Category Archives: IVA

Another Quick update


Posted by admin

another quick update from me.

As I’ve posted many times on here before, I’ve thought about seperating my blog into two seperate blogs, One for buses and one for personal stuff.  Each time I’ve  thought about it it’s kind of gone to the back of my mind as soon as I begin to realise what a pain in the arse its going to be to do….

So I’ve now decided not to seperate it, But leave it with you the reader to decide on what you see.

At the top of the screen in the green bar, You can now choose to just see bus related posts, or no buses at all 🙂

If you are not fussed or like reading both types then just come here as normal 🙂

 

Training progresses at LM with me now doing my on the train training, Currently working through my route knowledge which I’m finding tough in places but plenty of revising at home seems to be doing the trick!

 

On the bus side, News reaches me of plans for a N5 night bus in MK from mid July, Once I have more details I’ll post here.

 

Not much else been going on, Sold my Macbook Air as I just could get on with it for £750 on ebay and used the money to buy me a nice new windows Laptop, some decent headphones, iPhone dock and still have some money left over!

 

 


Shock Horror!! Its a non bus posting!!


Posted by admin

Yes, Can you believe it! A blog posting not about buses!!

So whats been happening?

Incredibly Little I have to say, (Yes I really am that boring!)

I have been taking some new (to me) tablets for my Psoriasis, I think I blogged about them before, Acitretin. I started out 50mg a day, and after a couple of months Ive gone from 85% skin coverage to under 10% 😀

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[One of my arms looking almost clear]

Some of the side effects of this drug have been pretty poo. Ive had rather ban skin peeling on the palms of my hands and feet, My feet being really bad to the point where when taking my socks off a whole layer of skin would be attached…. Going to work and walking on feet with chunks of skin missing is rather painful and far from pleasant! Ive also suffered with being unable to sleep, permanently dry/cracked lips, Headaches and rather strange moods. Yes even stranger than normal!! At some points in the past couple of months its turned me into a happy bus driver, and I remember one morning trying to get the old dears to sing along to a song as we went down the road… Sadly I cant remember which song now, But a couple of them did join in. LOL

Been back to the hospital Saturday just gone and it looks like the weekly blood tests have shown that this drug is starting to effect my liver like all the rest, But luckily no where near as bad as when I was using Methotrexate, So its been decided that I can carry on with the treatment but on a slightly lower dose of 40mg a day. Hopefully that will reduce the side effects but stop the Psoriasis from coming back. Unfortunately you can only take this drug for a maximum of six months in a row, which will mean my time will be up when I go back to the hospital in November. 🙁 Who knows what Ill be using then!

IVA wise everything seems to be going smoothly, Have just heard from the IVA company this week that its time for my yearly Income & expenditure review and thats the first time Ive heard from them since last years review. Well shortly be into year 4! Hard to believe it really, 5 years seemed an awfully long time when I started it in 2006… Ive managed to keep to my payments, Infact Im actually paying in £340 a month instead of my required £275. I do expect the minimum payment to go up this year as Ive had two pay rises, But Hopefully not by too much!

Going back to the current drug Im using for my Psoriasis, One other side effect is it can increase your cholesterol levels to dangerous levels, Which happened within about 3 weeks of starting it. Now my cholesterol level was far from wonderful to start with, 7.1 but it went upto a very nasty 10.8!! So I started a diet, That was at the end of March and so far Ive lost just under 6 stone (admittedly with the help of Orlistat) 😀 and my cholesterol level, Although not wonderful, is down to 5.9, Which I was told by my doctor is the average for this country. It also means I no longer have to take the Statin things with these tablets. (Which is good because Im not a very good pill taker). The only down side?! Well theres two, The first is if you have a lapse and have something high in fat then the Orlistat punishes you with, lets just say, very frequent visits to the toilet LOL. The second is having to keep buying smaller clothes! LOL and trying to get uniform at work is a struggle at the best of times, But when you keep changing sizes they aint best pleased!! hehehe. Ive changed my diet slightly to fit in with work as it suits me quite well as I like eating what I have, Which is a foot long Salad subway for lunch and a bowl of cereal for dinner, and my two treats are two packets of low fat crisps a week, and getting to eat whatever I fancy on a Sunday… Like I say it seems to work for me.

Im trying to think what else has happened….. Oh yes, I got myself a new car. Ive turned in to an (old) boy racer LOL, A Skoda Fabia VRS…

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I have professional Matt to thank for this, Not only for having one and letting me have a go, which in turn made me want one, But for coming with me to buy one as I know nothing about cars….. So um.. Thanks! 😀

Well I think that will do for a non bus update dont you think?

Oh and heres a youtube video thats doing the rounds at the moment, It made me smile

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0&feature=fvw


Yawning?? You will be!!


Posted by admin

Absolutely nothing exciting has happened this week, So I’m gonna blog about all the boring things that have happened instead.. I can tell you are all excited already.

I only broke down once this week which is quite amazing. One of my wipers flew off the side of the windscreen and got stuck. Arriva fitters are so great that this is the result 5 minutes after my wipers were fixed..

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvI-G7qwl_o

(Yes I’m that sad that I video’d it). Once the decent MK Metro fitters came out to it, It took 2 minutes to fix and was fine the rest of the day 🙂

I’ve been totally addicted to Facebook this past week, Updating my status nearly hourly and getting annoyed that my friends on there haven’t updated as regular as me. I really do wish o2 would do another special deal with free facebook access.

I’ve finally dumped my contract mobile with Three. I’m now on Pay & Go with o2 which I think is far better value for money, Plus it all helps in my quest to remove as many bills as possible from dropping through the door. I now only have the Capital One Credit Card, o2 Broadband and Sky TV Bills arriving, and I hope to have the Capital One gone within the next 3 weeks.

Now that I’ve left Three, What a surprise that my phone has now developed a fault! I can’t send Text messages on my Nokia N95, It just keeps saying “failed” almost instantly. I’ve googled the error message and it seems a few people have had this problem. The solution? Have the phone replaced under contract! Great!! So now I’m using this brick thing for the time being…..

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It’s rather huge!! It’s was the 2nd 3G Video phone I’ve had and it seemed quite feature packed at the time.. How things change. LOL

I think I’m gonna change the style of my blog and do one big post each week rather than little bits here n there, What do you think?

The banking saga continues, (I can already hear Lynne moaning!). First blogged about in November 2006, I’ve given up with the Citibank Delta Card account and, seeing as my credit record is shot to pieces, I can’t get a “proper” bank account with anyone I’m just gonna stick with this Low-Life-Poor-Commoner Electron thing.

I’m on holiday this week so I would prepare yourself for an even more exciting post next time as I can’t see anything interesting happening.


Do you remember the first time?


Posted by admin

This post is quite special… No I’m not shutting the blog down so you don’t have to read my dribble anymore or the fact that I’m giving away free money to the first 10 people to ring me up and say “Guitar Caravan” (which I’m not)… But the fact that this is the 100th post to this blog.

There has been more than 100 blog posts of course as this is the third blog I’ve had.

To celebrate this fantasical moment in history I’m going to post post some bits from previous moments in time….

(my comments about the posts are in bold)

First Posted: 02 January 2005 20:20:16 o’clock GMT

Not really sure what you can reply when you receive this picture in an email….

jeantights

———-

First Posted: 13 January 2005 21:01:25 o’clock GMT

“Well, I had my interview at Metro, and was offered the job there n then. With the terms and conditions they were offering I would have been stupid not to accept.”

———-

I lasted 9 weeks at metro! I have ended up back at ARRIVA via a 2nd spell at Parcelforce LOL and now, Just to complete the Circle I’m being borrowed by MK Metro as they are short of staff at this very moment.

First Posted: 07 September 2006 23:12:32 o’clock BST

There is a Meeting for all the people I owe money to to vote if they accept my IVA and I can work at getting out of Debt, Thats what’s going round my mind at the moment…. All I can do is keep my fingers crossed.

Oh and some nice person has given me a cold over the weekend so I feel like Poo and its not doing my Psoriasis any good either :/

(I’ll stop moaning now)

Oh and I had this Text’d to me this morning.. I know some strange People!

lynnewig

This woman has now moved to Aussie Land. My IVA has been going fine ever since that day (apart from a minor blip) and I haven’t stopped moaning 😛

———-

First Posted: 30 September 2006 21:21:30 o’clock BST

[youtube VXS2QPn6tU4]

Still my all time fave video on youTube

———-

First Posted: 19 Oct 2006

“Instead I have found something called a Terrimundi, A Terrimundi is a little urn-shaped piece of pottery with a small slit in it to fit coins.


Time for an Update


Posted by admin

I Hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year, It’s been a while since I last updated my blog properly, Partly because not alot has been happening, Partly because I’ve been quite ill and I suppose there’s been a bit of laziness in there too!

 

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GoodBye Barclaycard…. Hello Electron!

People that know me will know that I am in a IVA. One of the restrcitions is that you cannot have any “new” credit while your are under the scheme (which is common sense really). Quite a few posts ago I blogged that I was having trouble getting a proper Debit card, ie. Delta/Maestro. I do have one now, But the nearest branch of this bank is Oxford Street, London… Not very handy! Anyway the past few months I’ve been having problems with it in shops where it keeps getting declined for no reason. Rang bank and found out that if the transaction cannot be authorised there and then for whatever reason they decline it. So basically this is a Visa Electron card with a Delta badge, completely pointless, Infact I’ve found more places I can use my Electron card than I can this supposedly “better” Delta Card, Namely Pay@Pump petrol stations.

Well anyway, I was in ASDA the other week and it was declined, So I was very naughty and used the Barclaycard. This was the beginning of the end and the statement arrived today with a balance of £190! This goes to show that I cannot be trusted with Credit Cards and have decided that I never want another one again (Although the IVA company say you should get one once my IVA runs out to get my credit file back on track again). So today I have paid the full balance, Cancelled the account and cut up the card, which felt rather good 🙂

I’ve decided to dump this Visa Delta card and it’s quite useless and go back to my Electron for the time being, and now that I have this Tesco Clubcard Plus thing to pay with (Did I mention that I’m a Tesco addict and by everything I can from there?!) I don’t really need that fancy a Debit card anyway. For emergencies I now have a shiny new Virgin PrePaid Credit Card. 😀

 

The week before christmas was an interesting one in that I broke down 3 times in 4 days.

First off was the Monday, about 1630, 40 minutes into my shift my Double Decker ran out of fuel near Princes Risborough on the way to High Wycombe. It seems that it was used on a Rail Replacement the night before in London and hadn’t got back to the depot til 0230, Long after the Fuellers had gone home. Anyway, enginner arrives around an hour later, By which time I’m freezing, and its another 40 minutes before he finally gets it started again. So by the time I set off again I’ve lost 4 journeys and just take the bus back to the depot for my break, What a nice easy first half 😉

On Wednesday I was asked to go cover a duty at our Leighton Buzzard outstation, which turned out to be the Late shift… Well it’s called a late shift as it’s the last one to finish but its only 2125 and you can normally be out the door by 2100. Just dropping the last person off at around 2035, and on the bus stop was a car, So I had to drop them off out in the road, about 5 feet from the kerb. Thats when the engine shuddered to a halt. There I am in the middle of this road with a bus that won’t start, I get out and try to start it from the back, under the engine hood but still nothing, By now I’ve got a queue of cars behind me. Time to call the old bill, who came out within half hour which I thought was pretty fast who then closed the road at both ends while I rolled the bus down the hill to get it at least partly off the road out of the way. Just before they arrived I rang the engineers who said that they couldn’t come out to me as they were already going to another bus or something, and that it sounded like I had run out of diesel (again) as “that bus did that the other day”. Great! “Don’t worry I’ll get Bedfordshire Recovery out to tow you”, Hmmm I thought, could be here a while then.

DSCF0403

 

After an hour of not hearing anything I rang back, “Oh yeah, Bed’s Recovery can’t come out to you and neither can Soveriegn, You’ll have to wait for me to get back and then out to you”. Wonderful! Well at 23:45 he arrived, Put some diesel in got me back to the yard and then we filled it up, Got to finish work at 0030, so was just the 3 hours and 5 minutes late! and it was bloody freezing that night!

Then on Friday I broke down at Milton Keynes Train Station as my byus was complaining that it had no water, Offloaded the passengers onto a MK Metro bus to take them to the shops and then spent 15 minutes wandering round the Train Station asking if they had a watering can! lol In the end the coffee shop filled up a couple of milk containers for me which did the trick and I was away only 30 minutes late.

All in all it wasn’t a good week for me

 

IMG 0869

 

This is my friend ‘Mrs C’. The name will become clear in a later posting when I have time.

Both of us are going to be taking a bus out one sunday to get some snaps to enter the ARRIVA Employee Photo Competition, So if you see a mad woman driver driving a bus round and round while theres another standing at the side of the road taking pictures of it, with a Oxford branded bus with bizarre destinations on the front You’ll know who we are and what were upto. If we win the top prize (£300) then were off out for the day as a treat.


Time Flies


Posted by admin

It’s been almost a month since my last post, Yet I don’t really have anything to report.

I’m off to drive a bus for our Leighton Buzzard outstation for a couple of weeks as they are short staffed. Nice little shift each day, 1500 – 2120 😉

I’ve re-started my Bus model shop (www.modelsmk.co.uk) to try and make a bit of extra cash..

 

..But apart from that not alot has been happened 🙁


"I've lost the gears AGAIN"


Posted by admin

Apologies for not posting in a while.

I started back at Arriva a couple of weeks ago now and everything seems to be going okay. Had to go through all the training again which was a bit of a bore, and as I knew the trainer he picked on me for nearly every question.

After a few days in the classroom at Luton it was off to our depots. The first day there was a bit of piss taking by the drivers I knew there from the last time, But it only lasted a day. After that it felt like I hadn’t left the place, Which was nice but also scary at the same time. I jumped in a bus and went off to Oxford like I’d only been away from the job a few days!

So far this week I’ve managed to Breakdown three times in various buses.. I really did miss these extra “breaks” at Transdev 😉

DSCF0269

One Broken down Bus – Luckily next to a shop 😉

Also, In the past 5 days I’ve been “spotted” while I’m at work and had my photograph taken..

0447

3160

3160a

 

On Saturday I got my new Co-op Bank debit card. Seemed to take them ages to open the account, well 13 days to be honest So I’m just being picky. Now we have the great task of moving all the Direct Debits about. Oh and since I’ve opened this account I’ve found out about a Credit Union for Transport Workers that offer a Current Account with a VISA Delta card and no credit check, Might apply. LOL…

…and I’m waiting on a cheque to clear that’s for my final wage at Transdev, Might buy myself a decent Digital SLR camera with it. 😀

Oh and I’m working on some marketing stuff for our depot, Will post more about it later.


I need a Bank Account


Posted by admin

DSCF0248

After whats happened in the past few days with my bank account has been used by various other people I’ve been looking at getting another account.

The problem being that because I’m in an IVA I have a very limited choice of who will accept me.

Infact there is only about 4 banks that will take me on with no credit check and only 1 out of that 4 that will give you a Debit Card (Yes one of those manky Electron ones), and that bank is The Co-op. So after spending nearly an hour on the phone to them giving them every possible personal detail about me the computer still comes back with “Referred”, So I still have to wait for a decision. Grrrr! 🙁