I Cannot Believe This!!!!!!!!!!

I have been blogging a lot lately about the great things England has to offer, and this is great, because of course I want to remember all the wonderful things we did while we were here. 

On another note I did promise to document pitfalls of this journey, and today seems like a great day to start.  Today was my cracking day, meaning there is only a certain amount of British things I can take until I crack.  Now I have been trying to think, okay this is another country, so I should take it in strides but GEEEEZZZ what is wrong with this city.

Firstly, I am going to organize a seminar for dog owners.  My seminar will be very cheap and will last 5 minutes, because it will only entail a lesson on how to PICK UP DOG SHIT!

Sorry for the language, but how nasty is it that people can leave their own dog shit laying there?  I mean this must be a cultural thing, because seriously I cannot think of any person in Windsor who would let their dog leave a load on their own neighbourhood streets it’s just plain weird, sick, and rude. Ahhhhh... feel better now that I got that out.

Okay next thing, council taxes.  Okay so it’s not normal for a city to charge renters (letters) taxes.  I am soooo sorry it is just wrong.  Charge it to the landlord, but I do not own this building, therefore I shall not have to pay £135.00/monthly (that’s $212.00 Canadian) on top of our rent, which if I told you how much we are paying in Canadian dollars you would cry.  

‘Oh but the council does so much for our neighbourhood’.... BULLOCKS!!!!!! (Do you like the British wording I used there?!).  We have had freezing rain and ice storms and not once have I seen salt or sand or even this ridiculous stuff you refer to as GRIT be distributed.  I have fallen on public walkways in my neighbourhood far too many times this year due to the lack of GRIT being distributed properly by council.

This is England's idea of ice control.  I am being serious.

This is their system for ice removal, there are boxes at the end of each street and in them is sand.  Supposedly council is supposed to come around and shovel the grit around the walkways.  Good riddance all I have seen in these boxes is rubbish (garbage) and DOG SHIT hahah go figure!

Yes so there is the council tax, but on top of that there is ‘entertainment tax’.   Ohhhh lordy! Yes imagine!!! We do not watch the telly (television) because in order to watch 4 channels, four BBC channels that is (hahaha) you have to pay £145.00.   This is not cable.  This is on-top of cable.  Trucks with satellites go around inspecting whether or not you are watching illegal telly.  If you are caught watching telly with no entertainment taxes you are fined £1000.00.  

So now the taxes are talked about, but what is wrong with this city and bills.  When we arrived I sorted all the electricity and water and gas bills out.  I have been paying these religiously like a good little girl, because frankly I am scared of the British law.  In September I spoke with a person from our water company and set up all our payments, great thanks British man!  Today after making 5 payments on time I received a nasty letter, (please refer to photo)

Previous correspondence?  The one where I called you and set up all my payments?  Oh and this was addressed to 'the occupier' As if they don't even know my name anymore?  When I receive the bills it is labelled 'Ms. Washbrook'?????

To complete this fantastic week I received a £400.00 electricity bill.  Our last electricity bill was £70.00.  I called to inquire and this was their response, “Oh that is just an estimate”.  Hahahaahhahaah I am still laughing... so what am I suppose to do? I’m supposed to do your job? Go and look at my meter myself and send myself a new bill? LUDICRIS!!! Errrrrrrrrr........

One last one for y’all.  Last week our carbon monoxide and fire alarm stopped working.  We took them down and went to a hardware store to buy batteries for them.  At the hardware store we were told that these were not battery operated alarms, and that we needed to buy new alarms outright.  The alarms were each around £60.00.  We decided to let our landlord know about this, mind you this was 2 weeks ago now.  Our landlord is currently in Dubai, because that is what you do when you own property in England, you live in Dubai.  Anyway, it just so happens that instead of contacting our landlord we were supposed to contact our letting agent (I have talked about letting agents before and you can find out what they are here).  I finally get an e-mail from the letting agents asking if I tried to change the batteries.  Ummmmmm... NOPE! Thanks SOHPIE! Never thought about doing that...

Anyway, after a polite exchange of words with our brilliant letting agent she sent someone over to collect the alarms last week.  We were all working that day so I left the alarms in a bright orange bag, on our table, with a note that said ‘This is our alarms’.  When I got home the alarms were still there.  I received and e-mail saying that someone was there to collect the alarms, but could not find them anywhere, he looked for half an hour even!  HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!

I am able to sit here now and a have a nice drink of wine with Anne!  Oh wait... I just spilled my wine all over my electricity bill!!!