Or not - as the case may be. Currently it isn't merry & I'd quite like to get off. I don't seem to be spinning in tune with the Universe.
It possibly wasn't the wisest choice to sell my house at the end of what was the worst recession in living memory, in the middle of the shambles of Brexit & then followed by Covid. But hey ho - I am a glass half full person normally & I didn't know we were likely to crash out of Brexit, or that Covid was coming.
I've sold this house twice & had several people seriously interested, but I didn't anticipate how difficult it would be to find something to buy. It's location stupid! North Oxford is a very desirable place & not much I'm interested in as a downsizer has come on the market. One of the real problems with the housing market here is that it is mainly designed for families or aspirational couples. Not retirees & emptynesters. There isn't enough smaller, 3 bedroomed property or property not on 3 floors here.
Also if you do find something you have to be prepared to spend time & money reburbishing it, because the chances are it will need it, having had elderly owners who haven't done anything for years. I was prepared for that, I've done it before. But I am getting a bit old for the hassle of it all now. So I'm seriously considering moving away from Oxford & my much loved family.
Talking to my single friends, who are my age, we all feel the same. We are fed up with coping with the problems life throws up. My door problems have been sorted. Finally after 7 1/2 weeks of hassle with the builder - fingers crossed. Now I'm struggling with a landline which has just decided to go AWOL. It won't let me answer calls when someone phones - it immediately goes to BT voicemail. Firstly I had to try to resolve it with the phone manufacturer Gigaset, but it wasn't the phone. Then I had to try Plusnet my broadband & landline provider. They used to be excellent on customer service, but the person I spoke to really didn't understand the issue & had no idea what to do. Then I found that actually communicating with Plusnet is really difficult if you don't want to phone - online chat isn't working, you can't complete an online form, I couldn't post on Twitter....In the end I went through Resolver & that did get their attention.
It is an external BT fault as I had been saying all along. Hopefully it will be fixed in a couple of days.
The thing is it seems like a never ending Roundabout of problem solving. Often the real problem isn't the problem at all. The problem is the difficulty of getting a good trades person or operative, who knows what they are doing, or knows someone who does. It's the age old British problem of not enough really experienced, well trained, professional people who understand what customer service is.
It's all energy & patience sapping. You need real persistance & time to get a good outcome. I don't know how first responders do it - they are fire fighting all the time & their problems are much more serious.
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