Monday 2 March 2015

Changes for good or ill.



2 March

For the first time in very long time, I did the school run this morning. Because Sam had been poorly last week and we were due to have Kile over the weekend anyway, so we kept him until today. The amount of traffic was huge. Normally Kile walks or cycles to school but as we live much too far away from his school, we really didn’t have any choice but to take him. We left it a bit late though and I think that he only just got there on time.

I used Jan’s new Ford C-max, the first time I’ve driven it; and I’m impressed with it. Compared to my Doblo it’s so smooth, comfortable and quiet. It’s brownie/toffee/coffee colour, and that makes it look pretty good too. It’s our first Ford, and our first brownie coloured car. Hopefully we will be able to get out for a day and give it good run and see how it does. Wednesday is looking the best day for it and we are looking at our delayed trip to the London Wetlands Centre. One of my FB friends has asked to be informed so we can meet up, so I’ll let him know later.

Tomorrow I am returning my Doblo to the dealer. It’s sat there doing nothing most of the time. It’s mileage after 20 months is less than 6,000. It’s also an expensive car to run and even simple runs push up the cost by a heck of an amount. Not only that, but we can use the mobility allowance far better elsewhere than having it sat out there doing nowt. Later today I need to get out there and clear out all the stuff in there and we’ll put it though the car wash tomorrow before taking it back. If it’s in a good condition, which to me it is (at least I can’t see any knocks of scratches and so on), we should get a bonus for sending to back in good condition, plus around a third of advance payment too.

We’ve had only one letter today; the DWP or Department for Wealth Punishment, about my DLA. Because I was 64 on the qualifying date, I will be informed later sometime next year whether to make a claim for the DLA (Disability Living Allowance) replacement, PIP (Personal Independence Payment). This is another Tory game to try to keep as many people as possible down at the bottom of the pile. And who else is lower and easier to pick on than the disabled?

It struck me ages that if I don’t get PIP when the time comes, it will affect our income a heck of lot. Up until I turned 65 I used to get a carers allowance for looking after Jan. That stopped when I got my retirement pension. However, I did get an additional payment because of the loss of the carers’ allowance. If I don’t get PIP, then that additional payment will stop as well. For me one of the biggest arguments against PIP is that unlike DLA, PIP is not Disability related, and disability isn’t taken in account when the decision is made. However, how your disability effects you will be taken into account. Say again? Yes, I’m confused too. Mad Maggie would clapping and cheering about this one if she was still about!

Last Monday afternoon we had a heavy rain storm. Straight after it the sun came out again and the light was just magical; I just had to get a shot of it …


Today’s funny …

I was speeding down the highway with my wife in the passenger seat, when a cop pulled me over. The cop came to my window and said, “You were speeding sir!” “No it can’t be, I was way under the speed limit!” I said. “Sir, you were doing 70 in a 50 mile per hour zone,” the cop answered. “I was not speeding!” I protested. At this point, my wife leaned over. “Don’t bother, he always gets this stubborn when he’s been drinking!”

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