A place to rant about things that wind you up ( keep it clean lol)

[Black piggies]

I had a conversation with someone several months ago now, where if one of us residents put a hole in the drywall then not only would we be paying for it but it was an immediate warning. No ifs, no buts. I remembered this last night during an absolute debacle where the fire alarm went off, nobody that was supposed to answer the phone to send security out to switch off what was a definite false alarm, so someone shrugged and went, "Well, the alarm's going off. Ring 999. It's not our fault nobody's answering the phone."

It took roughly 40 minutes to get through to the people supposed to be answering the phone and they gave the fire crew the PIN to get the office door key to get the key for the fire alarm out of the office. And because we were all in a mood by this point we didn't bother telling security they didn't have to come out then. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

So what does this have to do with drywall? Well, I left my phone inside when the alarm went off (took my tobacco and that outside, just the obvious essentials. All 6 of us in the building at the time smoke. Nobody else managed to bring a lighter) so I went back inside and called the people on call to ask why they just weren't bothering to answer the phone. This isn't the first time and I said a few weeks ago, what if it's an emergency, and here we have last night and them not answering the damned phone for 40 minutes. And I'm well within my rights to ask. And the lovely lady on the other end of the phone said, "Well, why were you outside? Who told you to stand outside?" Like I'm sorry but what do you think I'm going to do if the alarm's going off? I knew it was a false alarm from the start but that thing is deafening and there's no escaping it indoors. "Now you're asking too many questions. You need to stick to the same question. If you don't like it, complain to someone else in the morning." "Will do, thanks." And hung up and punched the solid wall because, well, drywall.

Complaint's been made because nobody should be that stupid. And I'm 99% sure my hand's still in one piece. One finger's a bit dodgy but I can still use it. There are much better coping strategies out there, but apparently I hit my limit yesterday. Sigh.

It sounds like a really stressful place to live! I wonder if all these systems are all the more inefficient since covid. Hope tomorrow is a better day.

 

[Lorcan]

It sounds like a really stressful place to live! I wonder if all these systems are all the more inefficient since covid. Hope tomorrow is a better day.

I'm not convinced it isn't someone at this particular place who either doesn't realise this is part of their job, or doesn't care. There's four buildings in the circuit and all are on call at least one night a week. Our staff and the staff at the other two places each get 2 nights a week, there's never complaints even if it's someone you don't like on the phone, they're still answering. This place gets one night a week and god forbid if the world ends on a Tuesday night they're going to be the last ones to know.
Covid really isn't an excuse. Even if nobody can reach the landline, there's a mobile phone someone at that project is supposed to have on them the entire time they're on call. The days have been set for months. If nobody's answering that phone it means nobody's anywhere near it (or it wouldn't take 40 minutes to answer it), that's someone just not doing the job.

I can't wait to move, just so's I don't have to deal with that particular lady ever again. Good grief.

(sorry, rant over)

 

[Rivervixen]

It's great you said they're not being cared for. Very brave! I've just googled Barnsley RSPCA and read the guidance. I'd say a guinea pig without hay and being sold to live that way, is in imminent danger, having had 2 dental guinea pigs. I'd be happy to phone the RSPCA number if it was me. They've always been very nice when I've phoned so even if they said they couldn't help, I don't think they'd be telling you off.

I'd emphasise the risk of gut shutdown and hay being 80% of their food.

If you PM me the number of the shop, I'd be happy to pretend I'd been in and noticed and say they need continuous access to hay, not mentioning you.

Currently on hold waiting to be answered by the RSPCA, thank you for your response x

 

[Black piggies]

I'm not convinced it isn't someone at this particular place who either doesn't realise this is part of their job, or doesn't care. There's four buildings in the circuit and all are on call at least one night a week. Our staff and the staff at the other two places each get 2 nights a week, there's never complaints even if it's someone you don't like on the phone, they're still answering. This place gets one night a week and god forbid if the world ends on a Tuesday night they're going to be the last ones to know.
Covid really isn't an excuse. Even if nobody can reach the landline, there's a mobile phone someone at that project is supposed to have on them the entire time they're on call. The days have been set for months. If nobody's answering that phone it means nobody's anywhere near it (or it wouldn't take 40 minutes to answer it), that's someone just not doing the job.

I can't wait to move, just so's I don't have to deal with that particular lady ever again. Good grief.

(sorry, rant over)

Is there like a residents' meeting where you can say the problem with accessing the on call? Often these things take a lot of effort without any result, frustrating. Hopefully a move will happen soon.

 

[Lorcan]

Is there like a residents' meeting where you can say the problem with accessing the on call? Often these things take a lot of effort without any result, frustrating. Hopefully a move will happen soon.

not really, only because it's not our project causing the havoc. They know about the other one because it did happen a while back and I made a point of very loudly making a deal about it. Nobody seemed to be able to know what was going on then.

I did find out today that the flat I was going to be looking at is definitely mine if I want it. I apparently legally have to view it first but I doubt I'll be saying no, and I'm going to be seeing it Tuesday. Which is great! But Esther's funeral is on Tuesday. Sigh.

 

[Black piggies]

not really, only because it's not our project causing the havoc. They know about the other one because it did happen a while back and I made a point of very loudly making a deal about it. Nobody seemed to be able to know what was going on then.

I did find out today that the flat I was going to be looking at is definitely mine if I want it. I apparently legally have to view it first but I doubt I'll be saying no, and I'm going to be seeing it Tuesday. Which is great! But Esther's funeral is on Tuesday. Sigh.

Aw that's sad, that's in NI? A new home sounds much needed. Relaxing at home is so important.

 

[Lorcan]

Aye the funeral's in NI, so it's not like I'd've been going anyway, it's just that timing wise everything's been awful this week lol. And yeah I'm only going to see it for the formality. There's an almost zero chance of me saying no. Even without the on call refusing to answer their phones this place is just one long run-on soap opera. The two that hated the other two are apparently all talking again but none of them are talking to the OTHER other two that the first two weren't speaking to and the second two were. Confused yet?

That's every hour of the day. Halp.

 

[Black piggies]

Aye the funeral's in NI, so it's not like I'd've been going anyway, it's just that timing wise everything's been awful this week lol. And yeah I'm only going to see it for the formality. There's an almost zero chance of me saying no. Even without the on call refusing to answer their phones this place is just one long run-on soap opera. The two that hated the other two are apparently all talking again but none of them are talking to the OTHER other two that the first two weren't speaking to and the second two were. Confused yet?

That's every hour of the day. Halp.

Aw that emoji sums it up. Too much stress all round. Good luck with Tuesday and a new start and less stress.

 

[Betsy]

When you move into your new flat @Lorcan does that mean you can have piggies again?

 

[Rivervixen]

I called the RSPCA over the shop with the piggies, the lady said she’s been in there before to buy fish as they’re mainly a fish place to begin with, she never looked at the guinea pigs or rabbits she said, but because they’re not in immediate danger of being harmed or they don’t look sick it’s an issue to take up with the council. The lady didn’t take me half as seriously as I think she should’ve, their own website specifically says piggies need hay available at all times to them. I did bring up how the rabbits are in cages not much bigger than themselves as well. I felt she disregarded me and my concerns. Fuming isn’t the word!

 

[Lorcan]

When you move into your new flat @Lorcan does that mean you can have piggies again?

So far everything points to yes, and this is something I really really want to be excited about. I'll have to ask them on Tuesday when I meet them but it's a known project (not run by Petrus/Regenda like where I am now) and staff here plus both care coordinators have said they allow pets. Either way I won't be staying here, the chances of getting an appropriate placement elsewhere aside from the one I'm going to see are slim to none, there's no housing left and I could easily be stuck here for several more years otherwise. Thanks but no thanks lol.

 

[RedLoredAmazon]

One of the rescues in my state is taking care of a poor bun that was hurt by a monster. I'm sorry, not sorry, but if you hurt animals like that you aren't human...you're a monster. Poor baby potentially needs surgery, please send good thoughts for him.

 

[Rivervixen]

One of the rescues in my state is taking care of a poor bun that was hurt by a monster. I'm sorry, not sorry, but if you hurt animals like that you aren't human...you're a monster. Poor baby potentially needs surgery, please send good thoughts for him.

Sending lots of love and healing vibes for the bun. Can’t believe somebody would do this, they’re pure evil!

 

[Claire W]

Good luck with the move @Lorcan. I so hope you can have piggies again. I'm sorry that the RSPCA haven’t taken you seriously @Rivervixen Sending lots of healing vibes for the poor bunny @RedLoredAmazon What is wrong with people!

 

[Lorcan]

You know, I thought it was bad enough that I ordered a grocery delivery for between 8am and 10am this morning, and I did this when it was 1.30am. But you can't rearrange times, you have to cancel and restart, and I decided to suck it up. So I'm awake, cranky, and it's bin day (although it turns out they haven't emptied our bins yet. There was space at least. For once) so I lift the bag out of the bin and go to chuck in some other stuff from the kitchen.

And then I hear it.

Buzzing.

THERE WAS A WASP QUEEN IN MY KITCHEN, PEOPLE. A. WASP. QUEEN.

It seemed very enamoured with my kitchen light (fluorescent strip light) so I got myself dressed very quickly, gingerly walked back into the kitchen to grab the bag, tie it, and leave it outside my door. And then, can of fly spray in hand, I emptied it into the kitchen and legged it. I saw that wasp drop into a bag of stuff on the floor and told myself I didn't really need whatever was in that bag anyway (RIP salt mill) but when I got back inside with my shopping, it was still alive.

I tied the handles of that bag together. Dropped it into another bag, tied the handles again. Repeat for 5 or 6 bags. Stick THOSE into another rubbish bag. Dump rubbish bag into outside bins again.

Is this week trying to give me a heart attack or something?!

 

[Bill & Ted]

I did manage to ring them, they said they get hay in the morning and after closing but I didn’t believe him honestly, I told him I don’t think they’re being cared for properly but they seem to think it’s all fine I looked on the rspca site to see if I could send them anything via email or something but i can only find a phone number that is for absolute emergencies because of Covid, do you have any suggestions as to what I should do next? x

I would monitor if you can. Pop in for something cheap and keep checking. It’s such a shame for the piggies, as we all know hay should be there for them all the time. You could ask them as a piggie owner yourself to put more hay in but you know what people are like, “they know it all”
Shame the RSPCA don’t give out an email address but I suppose they would be inundated with similar worries that the public have and never manage to deal with all the replies
Just read on and I think you are right to be fuming! the RSPCA does it’s best but at times is sadly lacking when it comes to situations that aren’t “life threatening” although this could have seriously damaged those piggies health in the long run

 

[Spaghetti & Noodles]

I guess it was going to happen eventually, my son's LFT came back positive last night so we are currently waiting on the PCR results, the rest of us are negative so hopefully it stays that way.

 

[Black piggies]

I guess it was going to happen eventually, my son's LFT came back positive last night so we are currently waiting on the PCR results, the rest of us are negative so hopefully it stays that way.

Aw good luck all staying well. My 12 year old son had covid in Sept and my friends said so many families aren't catching it from each other, and I never did which was so surprising. Hope you don't either.

 

[Spaghetti & Noodles]

Aw good luck all staying well. My 12 year old son had covid in Sept and my friends said so many families aren't catching it from each other, and I never did which was so surprising. Hope you don't either.

Thank you, we cleaned all touch points last night and as I had to take him for the PCR today I've been off work this morning so everything has been cleaned again, he's actually not really ill, I would say he has a heavy cold, he's got a blocked nose and a slight cough, certainly not continuous, in fact I don't think I've heard him cough more than a couple of times today, so only what you would expect with a cold. But we're following the guidelines and he's spent most of the day in his room, we live in the countryside and have a good size garden so I did make him go out for some fresh air but he'll be spending the rest of the time in his room. It seems so wrong but until we have the results we'll all keep our distance.

 

[Black piggies]

Glad your son is OK. That's exactly how my son was. He was abandoned to his bedroom and was happily gaming until he wouldn't be infectious.

 

[Free Ranger]

I guess it was going to happen eventually, my son's LFT came back positive last night so we are currently waiting on the PCR results, the rest of us are negative so hopefully it stays that way.

My daughter brought it home. The rest of us are double-jabbed and didn't get it. Her positive friend's parents didn't get it either. We were super careful for 3 or 4 days as unlike her friends she seemed to have symptoms, but it turned out to be a cold at the same time(!) Hubs also got the cold but still remained negative by PCR and LFT. Confined to bedroom most of time - I followed her round bathroom with bleach spray - open windows - she had brekkie/lunch in the garden in a big coat and dinner in her room. Online learning and lots of Minecraft. 4 days in I felt so sorry for her that we started to have an hours cuddle time with telly and face masks before bed. Thought I'd get it for sure but not a dicky bird. Love that vaccine! Bit of a surge in Oxon at the mo. Good luck and hope you all stay well x

 

[Spaghetti & Noodles]

My daughter brought it home. The rest of us are double-jabbed and didn't get it. Her positive friend's parents didn't get it either. We were super careful for 3 or 4 days as unlike her friends she seemed to have symptoms, but it turned out to be a cold at the same time(!) Hubs also got the cold but still remained negative by PCR and LFT. Confined to bedroom most of time - I followed her round bathroom with bleach spray - open windows - she had brekkie/lunch in the garden in a big coat and dinner in her room. Online learning and lots of Minecraft. 4 days in I felt so sorry for her that we started to have an hours cuddle time with telly and face masks before bed. Thought I'd get it for sure but not a dicky bird. Love that vaccine! Bit of a surge in Oxon at the mo. Good luck and hope you all stay well x

I feel a bit bad as I sent him to school, the children have had one vaccine and hubby and I are double vaccinated hoping that's enough for the rest of us to be safe. Just wish they'd hurry up and send the results, I'm not good at waiting!

 

[Lady Kelly]

Blinking nurseries supporting every major charity going. Don't get me wrong I have no problem with charitable giving, I do it often but to charities of my choosing. I have not donated to comic relief since the findings many years ago that they had money heavily invested in weapons and alcohol which conflicts with their mission statements. Children in need have a huge amount of money invested, like £80m plus. I can't find any information on where that is invested other than it being managed externally. Would it be wrong of me to point some of this information out to the manager and make a suggestion that they look at how they can support small, local charities on these days instead? Maybe instead of children in need they look at the local charity supporting Afghan migrants and their children, or they look a local charity that provides education and extra curricular activities to disabled children. Then maybe places like the one that was providing disabled children with a holiday to mablethorpe every year wouldn't have to close down

 

[Swissgreys]

Blinking nurseries supporting every major charity going. Don't get me wrong I have no problem with charitable giving, I do it often but to charities of my choosing. I have not donated to comic relief since the findings many years ago that they had money heavily invested in weapons and alcohol which conflicts with their mission statements. Children in need have a huge amount of money invested, like £80m plus. I can't find any information on where that is invested other than it being managed externally. Would it be wrong of me to point some of this information out to the manager and make a suggestion that they look at how they can support small, local charities on these days instead? Maybe instead of children in need they look at the local charity supporting Afghan migrants and their children, or they look a local charity that provides education and extra curricular activities to disabled children. Then maybe places like the one that was providing disabled children with a holiday to mablethorpe every year wouldn't have to close down

I couldn't agree more.
Years ago one of my kids saved up their pocket money to sponsor a turtle through WWF.
She really thought she would be doing a good thing, so I sat down with her and told her how we can check how much of her hard earned money would actually be going towards conservation projects, and how much would be skimmed off for everything else.
The final amount was appalling, and she never did sponsor that turtle.
I have always tried to find smaller charities that do equally good work and suck out a lot less of your donation to do it.

 

[Lady Kelly]

I couldn't agree more.
Years ago one of my kids saved up their pocket money to sponsor a turtle through WWF.
She really thought she would be doing a good thing, so I sat down with her and told her how we can check how much of her hard earned money would actually be going towards conservation projects, and how much would be skimmed off for everything else.
The final amount was appalling, and she never did sponsor that turtle.
I have always tried to find smaller charities that do equally good work and suck out a lot less of your donation to do it.

I think there is a good balance. I work for a charity, its a local advice agency. Our salaries aren't great, I could be on at least £10k more a year in the private sector but our organisation is competitive and our salaries are better than some voluntary sector jobs I see advertised. I have had clients in the past appalled that we were being paid as "it's a charity, you should all volunteer" which is really annoying because if you want good, skilled staff you need to pay a competitive salary but I am still shocked at the amount some of the top charities are plugging into anything but "good causes"

 

[Free Ranger]

I think you need a mix: paid, skilled staff topped up with volunteers. For some people giving their time is an alternative to giving their money - they might have lots of one and very little of the other! One local charity here has a shop that is run by a paid manager but the rest of the staff are volunteers, or sometimes 'clients' helping out. That mix works really well. With the best will in the world if you have one appointed volunteer trying to manage various other volunteers it can all get narky very fast! But the salaried person is clearly the boss.

One of my relations was a Socialist (with a capital S) and so I was quite surprised to find he was very anti-volunteering. I thought he would be in favour of everyone pulling together with a common goal, but his answer was simple. "We shouldn't need volunteers, people should be paid for their work. That's what we should be aiming for". In many ways he had a point - it certainly gave me something to think about.

But seeing as this is the 'rant' thread I'll confess to something that really annoyed me. A few years back our local secondary school was running a series of events to raise money for a local charity that helped poor communities in Africa. The charity itself is a very worthy cause, set up by a lady who had seen the number of AIDS orphans in one community she worked in and set up an orphanage, employed people to look after the kids, then expanded it with buildings, then got in training for the kids so they could learn skills for when they grew up. When she returned to the UK she carried on the good work from over here. They wanted to build some big pools for farming fish so they could learn fish-farming and provide high protein food for the kids, but also become more financially self-sufficient by selling off any surplus: a great idea all round! Then I found out - by asking some quite specific questions - that this group of (older) schoolkids that were setting up and running the fundraising events each had a fundraising target which was pretty high - like over a thousand quid or something. It turned out that well over half of each target was their air-fare and bed/board - this wasn't specified anywhere in the promos - you really had to ask to find out. We were coughing up more for the kids to go on an adventure to Africa to build things for this charity than we were giving to the charity itself. And this is a pretty middle-class area, most of our kids are not hard up. TBH even if the young volunteers had paid for their own adventure and just raised the charity portion I'd still be thinking that if I wanted a well-built fish-farm I'd want a local builder guy to do it rather than an excited 15 year old from the UK (better and cheaper). And I told the school as much - but their attitude was that people get sponsored to climb Kilimanjaro and walk the great wall of China so it's just the same sort of thing. And again if I'm being really honest I don't sponsor them either, unless people are paying for their own flights and board. They also thought that people like me were 'spoiling things' for the kids and the charity. So I phoned up the charity and made my donation direct and told them why and the nice receptionist said that I wasn't the first and they'd had quite a mixed reception to it. I suppose from their point of view each kid raises awareness and £300 for them - it's just from my point of view for every £10 I give £7 goes to British Airways. I tried really, really hard to convince myself that this is quite the normal thing but I just can't. My kids - pretty young at the time - were gloomy because they liked the sound of 3 weeks in Africa when their time came (the assembly had been pitched very well) and they knew I'd never ever let them sign up for it. As it happens we never had to cross that bridge as 2 years later the program was dropped - whether because of complaints or the fact that in the final run some kids got Typhoid I don't know. Rant over

 

[alpacasqueak]

I hate my crazy dreams/nightmares! Horrible one about my lovely RB Rosie the cat and woke at 5.30am to her sister puking up a hairball on my bedroom floor! So can’t get back to sleep despite being doped up on my epilepsy meds, may have to creep in for tea and get told off for ignoring piglets in a minute!
Daisy gone back off to dreamland happily though the little old bugger!

 

[Black piggies]

I hate my crazy dreams/nightmares! Horrible one about my lovely RB Rosie the cat and woke at 5.30am to her sister puking up a hairball on my bedroom floor! So can’t get back to sleep despite being doped up on my epilepsy meds, may have to creep in for tea and get told off for ignoring piglets in a minute! View attachment 190034
Daisy gone back off to dreamland happily though the little old bugger!

Aw Daisy's beautiful. Hope you can get more sleep. Yes it's risky getting up early and trying to not set off the piggies

 

[alpacasqueak]

Aw Daisy's beautiful. Hope you can get more sleep. Yes it's risky getting up early and trying to not set off the piggies

Aw thank you, she’s started moaning at me now so think it’s going to be the whole gang giving me a talking to when I start creeping around! Got to go through the pigs room to the kitchen so not a chance Luigi’s missing out on early grub!

 

[T-Rex]

Sorry about your bad dream @alpacasqueak. Hope you manage to get some more sleep- after feeding the pigs of course..