In Sickness & In Health

Photo by Caio on Pexels.com

Wednesday, 26 June 2024

The vicar has been down with a certain bug and so has very kindly shared it with me thus the reason for my absence. I continue to feel rotten as I am not able to sleep due to the persistent cough. I am just so so tired of coughing!

However, I am in a better position than him since I am able to rest at home while the vicar has to zoom about with funerals, weddings etc. Quite frankly, I don’t think anyone cares to even enquire after him. Thankfully, he is at the tail end of the bug while mine has just started.

I hope you will understand if I lie low for a while until I feel a bit better. I am hoping that normal service will resume on Monday but I am going to take each day as it comes.

Oh by the way, on this day many yonks ago, we got engaged!!!!

The One Hour Wait On The Phone (Part Two)

Friday, 21 June 2024

The vicar had a funeral that day and so he left early. I did a google search for the number for HMRC – it wasn’t in the letter! I guess they don’t want people to ring.

I found a number and rang that number to be told by a machine on the outset that the wait the day before was forty five minutes! I was all prepared for it. I put the phone on speaker mode and poached two eggs for my breakfast. After a leisurely breakfast, I did the washing up and tidied the kitchen. Then I sat on my computer to read my fellow bloggers! When I checked the telephone, it said I had been on hold for 45 minutes.

Just after an hour on the phone, somebody finally answered! Hallejulah! It was a very helpful lady with a Scottish accent. Unfortunately she couldn’t help me. She couldn’t access my record. She wanted to know if I or the vicar worked for the government and the answer was no. She gave me another number to ring. I told her that all I wanted to do was to pay the bill. She was very sympathetic and assured me that if I rang the other number, the call will be answered very quickly as it was a “special” line.

Anyway, I rang the other number and the call was answered in three rings!!!! I told my story to the young chap on the line and again he was very helpful. He offered to take the payment from me. Another Hallejulah!!! He asked for my postcode and realised that the letter had the wrong postcode. After I had made the payment, I wanted to know why they had missed out on the reference and that was when he dropped what I thought was a bomb! He said that it was because of the vicar’s occupation. According to him, if you work for the church you are treated differently and that is why only certain people could access our records! The reason why they couldn’t access mine was because I am married to him! After I rang off, I did feel special for 2 minutes!!

The One Hour Wait On the Phone! (Part One)

Thursday, 20 June 2024

We both received a letter from HMRC(His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs) informing us that they had written to us before (never heard from them) and that we owed them some money. They had apparently overpaid me in working tax credits when I was still working 10 years ago. I was grateful that the amount wasn’t a big. It was equivalent to one and a quarter week’s of shopping bill. We don’t get any benefits from HMRC and I like it that way but also didn’t want to owe them any money so I was keen to return the money to them ASAP and set about working on it.

According to the letter, I could do it online but for some strange reason the letter didn’t contain the 16 digit reference number that I needed. It was the same with automated payment. If you didn’t have the 16 digit reference number you are doomed.

I had a bright spark moment and so resorted to twitter or x as it is now known. I do have a X account for these purposes! Not a peep.

The vicar, because of my current health condition wasn’t keen for me to phone HMRC because one has to wait ages and the line often got disconnected. I had to do it behind his back! I waited for him to leave before I got into action….. To be continued tomorrow……

Was The Cat Inside?

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Wednesday, 19 June 2024

Life in the vicarage is a little tense at the moment. The vicar is under enormous pressure while I am just fed up with all that is happening….

The vicar had a funeral last week and I was dreading it for him because the bullies were going to be there. Anyway, I waved him goodbye and went about my business in the vicarage.

About two hours later, my mobile flashed. I never have my mobile with me but I just happened to as I was waiting for a security code to come through. It was the vicar who texted. His message read ” At the garage, strange sound from the car”.

Minutes later, he rang me from the garage. He had gone straight to the garage after the funeral. He was concerned about repair costs but I told him not to worry. We are the children of the King I said!

After that, he updated me about the repair. He asked ” Do you know what they found inside??” I thought he was going to say a cat but no something important had broken to smithereens.

I thought it was a cat only because the night before one of the neighbours had come round to say that their cat had gone missing and that it had a habit of going off in other people’s cars!

Too Much Effort For the Window Cleaner???

Window Cleaner Theodore Roussel by The Art Institute of Chicago is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

Monday, 17 June 2024

Here in rural England, we have difficulty getting tradespeople for the respective jobs. We get one and then they go awol and then it is back to square one!

After a three year search, I was recommended a “reliable” window cleaner. I got in touch with him via email and he was very quick to respond. He arranged to come the next day just to give a quote. I told the vicar in no uncertain terms that I will handle the window cleaner. Only because the moment tradespeople see a dog collar they tend to get up to their “funny” business. Unlike the vicar, I am very firm!

The weather here in England is still very cold for the summer so I decided to add a vintage jumper to the dress that I was wearing. The dress has a tie and I usually tie it in the front but on this occasion after putting on the jumper I decided to untie and tie it at the back because…. wait for this…..

I looked pregnant with the tie in the front with the jumper over it!!!!!!! What if the window cleaner thought I was pregnant???!!! It was then that I was jolted back to reality!!!

Mid Year Review

Photo by Nothing Ahead on Pexels.com

Friday, 14 June 2024

It is hard to believe that we are already in the middle of the year. How time flies!

It would be an understatement to say that the last six months in the vicarage have been difficult. So many things have happened. The hardest (after my beloved father’s translation to glory) has been the ongoing drama concerning the vicar. It has been going on for a few years now but things have come to a head in the last one year. I would have loved to write about it here earlier but I couldn’t summon the courage.

Some of you familiar with the Church of England would have heard the term clergy bullying which the vicar finds himself in. I have heard and read about clergy bullying but didn’t expect it to happen to us. In fact clergy bullying came up in February’s General synod. Many vicars in the CofE are being subjected to bullying. Can you believe that?

My main reason for highlighting this in my post is if any of you are vicars/spouses or know of any CofE vicar, please please urge them to the join the Church of England’s union called CEECA. They are part of Unite the trade union.

The vicar has received trememdous support from them. I am saddened to say that Bishops in the CofE are no longer able to provide pastoral support and that is why so many are having to turn to CEECA for pastoral and advocate support. The membership is about £17.00 per month but I assure you that it is worth every penny because even if you never need their support you will be helping other clergy who need them. In fact that is why I persuaded the vicar to join CEECA so that we can help other clergy indirectly but now we find ourselves to be the ones needing their help!