Gigantic Update

*Yawns* Ok, I'm tired. I'm in that kind of mood where I want to do something but my lack of energy kinda says "No" to everything my brain thinks up. I'm actually writing this on my housemate's Toshiba laptop in the living room. It's a nice laptop but the trackpad is placed just where I want to rest the bottom of my palm, near the base of my right thumb. So I'll be typing away and suddenly the cursor will zoom off somewhere, never to be seen again. LOL

So, on with my life.

Dad

Dad's ok. The home he's in is looking after him well but, because of the severity of the conditions of other residents, he's not got much interaction with people. It's actually the thing that bugs me the most at the moment, and I want to get it sorted as soon as I can. Mum looked round a nice home in Driffield today but they wanted to know whether or not we were going to take the room by tomorrow and unfortunately that's just too quick. They also wanted a £100 deposit on the room and, I found out after talking with my Dad's care worker person, that, until the financial assessment had been completed, there would be a £52 a week 3rd party top-up fee to pay. The 3rd party part is the crucial part, it means that it's actually ILLEGAL for me to take that money out of my Dad's funds (which I was planning on doing, it's for his care after all). So if we had gone with the house and signed everything I could've been arrested down the line. Eeek.

There's actually SO much to work through it's making my brain hurt sometimes. I'm gonna make a list here just to keep my thoughts in order, by all means feel free to ignore:

• Dad's car needs sorting. This requires:
  
  
  1. getting it through an MOT (happening tomorrow hopefully)
  
  
  2. getting it taxed. I'm hoping the garage will let me pick up the MOT certificate when I collect the car.
  
  
  3. I'll also need to go through Dad's (amazingly unorganised) paperwork to find his insurance certificate and see if it's still insured.
  
  
  4. I also need to see if I'm selling the car or taking it on. This means ringing the AA. Do tomorrow? Thursday?
  
  


• Dad's flat needs sorting. I've been loathe to do this before now as I wasn't sure if he was able to live on his own again. However, I don't want him living on his own, he'll drink again as there's no one around to occupy him and keep him socialable so the demon drink will return and his body can't stand much more alcohol. Sorting his flat involves:
  
  
  
  1. Letting his landlord know that the tenancy is ending. How much notice needs to be given?
  
  
  2. Sorting out where his stuff is going to go and how it's going to get there. Sandra said she'd sort the van out, and her and Dad had loft space. That's great but what about the bookcase that Dad built? The bed? The bench in the living room? Freecycle for some stuff is a possibility but we won't get the bed in the van, will we?
  
  
  3. Cancelling the bills he's got with the various companies. Informing them to send any information to me.
  
  
  4. Sorting out the Direct Debits associated with said bills. I don't have power to do that yet, but maybe HSBC can help? Or write a letter to the bank then get my Dad's signature on the bottom?
  
  
  5. BEFORE ALL THE ABOVE IS DONE: I need to talk to Dad's landlord and get access to his flat as it is, I don't have the keys for the new door yet and I NEED them!
  
  


• Other houses need to be looked at. Before January 9th if at all possible. Dad's sister seems fine with Dad staying at this end of Yorkshire (surprise, surprise) so look for ones round this end. What about York? Not as good as Driffield? More adults around Driff that he knows, but maybe York would be better, we could go for walks and everything!


• Need to find out EXACTLY what's coming into and leaving Dad's account everymonth as the financial assessment in January will need this information. It also helps with me organising Dad's finances.


• I need to speak to a solicitor again to find out about being nominated a reciever for Dad's affairs as per Guardianship.gov.uk. Do I legally NEED to do this? I've read the info the site gives but it's not 100% clear about the legal to and fro's of this step. My collegue at work said this can take months and, throughout the process they FREEZE Dad's accounts which means that if I haven't sorted out the flat then I could be getting myself into trouble with debt collectors etc.


• I need to take Dad out Christmas shopping sometime. This Saturday?


• I need to ring a benefits hotline and read the info that Dad's Care Worker is sending me to see WHAT benefits Dad's entitled to. But this could be tricky without knowing the income that Dad is on as I'm sure most benefits are means tested


• Back to York CAB? I had a previous appointment there but I've lost the appointment card I had which means I'm gonna have to queue again. Darn.

I'm sure I've missed something out. The moral of this story is - it's worth setting up an Enduring Power of Attorney through a solicitor. It doesn't cost too much and avoids a lot of the hassle I'm having to live through at the moment.

Work

My contract with Social Services definately ends on December 20th. I've been skimming the jobs markets and I've got e-mails set up with http://www.fish4.co.uk/iad/jobs and http://www.allthejobs.co.uk/. I think, with all the Dad stuff I've got to sort out, I'll end up just giving my CV to an agnecy or two and see what jobs I can get.

Life

Life otherwise is...ok. Feel lonely sometimes. Some of you on my friends list and MSN list may have heard from recently when you haven't before. I could do with friends right now, so I'll be bothering people. :P

On Sunday my friend Ian came round and we drove to Pickering and Helmsley. Wandered round, did some shopping, came back to York, shopped a little more then played God of War and Soul Calibur 3. So Sunday was good (despite getting ripped off by a guy in a second hand shop in Pickering and, for some reason, not kicking up a fuss about it).

As I've been writing this (for the last hour) I've been listening to the superb 3C Digital radio station on channel 724 on Freeview. The music is just SOOO good and, NO advert breaks!

Oh, and I'm playing KOTOR again AND (more interesting to me) I've started reading again. Am reading The Poet by Michael Connelly.

Christmas

Have got Mum something, Dad some art stuff,  something different. Still got loads to get. Am gonna put Christmas on my credit card, then, in the new year, transfer the balance to a 0% card if I can.

Don't know what I'm doing about Dad at Christmas, looking like myself, Dad and Mum (Dad's ex-wife) are going to be having a rushed Christmas day on Christmas Eve. I'll be picking Dad up on Christmas Eve morning, going to Mum's flat, having a VERY strange Christmas Eve then taking Dad back Christmas Eve evening (so no drinking for me). It's gonna be VERY surreal.

Oh, thanks to the people who've sent me Christmas cards already! I'm VERY grateful. So thanks to Vicky, Jess, Hils and Lynsey. :D

Right, it's taken me an hour to write all this so I'm stopping here.