Hi I hope someone can help me. My home I had was repossessed last December and subsequently sold on Feb 3rd this year. After the mortgage company taking off their money and solicitors and everyone else I was left with £15000 to come back to me. Drydens who dealt with it all said they had tried to contact me regarding this money so hadn't been able to so the money was sent to the court funds office in Glasgow. I've now been in touch with both drydens and the cfo, I've been sent a copy of the lodgement receipt with my case number and amount being held. The county court dealing with this was in Halifax and was too far away from where I live now so I filed in form n244 and made a request to the judge that my case be transferred to my local county court. This was granted.........and that's as far as I've got! No one I've spoken to at my local county court of the cfo can tell me what i need to do next! I was told to fill in a form cfo 200 but I've now been told that was wrong but no one can tell me what I'm supposed to do. Anyone have any ideas. Thanks in advance as usual

Bear with me on this one as its a bit long winded. My parents were farmers until the end of march when they both retired, my dads 67 and my mums 62. They retired for a couple of reasons, firstly neither of my parents are in very good health and secondly they are tenant farmers (they rent a farm off the council, some people ive spoken to dont know what a tenant farmer is, dont mean to sound patronising) and have been sort of pushed into retiring due to the council "preffering" their tenants to be younger than 65. As a tenant farmer my dad, 28 years ago when he moved to the farm, signed a tenancy agreement and part of that tenancy agreement states, and i quote "upon cease of tenancy, we (warwickshire county council) will find the outgoing tenants suitable accomodation" Since the 30th March at 2pm my parents have been living in an old ford campervan in any layby they can find... ....because the council says there is no council acommodation for them that is suitable for them to live in, my dad has one leg, needs a knee replacement and hip replacement and my mum has had both knees replaced and needs an operation on her back, so they need a bungalow or a groundfloor maisonette/flat. The local council involved (Rugby) accepted my parents application regarding their pending homelessness before christmas last year, but cannot do anything until 28 days before the date of homelessness which was 2nd march. The council are now saying they have fulfilled their duty of care regarding their homelessness situation and because they rejected a property that they offered them then they are no longer involved in finding acommodation... .....i shall elaborate on their "offer" My mum had been phoning the council every wednesday when the new vacant properties came onto the councils system..... ..you used to be able to bid online for them but that finished in october last year. Everytime she phoned someone said they would be intouch soon but nothing ever happened until one day they got a phone call from their housing case worker asking if they had considered a small village not far from where they were as there would be a property coming empty soon, it was a ground floor maisonette in a quiet cul de sac.......that was all the information he gave her. my mum spoke to my dad and that night they went a drive to the village in question and as its not very big they found the cul de sac and the maisonettes and one was empty but looked like it was being decorated.. ....they had a nosy thru the window and saw it was very small with space for only a 3/4 size bed in the bedroom and a 2 seater sofa in the living room, they havent been living in a huge farmhouse with loads of space and were put off by the thought of downsizing, it just was very small, more of a single persons flat. The next day my mum phoned back the council and said they had been and looked at the maisonettes there and they were just too small. They are now being told that was the one and only "offer" which they had to accept so now they wont help them anymore. I dont know what i can do to help them, they wont have the grandchildren come see them as the campervan is no place for kids, my mums so depressed and my dads so angry it upsets me so much at the way they have been treated, after 28 years of hard slog being a "model tenant" they have been abandoned..... ..their tenancy agreement means nothing, they foolishly believed they would be housed to enjoy their retirement and spend time doing what they wanted when they wanted for the first time in 39 years (this was my dads second farm with a council and only moved for a bigger farm) Anyone have any ideas? have the council breached their tenancy agreement?

right i shall get that done now, ive downloaded the form from my unions website so i shall hand deliver that to him today. Thanks

sorry i forgot to mention im a team leader for a well known supermarket and my normal hours are 39 hours p/w no fixed hours or days off....my rota just changes each week and my shifts can be either 6-2pm, 8-4pm, 9-5pm or 2-10pm. I also forgot, see my heads all over the place, that the management team was store manager, assistant manager, 2 full time team leaders and 1 part time team leader. Since ive been off this has now changed to 3 full time team leaders and 1 part time.....i dont see how theres space for me to come back if im honest as we were over staffed before i went on leave, the new full timer has only started this week aswell.......even tho they knew i was coming back in 2 weeks time and presumed i was coming back full time.

Hi all im hoping someone can give me a bit of advice. Im due to go back to work on June 3rd after being off on maternity leave (my older posts explain the problems i had there, but ive now got a lovely little boy called max) My maternity pay finished 2 weeks ago and i am now using up 4 weeks holiday from last year. A couple of weeks ago i popped into where i work and my boss (a new one not the one from my previous posts but hes just as bad) approached me and asked if i could pop into work one day to discuss my rota when i return to work....he already knew the date i had proposed to come back and he was fine with this. We had the above mentioned meeting yesterday and he sat me down in the canteen, my son was with me as i have no one to look after him, he got his diary out and asked again when i was returning to work so i told him and he then asked what i wanted from this meeting......i thought we were talking about the work rota not having a meeting. He asked about my circumstances, about my parents, about my sons father......some quite deep probing questions that i didnt think were relevant, but i told him as he then cant turn round and say i said nothing. Now this is where im kicking myself because he asked about my working hours and what can and cant i do........as i hadnt made a written request for flexible working within 28 days of my return. Have i completely blown any chance of working around my childcare? I have no one, and when i say no one i mean no one, to help me with my sons and im scared to death now im not going to be able to work the hours he wants me to do and i think he knows hes got me over a barrel. Ive had so much going on since having my son, losing my home, being the victim of DV, going to court for restraining orders, being made homeless again by my sister kicking me out.......my head hasnt been where it should be so i never even thought about flexible working request. Anyway i told him i had found a nursery for my baby just around the corner from where i work, that had been a struggle in itself as places are few and far between. The nursery is only open monday to friday 8am - 6pm, i said to my boss i would like to work 9-2pm monday to friday....i cant work weekends as ive got no childcare, i cant do 6am starts as ive got no one to take my other son to school and i cant do 10pm finishes as i dont have childcare and i dont have anyone to fetch my son from school......my sons school is 14 miles from where i live so he cant walk. Ive been told by my boss that he cant see how this will work as im a "team leader and in effect im there to run shifts and manage the staff" and "if i start at 9am monday to friday there will already be a manager there whos been there since 6am so there would be no point me being there" Hes said he can look into moving me to another store but he doesnt think anyone will want me due to my working hours. He said he will have to speak to HR to seek advice and if they tell him i can come back on my requested hours then "hes stuck with me on those hours" if they say i cant do those hours then he doesnt know what im going to do. Have i totally ballsed this up by not putting in a flexible working hours request? I cant see his reason as to why i cant do those hours as being a valid reason, but again ive put nothing down in writing so i dont think i have a leg to stand on if he says no. Stressing out here and thats not good Help! Thanks in advance x

Hi people, i will try to keep this as brief as possible without leaving things i consider important out. For the past few weeks ive not been my usual self at work and this has been noticed by my manager who has made comments to other people but not actually asked me myself if there is anything wrong. Things finally came to a head on Monday where my manager took me into the office with the assistant manager as a witness. He didnt ask me to start off with if there is anything wrong he just tore strips off me saying i was THE worst team leader on his management team, my performance is diabolical and hes not going to tolerate it anymore. I was sitting there feeling myself getting more and more upset but not wanting my boss to see this. After about 10 minutes of him slating my performance and saying theres 101 people out there who could do your job better he actually asked me if there was anything wrong me......to which i just blurted out yes im pregnant! which isnt a lie. He asked what i was going to do, was i going to keep it and if i was i needed to decided within the next few days so i could have some "easier shifts" no mention was made about me not pulling heavy deliveries in off lorries on my own or all the lifting and carrying i do and going without breaks because we are short staffed but thats by the by After me sitting sobbing my heart out in front of them both i told them everything that had been going on, an ex of mine had been following me home from work, he had beaten me up on 3 seperate occassions and my boss had seen the black eyes i had come to work with and the split lips but never mentioned it to me just asked other colleagues, things had become that bad that i had had to get a temporary restraining order against my ex and at times i was jumping at my own shadow.....i really am living on my nerves atm. Im awake at 2am every morning with that much stuff going thru my head i feel like my head is going to explode. Well, he eventually let me go home and said he "could sort of understand now" I walked out of the store still in floods of tears in front of all my colleagues looking at me, i tried to keep my head down until i got out of sight then the tears just came again and i sat in my car for about 10 minutes just crying. Anyways, i went into work the next day and the boss acted like nothing had been said between us and reminded me i had to goto a training course in Birmingham the next day and i had to be there for 2pm....which meant leaving work at 12.30pm to catch the train and get there on time.....which my boss agreed to. The next day at work was also promotion change and i was given a list of jobs to do when i came into work at 9am and this included helping our price controller put out 497 price change tickets, 270 advertising barkers, changing posters outside the store, jumping on the tills as and when needed and ensuring the store was running as it should be....there was another team leader there also who started at 6am. This might not sound like much to do but the tickets are printed on A4 sheets of perforated paper, 16 tickets to a sheet which have to be torn up into individual tickets, the advertising barkers are also on A4 sheets of paper 4 to a sheet and these again have to be torn up and then put into plastic barker holders....the tickets and barkers are then sorted into aisle order to make it quicker to put out as your not walking from one side of the store then back and forth. I said to him when he gave me my list of jobs that i was only there for 3.5 hours and i would do as much as i could before i left to catch the train......he didnt give me a reply and told me he didnt want any delivery left either for the duty manager at 2pm. He then went home and left me to it. I came into work early on Wednesday morning as i knew we were going to struggle to get everything done so i thought i would make an early start. The price controller who i was helping had other jobs to do aswell besides putting tickets out, the legal stuff we call it which has to be completed by 10.30am. Anyways, when i left at 12.30pm i had put all the price change tickets out and put out over 75% of the advertising barkers.....i passed this information onto the other team leader and i left to catch the train. Yesterday i went into work to get locked in the office with the boss who once again tore strips off me, it didnt matter what i said about i had done as much as i could before i left....i should have stayed to make sure it was completed before i went to the course even if that meant i was late......im sorry but i dont do late as i think it is rude and unprofessional. He then started to tell me that he has been interviewing people for a position he has available and the lad he has interviewed would make a great team leader, im off work now for 3 days and ive been told i have to make my mind up wether i still want to have a job after my 3 days off as the calibre of people he has been interviewing has made him realise that people who arent pulling their weight can be got rid of as theres people out there who would fill their places with ease. This again has really upset me, the jobs he gave me to do are no way achieveable in the time i had....and i think he knows that deep down but wont admit it. I spoke to some colleagues who i was working with last night and they were in total shock that he could say something like that to me as they always see me running around at work doing 101 jobs at once,going without breaks, having my days off changed at short notice and without being asked....they are in shock like myself. Now i dont know if im just being over sensitive considering my hormonal state or if he really is trying to make my life that uncomfortable i leave or he gets rid of me. Ive worked for the same company for nearly 6 years, never had a warning about anything, never been told im under performing...so he knows im not my normal self but wont support me, if thats the right word to use. Im in the union USDAW but i dont want to look silly and say all this to them for them to turn round and say its nothing.......i just dont know what to do anymore. Ive just come back from the doctors and my blood pressure is thru the roof, which i knew as ive had a headache for the past 4 days which wont go away. Am i just being a hormonal mess or what?

Ah well guess im gonna have to make do with no telly,no bed and no holiday this year..................just wish the idiot would stop going round the house when im not there (gonna have to get the locks changed i guess) he swears he hasnt got another set of keys and gave me his back. Im lying awake at night wondering if my house which is 150 miles away is ok...............ive moved in with my sister in the midlands to get away from him and try to get my house in some sort of order to sell (replacing 2 doors he kicked in and the such like) I dread going back up there to bring more stuff down cos i never know what im going to find there...............back door was left wide open last time and i hadnt been there for 3 days and previous to that the sink had been blocked with something and a tap left slightly running to cause it to overflow. He just makes me so mad that ive worked hard for the past 10 years to get a nice home and he just tries to wreck it all by being a selfish SOB...............i keep telling myself NOT to go to his level (could go round and tell his beloved mother hes a pill popping,weed smoking,woman beating @rse....but i dont) Dont spose anyone has a rought idea how much it is to change 2 locks do they? lol

Lo peeps, this time last year my partner (now ex) were given £700 as a gift from his mother towards a holiday (she had won some money at bingo or something).....we were both living together as a couple and had been for the past 10 years. In April this year we split up, my ex has now said that this money was meant to be for us (as a couple) and i have no claim to it as were no longer together. Hes taking great pleasure in telling me hes going away for 2 weeks in August on hoiday. Yes the easy thing for me to do would be to make a clean break and forget about the money, but surely half of that money is mine?!? Hes also taken a large TV that his mum bought for us, a dishwasher (which was bought for us as a xmas present) and, believe it or not, a bed which was bought 10 years ago when we fist moved in together because she "bought it for US and were no longer together" All seems kinda petty to me but him and his mum do make a nice couple Surely if something is given to a couple as a gift, and then one of the couple takes it the other part of the couple should be reimbursed (less any depreciation in value)

Our set top box died a death a few weeks ago......the modem had died in it i think. The set top box was a couple of years old and Sky engineer came out and replaced it no problems, we were expecting them to charge us for a new box but they didnt, cant fault Sky on this really because this is our 4th sky box which has developed the same fault and been replaced free by them........known fault maybe? When i phoned them i was expecting the usual its out of warranty etc and then me threatening to cancel my multi room and HD but they didnt, couldnt have been nicer infact!

OMG sounds like you work for the company i do! I usually get my rota on a thursday for the following week but never get asked if i have any preferences or appointments, like yourself theres only 1 day im sure im going to be working and thats till midnight every sunday, i only get a weekend off if i book a weeks holiday.......so that works out at 5 weekends off a year.........compared to his 2 a month! Ive tried talking to my boss and i get the "well you cant work full time AND be a mother, needs of the business come first" Ive spoken to our area HR people and they say that my rota is down to the store manager and they cant get involved.............hmmm Ive recently split from my partner aswell so ive requested not to be doing 3 late nights every week and could i have some day shifts as the manager and duty manager always seem to do a couple a week, was told they would look into it. It seems to me that if your a supervisor your expected to just drop everything when they ask and are there just to do the crap shifts they dont wanna do, i dont have a social life and the last time i saw my son was sunday at 2pm when i dropped him off at my ex partners house whilst i went to work, next time i will see him will be tuesday at 3pm when he finishes school, he goes straight to school from my ex's house so i dont see him in the morning and then ive been at work from 3pm so i dont see him when he finishes school. Ive lost count how many parents evenings ive missed and ive never been to see my son in a school play as no one will swap shifts with me but im expected to when they ask...........i have started saying no now which really cheeses them off.

i also work in retail (sainsburys) and its drilled into us "if in doubt.....ask" i would rather my staff ID everyone, and there was a point in the part of the UK where i work where everyone purchasing an age restricted product had to be served under dual control.....the person serving the customer AND another colleague had to agree they were over 21 (which it was at the time) didnt matter if they were 18 or 80! The reason for doing this will be explained later. I myself think the think 25 policy is better than the think 21, its easier to judge someones age who is 7 years over the legal age of 18 than 4 years as it was with think 21. We do refresher training every 6 months so that all colleagues,management and security guards are fully trained, and aware of the consequences, regarding under age sales. I would want to end up with:- £80 on the spot fixed penalty criminal record possibility of being taken to court lose my job cause the store to lose its licence. The amount of pressure on my till colleagues to make sure they dont get caught out is unreal. I back my colleagues up 100% if they call me to the tills because a customer is kicking off because they have been asked for ID...........its not like there isnt enough signage around the shop telling you that is you look under 25 you will be asked for ID, and this isnt because i get a kick out of it or my staff, infact ive been kicked, spat at, punched and bottles/cans thrown at me because ive refused the sale. Id take all that grief because i dont want one of the above consequences happening to me. Till colleagues are also trained that if someone is buying an age restricted product that they SUSPECT is for someone else that they can also ID anyone with them...........thats all they need an element of suspicion, again i will back them up 100%. Now back to our dual control measures that were enforced. A store in my area had a test purchaser come into the store, i think the test purchaser was about 16, they were served with an age restricted product and not asked for ID The till colleague was given a fixed penalty notice AND took to court. 4 days later, trading standards came a knocking again, different colleague and different test purchaser. once again they were sold an age restricted item, colleague given £80 fixed penalty notice and the store manager given a final warning........this was when it was 3 strikes and your out, its now 2! 2 weeks later, same scenario....another failed test purchase. Same things happened, colleague fined, the store given a temporary notice against their licence...............store manager went home that afternoon after explaining to the area manager and the regional manager what had happened.............had a massive asthma attack and died. Thats when dual control was brought in. Me as a manager, wouldnt wish that kind of stress on my worst enemy. So im more than happy to take the grief and abuse off a few customers than to end up in an early grave!

we were TUPE'd

Ello all, Hoping that someone can give me some advice on this matter.....its something thats been on my mind for a while now. I worked for a small local group of convenience stores, this local group was taken over by one of the top 4 supermarket retailers. When this happened all the staff had a 1 to 1 with someone from HR who went thru the in's and out's of changing our contracts to the "try something" employer. We were told that by signing the new contracts we would be no worse off, infact we would be better off! Great everyone thought.......until reality hit! With our old employer we got treble time for working a bank holiday which was your contracted day, double time if it wasnt your contracted day. With new employer, if a bank holiday fell on your contracted day then you would be compensated with extra days holidays......which basically meant, if your working day fell on a bank holiday and you wanted the day off then you could take the day off as holiday and loose no non of your basic holiday entitlement..........thats what we were told! Turns out, we DONT get any extra days holiday if your contracted to work mondays (which tbh is when most bank holidays are) and it was a bank holiday and you wanted the day off then you take a days holiday out of your holiday entitlement. To rub salt into our wounds we have been told that "try something" employer doesnt recognise bank holidays...they are just a normal day! Hmmm........funny that if you work at a BIG "try something" store you get paid time and a half for working bank holidays, if you work at a small local "try something" store you get nothing. Not to mention the sunday premium and if you work after 10pm you get unsociable hours pay which is time and a qtr. We as "locals" stores get non of this, even tho most stores are open till 11pm....some till midnight. So much for us being no worse off, and bank holidays not being recognised blah blah blah Their response to our queries regarding the above issues is "the takeover was a bit rushed and we gave out the information given to us at the time" and "conveneince colleagues have never been paid more than supermarkets" Were not being asked to be paid more, just the same as people in supermarkets! Our union rep is dragging his heels on this and weve been waiting for ..................wait for this.........................over 18 months for his reply!!! I think we are all fed up at being lied to in the first instance and then lied to again regarding the "we dont recognise bank holidays, there just a normal working day" Anyone any thoughts? :confused:

Hi there, for nearly 3 years i have worked in the same store as a colleague. When i first started working there we were a Jacksons convenience store, Jacksons sold the majority of their stores to Sainsburys and we were then known as Sainsburys @ Jacksons (still on Jacksons contracts) In October 2007 we were told we would all be changing to Sainsburys Local stores and would be changing our contracts to Sainsburys contracts. Every store had a visit from someone in HR and our contracts and employment changes were explained to us............this is where we are all confused! We were told we would be no worse off with regard to pay and conditions, infact we would be better off as Sainsburys offer a bonus scheme if the company and store meet certain sales targets and other targets such as availability and mystery shopper results. It was also explained to us that as Sainsburys do not pay extra for working bank holidays if your contracted day fell on a bank holiday you would receive extra days holiday entitlement for these bank holidays, if you actually worked the bank holiday you would get an extra days holiday and if you didnt work that day you would have 1 days holiday deducted from your holiday entitlement. Jacksons paid treble time for working bank holidays. We have all now been told that sainsburys do not recognise bank holidays and as such there is no extra pay (which we had already been told) and no extra days holiday for working a bank holiday. We called the area HRM into our store to explain why we were told one thing, i should add we were told about the extra days holiday then given a contract to sign which non of us have a copy of, and then the complete opposite is true. They told us that at the time it was a bit of a rush to get all the old jacksons stores switched over to the new sainsburys contracts and things were a bit messy and information was not passed onto us correctly in some cases. Now one of the reasons we are confused with what we have now been told is what staff are paid at Sainsburys mainchain stores, not the little local stores we work at, they DO get paid time and a half for working bank holidays, and they get weekend premiums, late night working premiums and sunday premium..........and this is not just staff who have worked for the company for a long time, this is staff who have worked for a year, this we know as we have a student who works at our store during term time then works at her store in Hereford during summer holidays and she has been working for less than a year at her store. We feel like were being lied to day in day out and feel as tho weve been conned into signing these new contracts. We are open everyday of the year apart from christmas day, mainchain dont open all these bank holidays, from 7am to 11pm. Staff morale is rock bottom and we are sometimes running the store with one member of management and 1/2 colleagues somedays because no one wants to do the overtime to cover holidays/sickness because they feel like they are being treated like crap by Sainsburys.

I recently had a discussion at work with my manager as to the bullying and harrasment im receiving at work and thru facebook from a member of management and a colleague at work. Im embarrased to admit that me, a 35 year old woman, is feeling bullied an intimidated by women that are 10 years younger than me and im on medication due to the bullying. I dont know what defines bullying and harrasment but i will list some of the things that have been going on at work. The other member of management had been off sick from work earlier this year, i dont know why, but i started recieving phone calls at home asking me if i was happy that i was the reason xxxxxxxxx was off work because it was all my fault (having spoken to my manager he reassures me it was nothing to do with me) Ive had notes left on my car windscreen whilst at work telling me to f**k off and die and to do everyone a favour and leave. Im more senior to the other member of management and as such ive been asked to relay messages and guidance to them, i do what im asked to do to be met with hostility, verbal abuse, written abuse on staff notice boards and written abuse on facebook, mainly between the member of management and another colleague at work. If im duty manager at work when this particular colleague is at work they leave hurtful comments on facebook about me and tell the rest of the staff at work that night not to talk to me, ignore what i ask them to do and tell them ive said this that and the other about them. It might seem part and parcel of the job for some people but ive had all this going on for the past 2 years and im at the end of my tether. When i spoke to my manager he straight away asked me if i wanted a transfer to another store, but why should i move! They want to push me out and if i go then they have won, but i honestly dont know how much more i can take, im drained mentally and physically and my life outside of work is suffering, im even having nightmares about these people at work. My manager has said that he will speak to the poeple involved but tbh i think it will make matters worse. My friends that i do have at work are disgusted at the way things have been left to fester and grow, this isnt the first time ive spoken to my boss about whats going on at work, and my friends are now being subjected to bullying because they are my friends. Im trying to put on a brave face to my family, but when i speak to my mum and she says theres something wrong with me because ive gone from being an outgoing, funny, always happy person to a shadow of my former self what can i say to her apart from im just a bit stressed out at work.

Hi there, I work in a small supermarket and have been doing so for the past 2 years as a supervisor. Our opening hours are 7am - 11pm and as a supervisor i run the store 5 days a week either working 5.30am - 3pm or 2.30pm - 11pm. I feel dead on my feet and im making stupid mistakes because im just so tired due to the hours that ive been having to work last week/this week. Last week my worked shifts were: Sunday 2.30pm - 11pm Monday Off Tuesday Off Wednesday 5.30am - 3pm Thursday 5.30am - 3pm Friday 2.30pm - 11pm Saturday 5.30am - 11pm (had to work a double as no management cover available to relieve me) This week: Sunday 2.30pm - 11pm Monday 5.30am - 3pm Tuesday 2.30pm - 11pm Wednesday Off Thursday 5.30am - 3pm Friday Off Saturday 5.30am - 3pm I only get paid for 39 hours no matter how many hours a week i work which i think is totally wrong, but the main thing that is bothering me is the working till 11pm and then having to be back at work the next day at 5.30am, it seems to happen to me all the time and ive told my boss i just cant do it as im just so tired but he doesnt seem to be bothered by it as "he can do it" The full day on Saturday was unavoidable as the supervisor who was due to relieve me had to take her husband to hospital as hed been assaulted at another one of our stores and had got a fratured eye socket, but im annoyed and find it had to believe that there was no one out there that could have come from another one of our shops to relieve me. My area manager phoned me mid afternoon on saturday to ask if i was doing the double shift and i told him i was, maybe because im scared of the repercussions on me if id refused (im being trained for a promotion and didnt know if that would go against me) I just dont know what to do tbh, i emailed my union USDAW but im still waiting for a reply. Im just so tired and cranky and my home life is suffering, for instance i saw my son for an hour on friday before he went to school, i didnt see him again till sunday lunchtime when i woke up. Does anyone have any ideas about what my rights are or any ideas on how to approach my manager?

I was a Special Constable about 15 years ago. The interview as i remember it was quite relaxed and there were 3 people conducting the interview, the inspector for the regular police and 2 higher ranking special constables. I was only in the specials for about 3 years as my employer was awkward when it came to me having time off to fulfil my monthly commitments, but that was because she was on the fiddle at work and didnt like me having anything to do with the police......ha ha ha shame that i shopped her for her thieving. I was in a relatively quite town in warwickshire and only had one arrest which resulted in the offender resisting being put in a cell back at the station, a tussle ensued and a regular constable had his ear bitten off by the offender. If,like my self, you work a full time job it can cause problems sometimes. As in the above incident it took till 6am to get all the paperwork done and i was due in my full time job at 8.30am. But looking back i could kick myself sometimes for leaving it was such an experience and i really enjoyed myself whilst i was with them. You do see some pretty nasty sights, such as dealing with traffic accidents and domestic situations, but there was also the fun things that we did like going to schools to chat with the kids about road safety or visiting older people to give them advice on crime prevention, some of the tales you hear off the older folks have you in stitches. I wish you well with your interview.

When i was 7 i had a similar experience. I was having trouble focusing on things like the TV or ppl's faces, i would have to turn my head to the side and look at things from a sideways angle (if you know what i mean, kind of like looking out the corner of my eye) my mum took me to the doctors who told her that there was nothing wrong with me and i just needed glasses. My mum took me to an opticians who examined my eyes and said they couldnt see anything wrong with my eyes. My mum wasnt convinced as i was having terrible headaches and blurred vision so she took me back to the doctors, yet again the doctor told her they couldnt find anything wrong and that i should have a more thorough eye exam. Once again i was dragged to the opticians who spent ages looking at my eyes and feeling the back of my neck, i dont know to this day what was said to my mum but i remember her driving like a loon from the opticians to our doctors surgery and my mum demanding to see a different doctor. I was seen by a locum doctor at the surgery who looked in my eyes, got me to try and walk down a straight line, touch my nose with my finger whilst my eyes were closed etc etc I can still to this day see the doctors face when he turned to mum and said "we can get an ambulance here in 30 mins or you can drive to Burton on Trent hospital yourself in 15, but she needs to goto hospital NOW for an emergency scan" Needless to say my mum drove and as it turned out i had a tumour on my brain the size of a golf ball which was putting pressure on my brain, i also had a bleed on my brain. I was taken to Birmingham childrens hospital where i was dealt with by an amazing consultant Dr Green. I thank that locum doctor everyday that he found out what was wrong with me and dealt with it accordingly. If the tumour hadnt been discovered when it was i would have been dead within 2 weeks. I was on anti convulsion drugs for 5 years and had to have yearly check ups until i was 11. Im now 35 and suffering no ill effects. Ive spoken to my parents about what happened to me many times and they in no way blame any of the doctors that dealt with me before my final diagnosis. I myself dont blame anyone, im just grateful that what i had was caught in time and im still alive and have gone on to lead a fulfilling life, even though my tumour could come back and this time it probably wouldnt be operable. I have no hesitation in taking my son to see the doctor, and yes im an overprotective mum, maybe thats because of what ive been through myself, i dont lay blame and neither do my parents at anyones door. Symptoms presented could mean a whole catalogue of things and you have to rule one out to get nearer the real problem. Dont get me wrong that i think doctors do get it wrong sometimes, my grandma went to the doctors with stomach pains, she was told it was in her head, she was diagnosed with a terminal cancer 2 years later and died 2 weeks before i was due to get married so i have every reason to be bitter towards the NHS, but im not. People might think im a bit daft in the head (well i did have a chunk removed) but im not,im just grateful for the chance ive been given and i dont hold any grudges against the GP's i saw.

My brother bought a house 4 years ago on his own but was engaged to be married. He got married eventually, he had by that time got 2 beautiful kids. Last June his wife kicked him out, his clothes in bags on the front garden, and said he had been cheating on her, yes i know hes my brother and i would defend him till i die but my brother cant lie to me if his life depended on it......call it big sister intuition. She stayed in the home he bought with the kids, everything was up in the air with her denying my parents access to the kids unless it suited her. Since June last year my brother has been paying the mortgage,council tax,gas,electric,water,telephone and sky tv on a property he doesnt live in...........approx £800 a month. A couple of months ago his wife changed the locks on the house without his prior consent and got a restraining order on my brother for stalking, he had dropped the kids off and got a bit down the street when his car conked (hes a mechanic so he knows when a car cant be fixed there and then) he had to phone my sister to get a tow back to my parents farm where he has been staying since June. His wife saw him sat there up the street and complained to the police and her solicitor and thus got the restraining order.....but she still lets my brother come to the house and fetch the kids?!?!?!?! Can my brother do anything about the locks being changed on his house........shes not on the deeds/mortgage.........hes scraping by each month paying for a home he doesnt live in and obviously hes still devestated by the seperation so its having an effect on his work (hes self employed) and as such he isnt earning as much....hes lost all zest for life and im really worried about him. He pays his ex wife £75 a week for his 2 kids, no matter how much he earns, and can only see his kids when his wife says she can see them.....usually on a saturday night when shes off out for the night. I just dont see how this can be fair. Anyone have any advice!?!

Ive got the same problem with Simply Be, after a long discussion with one of their representatives on the phone a few mins ago it seems that if you miss a months payment you get charged £17.50.......then if you still havent paid in another 2 weeks time you get charged another £17.50 equalling £35 for missing one months payment Im going to be sending in a SAR and then making a request for all charges to be refunded!

Got my nice shiney new card thru the post today..............shame i cant use it as they have issued me with a new PIN number which hasnt arrived yet, im so mad that ive just kicked off at the bloke on the end of the phone and he said its due to managed accounts putting a marker next to my account, and because i have that marker i wont be issued a new card automatically and i will have to phone to get a card to get access to MY money, and everytime i order a new card im going to have to wait to get a new PIN aswell. Still dont have access to my money cos i was at work 9-5 today and the bank shuts at 5 and for the rest of the week im on yep youve guessed it 9-5............im hoping that my PIN come thru 2morrow as ive got no food in the house and nothing to feed my son and i thinks its disgusting that your treated like a reprobate and someone in an office decided whether or not you can have an easy life like most ppl or they mess you about. Yes i should have checked when my card was due to run out so yes partly my fault but how many of you out there get a new card issued thats only valid for 12 months? every other card ive had has been valid for 3 years.

off topic a bit but i remember my dad having trouble with severn trent, he is a farmer and was disputing a bill for 1 trough in his field which according to severn trent was on its own water meter. The field where the trough was was just used for crop growing so no cattle in the field to drink water from the trough so apart from evaporation no water was used....my dad kicked off about some big bill he had received for this trough after receiving no bill ion the past for the said trough only to find out they had been sending letters to the trough, not my dad but the trough, was addressed something like trough, top field wolvey, leicestershire........would have liked to see them take the trough to court but anyways just one example of severn trents incompetence

well just got off the phone and it seems as i am with managed accounts i do have to phone up and request a new card. Im with managed accounts because i have had charges against my account for unpaid items........all the ones im currently claiming for funnily enough. She checked my account and i have had no charges against my account for over 2 years now so she couldnt understand why i was still with managed accounts. So if anyone else is in the same boat as me ya might wanna check to see if your with managed accounts and keep an eye on when your cards run out cos u will have to phone them. There is no mention of having to call for a new card to be issued anywhere on their website, and they are going against their own service guarantees.........lets see if i get the £15 compensation that they say they will give if they dont stick to their own guarantees

Went to pay for some shopping at work on friday for my card to be declined, hadnt realised my card had run out the day before. Rushed home to see if my new card had been delivered as i didnt have a penny in my purse. Got home and there was no new card waiting for me so i phoned customer services. After being on hold for 9 mins i was told i wouldnt have received a new card because i hadnt phoned up to request a new one to be issued when my old one ran out?!?! Said to the woman on the phone that id been with this bank for nearly 20 years and in all that time i had never had to ring up for a new card and she said thats because this is a new thing they have bought in?!?! Had to make a mad dash into town to my local co-op bank at 4.20pm to draw money out and i even asked the woman in the branch since when have they been doing this and she said she had never heard of that. Ive now got to wait upto 5 days for a new card to come thru the post, so if i need money in the mean time ive got to drive all the way into town to draw money over the counter, lets hope i only ever need money on my day off as getting the 6 miles into town at 4pm when i finish work takes anything upto 45 mins and the branch shuts at 5pm. Anyone else ever been told that about their debit cards? Ive checked on co-ops website and it says in their service level guarantees : Cheque books and cards - We promise we will automatically issue your cheque book and cards to make sure you always have them available. Time to get on the phone and complain i think.

Ive been looking for tickets to see Kaiser Chiefs @ Elland Road this year and did a google for tickets, i was amazed to see tickets available for £35 front row standing for £35 each............great i thought (and still do) I entered the amount of tickets i wanted and it came to roughly £90 for 2 tickets.........postage + booking fee. was going to click on book now when i saw that the contact details for London Ticket Office were actually in Hungary as below Contact Information: London Ticket Shop KFT, Páty. Pf.: 88. 2071. Hungary Im just a bit wary thats all cos i get screwed with tickets to see Kaiser Chiefs in Hull last December. Anyone had dealings with this company good/bad?