This journalist phoned me and said she was interested in taking on an article I had proposed.
She interviewed me and then said she would be offering it up to several magazines. It's like an auction. She will come back with several contracts for me and the one that offers me the highest pay, gets the article.
I am waiting to hear back from her about contracts and how much I'll get for it.
I got the bus into town to bank the business money because the Christmas newsletter needs to go out now if it's to get there in time. I've done all the email versions, but those who ordered paper ones haven't got theirs yet.
Got to the bank to find it shut down, with a sign on the door saying 'Go to Ripley'.
Ripley is bloody MILES away!! How am I supposed to go to Ripley every time I want to cash cheques? arrrgghhh. Of course I'd spent all my change on the return bus ticket so I didn't have enough to get to Ripley as well.
Mightily pissed off, I went to my personal bank and deposited another cheque, got some money for my trip to the Christmas market on Sunday and left thinking everything was great.
Went to the supermarket to stock up on bread and found that shut down too. I couldn't believe it. Went into a little corner shop, purchased bread, got the bus home with 3 shopping bags of bread, 1 toddler, 1 handbag, 1 walking aid and a hat, so it was a bit of an engineering feat getting on the bus.
Got home tired after being out for hours, to find a message on my answer machine from 'fraud investigation'. I flipped out, thinking 'bloody hell, what have I done?'
Phoned them back and they said, Mrs Jones, have you been in J Lewis (Since you're all American, I'll explain, J Lweis is an expensive department store). I laughed at her and said who do you think I am, rich? I'm in my overdraft again with too many bills as it is, I have a holiday planned on 16 December, I DON'T have the money to shop in stores like J Lewis.
Then she gave the name of this company I hadn't heard of and asked if I bought stuff from them. I said 'who?'
Then she told me that there was a failed transaction on my account for over £300 worth of computer games. I laughed and told her I don't play computer games and since I'm in my overdraft, I wasn't planning on spending any money at all till next week, and I'm hardly in a position to spend £300 just on computer games.
She said that someone had tried to make those purchases using my card details. I told her that was impossible, I still have my card with me, it's in my wallet. She told me that someone must have found out the details.
She told me that the large purchases were stopped because I was in my overdraft and also because it's not my usual spending pattern. They had a whole cluster of attempted transactions take place in the space of an hour or so.
I confirmed that I had no idea, so they've cancelled my card and are sending another one. The trouble is, it can take 10 days or longer to arrive so I have no access to my account till then and I'm going on holiday soon.
My credit card will fine me as I'm supposed to pay them (not on direct debit) and I can't now, so that's another £25 fine to add to the rest, and all because some jackass wanted to buy computer games on my card.
The bank said it was fortunate I was in my overdraft, because if I hadn't been, his £300 request might have gone through. For the first time in my life, I was grateful to be broke.
Furious isn't even the word. I phoned all my friends to rant but none of them were in, so I ended up phoning Andy again and ranting at him instead. Not a great idea.
He took it well and said he would lend me some money for my holiday and I could give it back when my new card arrives. That was nice of him, especially given he had to listen to 20 minutes of me ranting about the bastard criminal that tried to rip me off.
That's about it.
Thanks to Jill and Snowdog for the compliments, and yes, my children are beautiful.
I put a photo of DD4 on my novelbookshop website, on the contact us page, when she was about 15 months old, pointing. She is still as cute.
