Just getting up this morning and Utilita cut my electric off.
Electric is back, after some raised voices between me and the child that can see it but not understand it, where said child kept trying to put the trip switch off instead of looking at the meter.
Should this be happening? No.
Is it? Yes.
The gas might be on, I truly cannot know until I go upstairs and check the boiler.
The boiler that tends to break when the gas is shut off.
That boiler.
The one that's gonna ultimately cost me my tenancy with a section 21 eviction, I suspect.
Fuck this for a game.
Right, we have electric and gas.
21 minutes after it shut down, 3 family arguments, two trips up and down the stairs, and the embarrassment of being seen by the whole street not to have paid the power again- highly visible, as distressed children being shouted at usually are.
If the gas hadn't been on, I'd have been out of gas until this evening as the kids have gone to their kids club and when I pick them up this afternoon we are going directly to somewhere else, as we have other plans.
The kids were just leaving as it cut off so it made them late.
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I got in at about 7.30pm, after visiting a friend. My children had been gifted some personalised mugs so I wanted to make a stop at the shop for hot chocolate to put in them before bed.
As I'd have to pass the town centre to go home it made sense to swing round that way...
1.🧵
It was only 7.30pm. In pre-Covid, pre-disability times I often walked through that way much later than that. There are shops, pubs, takeaways, restaurants and betting offices that stay open later. My memory held that for this town, at this time, this was fine.
2.
I found town deserted. Just a few outliers standing in the doorways of vacant shops, or wobbling by. I was the only woman I could see anywhere, and the only person who looked sober. For that matter also the only person who looked kempt.
It's really not going my way tonight. I've wrecked dinner. It's so hot (spicy hot) that I can't touch the spoon to my mouth. I don't like hot that much, the kids even less. Its way beyond "just put loads of rice with it". 🔥🔥🔥
It hasn't got a name, let me list what's in it..
Can of coconut milk, 2 cans plum tomatoes, tablespoon of curry powder all straight into slow cooker.
Lump of ginger (grated), 4 cloves of garlic (grated), one(!) scotch bonnet chilli, bunch of thyme (leaves stripped) heated in a pan with sunflower oil and dash of soy sauce...
This thing is now Lazer hot. It shouldn't be, but it is.
My options at this point are knock it down by about 90% (is that even possible?) or pour it out on some waste ground and hope no one sees me... I'm joking, but only just.
In light of that bloody article, let me walk you through what is not extreme fatigue...
This morning my ex came to get the children up for school as he now does daily because I can't do that and also do anything else at all in a day...
1.
When I say "anything else" I am not referring to a job, or a social life, I mean ANYthing.
If I had to drive the morning school run I wouldn't also be able to get dressed. I wouldn't be able to take a bath for those 5 days, I wouldn't manage any lunch or dinner.
ANYTHING
2.
Even then, I don't think I would last the full 5 day school week.
So what the fuck am I calling the morning routine then? Do we have a farm to run or something?
I'm talking about a normal get up, teeth, uniform, breakfast, shoes, sign permission slip, car kinda morning.
It means that now instead of 63p being deducted from Universal Credit for every £1 earned, only 55p will be. Meaning claimants in work are 8p better off per £1 wages earned.
That offsets that £20 for some. Who though? How many 8p's are needed to reach £20?
2.
It's actually £250 that is needed in wages every month, to offset the £20 cut. Or to put it another way, that's 59h work a month on the apprentice minimum wage, or 29h on the min wage over 23.
At age 23, if you work 7h a week you should be better off with the new rates?