What are you doing right now?: Return of the Sequel

[nathalie]

I have just made a small claims court claim towards the website I had booked my hotel with, when we were supposed to go to Disneyland past June.
They refuse to refund people, and we've been trying for 4 months, I even had to call the hotel in France to hear what they had to say about it and if what the website I booked with was telling me the truth (they weren't).
We tried several options to put in a claim or anything, my credit card company was absolutely useless.

They might think people aren't going to bother with something like this, but I will not let them get away with this, and I will do anything I can to get my money back!

Our last resort was take it to court. I can only hope now this will work, and I will get my money back.
They have until the end of the month almost to reply, and they better have a positive reply for me.

It's been tough, it's a lot of money, the worries everyday of not having it, and I may not ever get it back, is just so upsetting.

[Taneli]

Ugh that sounds so stressful Nath hopefully it all works out well in the end!

What I'm doing right now is less stressful, I'm watching Bake Off whilst baking a cake of my own

[Guntur]

Stressed at work, so right now just relaxing to calm myself for tomorrow work, and Eddie Van Halen died doesn't help much either, it was a somber day for me.

[nathalie]

Ugh that sounds so stressful Nath hopefully it all works out well in the end!

What I'm doing right now is less stressful, I'm watching Bake Off whilst baking a cake of my own

It better. Don't know what else there is to do to get it back. They even removed themselves from the ABTA website, which is something where you can put in complaints when a travel agency isn't doing what they supposed to. They were, but as of last week, they removed themselves, so that's another way people can't put in a complaint to try and get money back.

The only thing making me feel better is, they have dug their own grave anyways.
If they were honest, and payed people back, next time you want to book, you are like "they were good last time with the cancellation and refunds, we'll use them again".
Now, everyone will be like: HELL NO!


Oh, the beakoff, I forgot about it!
We seen the first episode last week, I had actually never seen it before (I know what it is though).
I like cooking / baking shows.

[nathalie]

I have surrounded myself with my 3 external HD's, and I am cleaning them all up!

It has back-ups from 15 years ago, lol, A LOT can go into the trash to never be seen again, lol.

And I've been putting stuff on an HD of Adam's, so that's 4, and then my laptop HD needs a good clean too. I keep downloading stuff, and it'll just sit there for months, years even, so it's time for some good cleaning.

[KanuTGL]

Sorry to hear that Kanu.
Can you at least stay at your current job?

It seems that way - my contract currently runs out at New Year's, but the way my manager is talking it doesn't sound like they have any intention of letting me go anytime soon. So, that's something at least My wages are offset for some reason I didn't understand, so I get the current month's payment by the end of the following month. It's reaally frustrating and it's meant some bending over backwards to get things to work these past few months... But, I should be catching up now. In the coming weeks I'm going to be moving in with my partner, so shared rent should do something to help my finances too

Sorry to hear you had to go that far for your refund, Nathalie. It sounds really stressful :C Hope you'll be able to get it back.

I'm currently doing some final edits to a commission. (It's the second to last one on my list and I can't waaait to be done with them!) That and drinking tea with honey for my very sore throat No office work for meeee. Agaaaain. Argh!

[nathalie]

I can't wait to hear what excuse they'll give me this time for not paying me back.

You know, I get that if they refund everyone, they'll go bankrupt probably anyways, but if they would at least give out vouchers, it seems more like a win-win in most cases, but, which I'm not getting either, and they haven't offered me one, I might be OK with that even.
So we could maybe get a hotel next year.

Making lasagne.
That'll be food for another 4 days, as I make 8 seperate ones in 1 go ^^

[Kossu]

Having some coffee and waiting for an online class to start. The last week has been hell with deadlines, so trying to catch up to online updates now...I hope everyone's doing ok.

@KanuTGL; That's great news! Congrats for moving in with your partner!

@nathalie; I hope you really manage to get a refund or at least a voucher....I really don't get why they wouldn't give out vouchers, especially if you payed lots of money. I get the going bankrupt issue, but a voucher is the least they can offer when they know people can't make it...Some companies are really pushing it with that, and it seems to be especially restaurants or hotels.

[nathalie]

I was just having a look on the government website, to check the status of the claim, last week it said they still hadn't responded yet, this morning it says "they have requested an extension"

So, now, I have to wait, another 14 days, untill mid-November for them to hopefully reply decent and come up with a soluation.

Another way for them to just keep on dragging this out!

At least they got the claim ...

[KanuTGL]

@KanuTGL; That's great news! Congrats for moving in with your partner!

Thank you! It's going to be interesting for sure, since his flat is sliightly too small for our two workstations But I'm sure we'll manage. We're very alike in how we run our households otherwise, so I think we'll be alright

Currently I'm managing some theatre stuff that I've been putting off due to being insanely stressed followed by being so very very ill... This (unpaid) engagement is just no fun at the moment, and I've completely lost all my will and spark. I'm wondering how long it's going to stay this way. If I don't start enjoying it again soon I think I'm just gonna drop it *sigh* Which would be a tough blow to this crew since I'm the one handling all the money, hahahaa :') But I don't want to spend a huge amount of energy on something this hard if I'm not having fun with it any more. Eh. Decisions, decisions.

[nathalie]

Exhiting time Kanu, moving in!

We got back from another week at the beach *yay*, this time for my birthday.
Great weather, so got very lucky. Though, yesterday was very cold and freezing on the bike. I hate that thing as of now, until spring, can't go anywhere really, unless to the store, no more then 30 minute rides for me, or I freeze, or the strong winds in winter will smash my head inside the helmet, or the strong winds will smash it actually of my head.
But you know, vicious circle and all, need job to get car, need car to get job.

Now back in this house filled with retards.
Not once have I been in the kitchen in the past 3 weeks, where the other guy doesn't walk in. He's alright, but I can't do my stuff in the kitchen when others are walking in, looking at what I'm doing, it makes me uncomfortable.
Vicious cirlce again. No job --> no new appartment & no car --> no job.

*sigh*

At least we managed to go places this time. 2 weeks ago, 60-70 km/h winds made it impossible to really go anywhere on the bike.
York was really nice.
Had been there 2 or 3 years ago, but only seen Primark & Disney Store, lol, but this time saw most of the town center.
Went to Whitby, been there before, but just went to get out, lol. Still a nice place, not really special, but it looks nice.
On the way back "home" we stopped in Doncaster, what a dump it doesn't look nice at all, and Adam got approached by more homeless people in 10 minutes then at Euston station

[nathalie]

Interesting development: I got an email tonight from the bookingwebsite, saying I will have my money within the next 5 workdays!

When I went to check the government site to look at the claim, there is no update.
So, they are probably doing it "privately" so they won't have to pay the interest we asked for + the claim fee.
The interest was just a thing we thought we'd add, haha, emotional damage ... as it's been extremely difficult for me to have this on my mind, so we thought, why not?
The claim fee, it's a small amount to loose looking at the big amount I'll be getting back now.

But, I will only believe it, when I see it in my bank account.

[Kossu]

That's a good thing to hear Nathalie, I hope it all works out in the end!

@KanuTGL; Sorry to hear you feel like that. It sounds like a tough decision to make, when you've been involved for long and you know people depend on you. But in the end your health, physical and mental, come first. Hope you can figure it out!

[nathalie]

I've been watching these "tragic stories" on youtube, about child actresses.

One of them is Judith Barsi.
I've known this story for about 2 years now, but never watched anything about it, only read on Wikipedia.
For those: she voices Becky in The Land Before Time & the little girl in All Dogs Go To Heaven

As Becky, she says "yep yep yep" a lot, and Adam's adapted to that as he found it so funny how it's being said, so he started to do it too, which makes me laugh.
But I had a look if there was a picture of her grave, and the stone actually says "yep yep yep", my God ... so cute to have that on there, and so emotional at the same time.

(her and her mother were murdered by her father when she was 10 years old, as the father couldn't deal with her succes)

And then, clips like, a lawyer going through the Legally Blonde movie, and making comments to things from the movie/script, interesting, lol.

[KanuTGL]

Gosh, yes, Judith Barsi

Over here the first "moving weekend" is done and I've got a bed and my desk+computer in the new place now, hehe. I'm in a strange kind of "inbetween" time now, where I feel like I don't live in either place. Like, I technically live "here" now, but I went to pick up some things yesterday and it felt so odd. Most of my stuff is still at my flat since I'm moving piece by piece, and everything's changed and yet it hasn't - I've even still got washing up to do at my place. It's like I exist in two lives at once and yet not in either somehow. Super weird...

I'm in a strange headspace overall right now. There's the move, the theatre stuff and the work stuff, and they all weigh heavy. I feel really drained and powerless.

Tomorrow I'm due back at the physical office since I'm finally symptom free after almost three weeks, so that's going to be... fun?

Now I need to continue putting pictures up

[nathalie]

Adam's having a Dutch lesson over Zoom (3rd one already), and not much different from the rest of the day, I'm watching some more Seinfeld.
Always wanted this series, only ever seen a handful of episodes, but liked what I seen, so watching the whole thing now since last week.

I'm in a group, Belgians in Britain, and a Belgian woman has been in the UK for over 30 years, and she teaches Dutch in the UK, she asked a while ago if people were interested in some lessons, and I said he would he's not doing it against his will, may sound like that, lol, he kept asking me to teach stuff, but I don't really know how, and he never persisted with it, so who better to teach then someone who's been teaching Dutch for 30 years.
It's a Zoom class with 5 or 6 others who don't really know anything in Dutch either.

[Kossu]

Dutch lessons huh, that brings back memories(it's been about 10 years since I had mine). Hope he has fun with the lessons. It's always nice to learn the language of your special someone, it helps bring you closer to their world in my experience.

I've been working on some commissions here, hopefully they'll be done by the end of the week. With Christmas coming, too many deadlines are approaching as well. Bright lights and decorations will bring some light and colour to the current gloominess though, so I'm looking forward to it.

[nathalie]

I already like the fact this woman is Flemish, so, no offense at all hehe, she'll teach her students Flemish and not Dutch from Holland

He's liking them. Last week he would have missed half the lesson as he had to go to the hospital, and he actually quit work early, so he could make the lesson because he wanted too, so that's really good

We just watched Hidden Figures (I'd just seen it before though).
Going to bed now to stay warm, as Miss Retard from downstairs turned the heating off, so the room will get cold soon.

She's not smart enough to not touch the panel, but to just turn the knob in her own room to 0 (keeps it on 5, otherwise she wouldn't be turning the heat off from the control panel in the hallway). God... She's an absolute joke she is!

[Taneli]

Right now I'm multitasking!

I'm working on my uni coursework whilst watching the rugby whilst baking a banana loaf cake

[Kossu]

Woa, that's quite the multitasking Taneli! And banana loaf cake sounds delicious!

I already like the fact this woman is Flemish, so, no offense at all hehe, she'll teach her students Flemish and not Dutch from Holland

None taken, Dutch isn't my first language so it doesn't matter to me. Great to hear Adam enjoys the lessons so much.