Saturday, April 5, 2008

5 Fruit and 2 Veg

Thursday 3rd April 2008
Ian decided it would be a good idea to get up at 5.15am today to watch the Champions League between Arsenal and Liverpool, it wasn’t live but it was only about an hour after the game finished and early enough not to know the result. They did show the game live but that started at 2.45am which was a bit too early and obviously the TV Company think so too which is why they show it again so soon after the final whistle, and a 5.45am showing means that people can watch it before going to work.
It was Kristian’s class assembly at school today so we had to be in school by 8.30am, the theme was healthy eating and the whole class had made Paper T shirts with pictures of Fruit and Veg on them and had learned a song about eating 5 Fruit and 2 Veg which was sung to the tune of Mambo number 5. because we were early we asked if there was anything we could do to help, Ian was in charge of making sure every child had a photo taken of them wearing their T shirt that would go in with their work record while Carolyn was in charge of the register.
The show was quite good considering that this is a new class of mixed ages and that they have only been together for a few weeks. Next week on Friday 11th they are having an assembly outside under the flag to commemorate Anzac Day, it is not the right date for it but because Anzac Day is while the children are on holiday this was the closest they could get. We will be trying to get to that one but we think our removal is arriving on that day in which case we won’t be able to.
After assembly we went to the Café to check our emails and were informed by the owners that the bank that we are going to use when we take over the Café, the bank who assured us that everything would be sent to the branch until we took over, the bank who after the last letter to us from them that arrived at the Café, assured us that nothing like this could happen again, the bank who double checked and were assured by their Merchant Department (zip zap Machine) while we were standing in the branch that they would be sending our card machine to the branch and not the Café, had sent the card machine to the Café and the courier, how could have been anybody, wanted to install it. The owners sent it back unfortunately; it would have been handy to get a couple of weeks takings in the bank before we took over, although they probably do not feel the same.
We checked out a website called Wageline while we were there and the awards and benefits that staff are entitled to are a minefield just waiting to blow up in an employers face, the pay rates are high, the levels of benefits are high, if a member of staff works on a Saturday or Sunday even if they are normal working days they get enhanced rates of pay, if they take a holiday you have to pay them their basic pay plus an extra 17½ per cent for a bit of extra spending money. If a waitress helps in the kitchen for 10 minutes and the kitchen duty she is doing is normally on a higher pay award, you have to pay her 10 minutes on the higher pay award, it’s no wonder companies only employ casual staff, to employ permanent staff could cripple you.
So after checking emails and meeting a couple of staff and suppliers that we had not met before, we went to the bank. When we spoke to the girl who had set up our business account for us she was not happy and said that she had rung them 3 times to make sure they knew what to do with the machine, we just laughed it off and gave her the couriers card so that she could get it delivered to the bank which she did. On the bright side at least we know we have a card machine ready to start trading on the day we move in.
We then went to another bank and transferred the money for the house into the settlement agents account and then went shopping for some crockery and glasses, because we had use of everything in the pub back in the UK we didn’t bother buying any day to day crockery. While we were shopping we got a call from the settlement agent asking us to pop in and see him, which we did. The settlement agents for the sellers of the house are saying that they do not want to pay for the gas and electric etc to be repaired in the house and that because it is a deceased estate, as a matter of course they do not warrant that anything is in good or working order. Unfortunately for them somebody forgot to tell the Trustees for the estate because when we put these things down as special conditions they signed to agree them. It would appear that the settlement agent is willing to pay for parts but not for labour, suggesting that we could do it ourselves. On TV we are constantly bombarded by adverts put out by the Government showing people getting electrocuted, burned or gassed so if it comes to it we don’t think their argument will stand up in court and have told our settlement agent that we are insisting on them paying. The fact that they have brought this up at the last minute suggests that they are trying to call our bluff and means that we won’t get in tomorrow, but that is not going to happen now anyway because they have been slow in sending some paperwork back so we are not going to be bullied by them and will sit it out until they come to the party with a sensible solution.
In the afternoon when we picked the kids up from school we took them to the beach where they had a good swim for an hour or so, there was a red powdery sort of stuff floating in the water, somebody told us it was something to do with a certain type of seaweed and nobody apart from us was making a fuss about it so we are assuming that it is not going to do us any harm.

3 comments:

grannyho said...

Hi
sounds good so far. Good luck with the move

Anonymous said...

Getting up that early...to watch football?! Now if it was for cycling...or the gym...*grin*.. It's official - you're mad! (Like I can talk..)

Hope the sun is shining on you,

Jennifer

The HoJo's said...

Thank you both for your comments :o) glad you are reading, we do wonder sometimes if we are talking to ourselves (more than is usual)

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