The Iceman Cameth

You may have wondered why themerchantstale seemed to have suffered a bit of a hiatus in recent weeks. Well, nothing very momentous - a 4 week visit from GF from Canada, a 2 week sojourn in Korea for Brian, an over-worked Daughter Number 3 and, oh yes, the Icesave debacle. This last occurrence wouldn't have had such a negative effect upon my delicate psyche had I not had one of my strange financial premonitions just days before the collapse and finally persuaded Brian to withdraw our money on the Monday only to discover on the Thursday that the B*****s had clawed it back on the Tuesday. Readers, I was not a happy bunny but we are far from alone and now I hear that we should expect to be reimbursed (with interest?) by mid November, much sooner than I had gloomily prognosticated. I've got my fingers crossed but I won't be holding my breath.

Following Brian's recommendation that I do something more constructive with my time, I have begun training as an adviser with CAB. At our introductory meeting there were lots of forms to be filled in, the first appertaining to the Christmas Dinner. Unfortunately, when I saw the date of this Very Important Event, I had to declare a prior engagement. I was going to leave it at that but, when pressed, was forced to admit that on that very day I would be attending a wedding in the Cayman Islands and thus, at this time of national retrenchment, rendering myself universally unpopular. Another form wanted to know about my employment status. A straightforward "unemployed" wouldn't do as this apparently implies active attempts to remedy the situation so I plumped for "economically inactive (pensioners etc)" - a description of my current non-productive situation with which Brian would no doubt heartily concur. However, a quick totting up of my recent expenditure under the influence of GF, mainly conducted in the premises of TK Maxx, (Paul Costelloe woollen jacket, Sketchers trainers and Vera Wang (size 12) dress, all for less than £120) tells a different story. As Brian is also very fond of telling me - it's all a question of perspective.