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Sep. 20th, 2011 06:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
girlofpreySo, here's something annoying. The other week I started having a bit of a panic about money because as I think I have said, my appeal has now gone to the Tribunals Service, and I realised I didn't know if you still got paid ESA while your appeal was with a tribunal, after it left the hands of the Jobcentre, so to speak. But I went out and checked my bank balance shortly afterwards and it seemed to have gone up from when I'd looked a week or so before, and I have no other money going in at that time of the month except ESA, so I figured it was all continuing on as normal.
However, then on Friday I got a letter from the Benefits Office, saying that the medical certificate I'd sent them was about to run out, and that I needed to send a new one. When I remembered that the last time I went to the doctor, she just gave me one that would last 'indefinitely', until my appeal was finished. So I decided to call up and check. I called today, and the woman who answered me said that it did say on my case that my medical certificate was about to run out, and that it was possibly because my appeal had gone to the tribunal. She made a call to the processors though, and they're supposed to be calling me to confirm it in the next few working hours, which I'm guessing will be tomorrow morning now.
But frankly, I'm kind of annoyed if that is true. It's funny, because the letter shows it's been almost exactly three months since the medical certificate began covering me, so I figured maybe it was a thing, and they couldn't let any medical certificate cover more than three months, no matter what a doctor had said on it. But if it's because my appeal has gone to the tribunal - how does that make sense? Obviously I want to appeal my decision, I know they gave me the option of not going to a tribunal with it, but that's basically what I was saying I wanted to do when I started appealing my decision. If they're still going to pay me so long as I have a sick note, then why do they need a new sick note? And I'm pretty sure 'Indefinite' still means the same thing. That's really irritating, frankly.
And to be honest, I'd really rather not be doing this now, when I've got Connotations coming up and I'm meant to be getting ready for that and saving up and stuff. It's not the best time to suddenly have to jump through a new set of hoops and be worrying about late payments and stuff. I'll still have the money, one way or the other, since I can always fall back on my ISA savings. But even that will mean going and sorting out a transfer, and I'd just really rather not have to worry about all of that right now. But apparently, I do.
Anyway, maybe the people will call tomorrow and say it's all been a big misunderstanding, and I can have my payments after all. But I've called and made an appointment with my doctor anyway, just in case. Although that's annoying in itself, because this week I was supposed to have three appointments, an application forms workshop yesterday, a counselling session tomorrow, and an appointment with my employment coach on Friday. And it felt like a bit much after the meeting with my case manager last Friday and then going to Nottingham for Batman Live (I did that, by the way) on Saturday, so I was wishing for a bit less to do this week. But then yesterday my employment coach came and asked me if we could rearrange our Friday appointment for next Monday, because she had a client she suddenly needed to see on Friday. And my counsellor just called today to say she couldn't make our appointment tomorrow any more, could we make it next Wednesday. And when I called the doctors, the soonest I could get an appointment with the doctor who gave me my last sick note was Tuesday morning at 8:30, and no later in the day, or Wednesday at 9:40. So now next week I have an appointment on Monday, and a doctor's appointment at 9:40 am and then a counselling session at 2:00 on Wednesday. Sigh.
But anyway. At least I have the rest of the week free, even though I was sort of geared up for the appointment tomorrow. And I have slightly less on next week than I was supposed to this week. And if those guys call and say 'big misunderstanding' (who knows?), I can just cancel my doctor's appointment. Although I'm not exactly holding out too much hope for that.
But, some good things: I was at Aldi buying chocolate on Sunday, as is my custom, and I discovered they're now selling cherry and chili dark chocolate. Which is lovely, although it's still not a good idea to eat too much chili dark chocolate all at once. I did go to Batman Live, as I said, and it was quite good, although probably not brilliant enough for the amount I ended up paying to see it. I didn't realise it was going to be an origin story, I kind of assumed it would be more like just a story that Batman and Robin had to go through or solve, you know. Origin stories are fine, and probably good for kids and stuff that are maybe new to Batman, but it's always a bit weird when you're seeing a story you already know, when you were hoping for something new and to just see the characters being the characters, not becoming the characters, if you see what I mean.
Also, I think with Batman I tend to like the bad guys and Robin better than Batman himself, and like I say, Robin wasn't quite Robin yet, and while it was lovely to see all the bad guys together, the fact that there were so many of them kind of meant you couldn't see any of them for any real length of time. Except the Joker I guess. And I think after The Dark Knight film and some things that have happened recently in the Arkham Asylum game, I was hoping for that to be slashier. Which it wasn't. Still a bit slashy. But not that much, really.
But I did enjoy it. And Catwoman and Harley were great. As were some of the set pieces, like the giant Joker face, and the bit where Batman goes into Arkham Asylum and sees the Scarecrow. And Robin trying to come up with a name. Mostly though,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cakesy had already said that Batman was kind of rubbish at stage fighting, and I was keeping an eye out for it, and he really, really was. When the Joker said of Batman that "As a fighter he's...okay", it was like there was never a truer word spoken.
I did enjoy it largely, though. It just maybe wasn't worth a whole trip to Nottingham as well.
Another weird thing, if not a good thing, is that for some reason I feel about three months ahead of myself at the moment. When I came back from Prague, in June, I really really felt like summer was over, and I was ready for like autumn and Halloween and stuff. And now the sky has gone a bit grey, and it's gotten a bit colder, I'm feeling suddenly ready for Christmas. I don't actually feel ready for Christmas, I'd definitely like to have Halloween and Bonfire Night first. But it sort of feels like that sort of atmosphere. I really like this time of year, at any rate though. The shops have started putting scarves and gloves out, and it recently occured to me it would soon be the weather to have soup regularly again, and start getting wrapped up before I go out. Hurrah :)
In soap news, Coronation Street started the Carla rape storyline last night, and I felt like it was a bit weird, like they handled it really oddly. I get that they probably wanted to make it feel sort of commonplace and horrible, like domestic rape probably is, that it happens while a lot of other really normal stuff is going on and is a massive shock, but it still felt a bit weird that they kept cutting from those scenes to other storylines and then back again. Maybe it was just the way they did it, with it not really being like a tense situation that escalated, but something Frank deliberately did, and then couldn't seem to believe he'd done afterwards. I don't know. I just feel like it was weird. But maybe it's just the fact that I can't really believe that they're tying it in with the ongoing Peter/Carla/Leanne storyline. Who knows.
But in happier news, a while back I came up with and did a picspam on the Doug/Texas/Leanne OT3 I really wanted Hollyoaks to do. And I never really expected it to actually happen. But Texas and Leanne were looking for somewhere to live together for their second year of uni, and yesterday we had a scene of Doug throwing out his current roommate, and then Texas and Leanne walked down the stairs saying they'd had a look around, and were happy to move in straight away! Hollyoaks, you DO know how to make me happy. Hurrah.
However, then on Friday I got a letter from the Benefits Office, saying that the medical certificate I'd sent them was about to run out, and that I needed to send a new one. When I remembered that the last time I went to the doctor, she just gave me one that would last 'indefinitely', until my appeal was finished. So I decided to call up and check. I called today, and the woman who answered me said that it did say on my case that my medical certificate was about to run out, and that it was possibly because my appeal had gone to the tribunal. She made a call to the processors though, and they're supposed to be calling me to confirm it in the next few working hours, which I'm guessing will be tomorrow morning now.
But frankly, I'm kind of annoyed if that is true. It's funny, because the letter shows it's been almost exactly three months since the medical certificate began covering me, so I figured maybe it was a thing, and they couldn't let any medical certificate cover more than three months, no matter what a doctor had said on it. But if it's because my appeal has gone to the tribunal - how does that make sense? Obviously I want to appeal my decision, I know they gave me the option of not going to a tribunal with it, but that's basically what I was saying I wanted to do when I started appealing my decision. If they're still going to pay me so long as I have a sick note, then why do they need a new sick note? And I'm pretty sure 'Indefinite' still means the same thing. That's really irritating, frankly.
And to be honest, I'd really rather not be doing this now, when I've got Connotations coming up and I'm meant to be getting ready for that and saving up and stuff. It's not the best time to suddenly have to jump through a new set of hoops and be worrying about late payments and stuff. I'll still have the money, one way or the other, since I can always fall back on my ISA savings. But even that will mean going and sorting out a transfer, and I'd just really rather not have to worry about all of that right now. But apparently, I do.
Anyway, maybe the people will call tomorrow and say it's all been a big misunderstanding, and I can have my payments after all. But I've called and made an appointment with my doctor anyway, just in case. Although that's annoying in itself, because this week I was supposed to have three appointments, an application forms workshop yesterday, a counselling session tomorrow, and an appointment with my employment coach on Friday. And it felt like a bit much after the meeting with my case manager last Friday and then going to Nottingham for Batman Live (I did that, by the way) on Saturday, so I was wishing for a bit less to do this week. But then yesterday my employment coach came and asked me if we could rearrange our Friday appointment for next Monday, because she had a client she suddenly needed to see on Friday. And my counsellor just called today to say she couldn't make our appointment tomorrow any more, could we make it next Wednesday. And when I called the doctors, the soonest I could get an appointment with the doctor who gave me my last sick note was Tuesday morning at 8:30, and no later in the day, or Wednesday at 9:40. So now next week I have an appointment on Monday, and a doctor's appointment at 9:40 am and then a counselling session at 2:00 on Wednesday. Sigh.
But anyway. At least I have the rest of the week free, even though I was sort of geared up for the appointment tomorrow. And I have slightly less on next week than I was supposed to this week. And if those guys call and say 'big misunderstanding' (who knows?), I can just cancel my doctor's appointment. Although I'm not exactly holding out too much hope for that.
But, some good things: I was at Aldi buying chocolate on Sunday, as is my custom, and I discovered they're now selling cherry and chili dark chocolate. Which is lovely, although it's still not a good idea to eat too much chili dark chocolate all at once. I did go to Batman Live, as I said, and it was quite good, although probably not brilliant enough for the amount I ended up paying to see it. I didn't realise it was going to be an origin story, I kind of assumed it would be more like just a story that Batman and Robin had to go through or solve, you know. Origin stories are fine, and probably good for kids and stuff that are maybe new to Batman, but it's always a bit weird when you're seeing a story you already know, when you were hoping for something new and to just see the characters being the characters, not becoming the characters, if you see what I mean.
Also, I think with Batman I tend to like the bad guys and Robin better than Batman himself, and like I say, Robin wasn't quite Robin yet, and while it was lovely to see all the bad guys together, the fact that there were so many of them kind of meant you couldn't see any of them for any real length of time. Except the Joker I guess. And I think after The Dark Knight film and some things that have happened recently in the Arkham Asylum game, I was hoping for that to be slashier. Which it wasn't. Still a bit slashy. But not that much, really.
But I did enjoy it. And Catwoman and Harley were great. As were some of the set pieces, like the giant Joker face, and the bit where Batman goes into Arkham Asylum and sees the Scarecrow. And Robin trying to come up with a name. Mostly though,
cakesy had already said that Batman was kind of rubbish at stage fighting, and I was keeping an eye out for it, and he really, really was. When the Joker said of Batman that "As a fighter he's...okay", it was like there was never a truer word spoken.I did enjoy it largely, though. It just maybe wasn't worth a whole trip to Nottingham as well.
Another weird thing, if not a good thing, is that for some reason I feel about three months ahead of myself at the moment. When I came back from Prague, in June, I really really felt like summer was over, and I was ready for like autumn and Halloween and stuff. And now the sky has gone a bit grey, and it's gotten a bit colder, I'm feeling suddenly ready for Christmas. I don't actually feel ready for Christmas, I'd definitely like to have Halloween and Bonfire Night first. But it sort of feels like that sort of atmosphere. I really like this time of year, at any rate though. The shops have started putting scarves and gloves out, and it recently occured to me it would soon be the weather to have soup regularly again, and start getting wrapped up before I go out. Hurrah :)
In soap news, Coronation Street started the Carla rape storyline last night, and I felt like it was a bit weird, like they handled it really oddly. I get that they probably wanted to make it feel sort of commonplace and horrible, like domestic rape probably is, that it happens while a lot of other really normal stuff is going on and is a massive shock, but it still felt a bit weird that they kept cutting from those scenes to other storylines and then back again. Maybe it was just the way they did it, with it not really being like a tense situation that escalated, but something Frank deliberately did, and then couldn't seem to believe he'd done afterwards. I don't know. I just feel like it was weird. But maybe it's just the fact that I can't really believe that they're tying it in with the ongoing Peter/Carla/Leanne storyline. Who knows.
But in happier news, a while back I came up with and did a picspam on the Doug/Texas/Leanne OT3 I really wanted Hollyoaks to do. And I never really expected it to actually happen. But Texas and Leanne were looking for somewhere to live together for their second year of uni, and yesterday we had a scene of Doug throwing out his current roommate, and then Texas and Leanne walked down the stairs saying they'd had a look around, and were happy to move in straight away! Hollyoaks, you DO know how to make me happy. Hurrah.
