anyway it turns out they addressed the request for a report on me to my GP's Medical Practice and not my GP himself, so the practice wrote the report based directly on my medical file, just diagnjostic facts and dates with no personal input from the Doctor who actually knows anything about my day to day issues. I asked my GP to write me a personal medical report in light of this and he has, stating the permanent aspect f my arthritis and so now I am awaitung the results of the appeal.