Husband been made redundant - last day today. He's 62 so the chance of another job is very low.

That sucks.

Sorry to hear that JMH.

That is tough - I'm really sorry.

Thanks. Wouldn't mind so much if we could afford to retire but we can't.

I hope you find a positive way forward from it.


I just had a cyclist pedal out in front of me, straight across the road, without any lights or even reflectors. He was lucky that I was pootling up to the juction ahead, else I'da never have had time to stop. And then, the idiot had the audacity to yell abuse at me, while the car behind (who I don't think saw the cylist at all) beeped away at me continuously until we'd got out of the junction, presumably because he thought I'd done an emergency stop just to annoy him, seeing as he'd been glued to my bumper the whole way down the road.

I hate driving at rush hour in a town full of suicidal cylists and overly agressive drivers. Very upset that I came so close to squishing someone, even if it would have been their own stupid fault.

None of the cyclists in our town seem to possess lights...

W

Thanks Misterioso!! Its over now, but it did not go well unfortunately... now the 2 week wait for some dubious results... Still I wasn't doing one myself this time (although I had been planning too, but due to family and work I didn't have time to prepare properly...) and for that I am extremely grateful as I don't think I could have got through the day if I was!

My argh begins with the question of 'where DO I start?'
horrid week. not been feeling great all.

friends being annoying and trying to basically get me to be someone I'm not. Yesterday morning I woke to find out my flatmates had written on everyones doors as a joke until they wrote 'tubgirl' and 'wierdo' (their spelling) on my door, the weirdo wasn't a joke, just like all the bangers/firecracker things in my cupboards They also filled up one of my tubs with every disgusting thing they could find (condoms, tea, milk etc..) fed up and disheartened aren't the words.. particularly with the week I'd had already

I need to also have my final HPV (cervical cancer jab) but as I've moved counties in going to uni, in Hampshire they don't just do this through GP surgeries so I THINK I have to go to the Royal Hants hospital (for a jab?! really?!) to get it done but there's no info and I'm so confused and short of cred at the mo so having to save phone calls Or I could go home and have it done but my Dr. surgery is closed for training the day I can have it done and 'MAY' be open in the evening

Then minor argh, internet stopped working on Friday evening and the people who deal with it work normal office hours = internetless weekend when I have stuff to do! It also meant I couldn't talk to my boyfriend as sadly MSN is our main form of extended contact as apparently he gets quizzed by his mum after every call so I can't call him despite being able to call him for an hour for 20p!

Sorry it's so long but it has truly been a very, very horrible week for me time to crawl in bed and for about a week..

This is bullying, plain and simple, and you shouldn't have to tolerate it, G_t. Please try to find someone to confide in.

That is bullying and not fun for you at all....... Please take b-c's advice here......

An 18 year old boy was shot dead in Sheffield this weekend. He was the son of a work colleague of Mrs Stetenorve's.

How very sad. I can't begin to imagine what his mum is going through. What a waste of a young life.

How tragic

Stetenorve - how utterly dreadful. A good friend of mine lost her boy in the same way some years back. Terrible. There is bog all you can do to help/ease the pain/shock other than just be there and listen when the bereaved needs to talk.

G_t - you have BAGMAIL! (Just thought I'd sneak that in in the hope of a last-minute category - Most Irritating Poster Award???!!)

Bx

This sort of thing makes me so angry.

I agree with b-c. Don't put up with it. Tell them that you do not appreciate it, that you want to be treated with proper respect, and if anything like it ever happens again you will do whatever it takes to stop it, and make sure the perpetrators are punished.

And if you want someone to pay them a visit and terrify them a little ... I'll be in the UK a few times between now and the end of the year

"friends" I would question that. As others have said, this is not funny, it's bullying. People do go mad in halls; it brings out the worst immaturity in a lot of people. You know, you can go to Student Welfare and tell them what is happening, and ask to be moved elsewhere. You may find that some of the self-catering flats have more sensible people in them (just something I've observed) and by this time there may be people who have dropped out, so places will be available.

I have a nephew suffering in a similar way at the moment.

Keep your chin up in the meantime. They are despicable - and they can't even spell!

morceau xx

Just as I was about to leave home at 6.20 this morning, the downstairs lights fused ! Unfortunatley we have an old style fuse box, , and rethreading wire through two small holes is really fiddly, it either goes in first time or not at all
Cost me about 20 mins, then I hit far more traffic.

Well this was going to be an Aaaaagh but I think I've sorted it.

Decided I'd better make sure one of spare rooms was fit for visitors, as some are arriving this weekend.

Opened the door to said room, and then closed it again FAST as the smell of a really really really bad drain hit me in the nose.

Retreated to another room, googled "bad smelly drain" and started to read.

Discovered that a hardly-used drain can dry out so the water trap that prevents sewer gas getting out stops doing its job.

Discovered that the solution to this is to make sure a fair amount of water goes down the drain on a regular basis.

Got a bucket, filled it with water from the bath taps, took a very deep breath and openedthespareroomdoorslightlyrantothesinkdumpedthewaterinitandretreated as fast as I could.

Got my breath back outside the room, repeated the procedure.

Got my breath back again. Dumped the bucket, took another deep breath and openedthedoorrantothewindowopeneditandretreated

Closed the door firmly and did an hour of practice.

Have just checked the room. The smell has reduced a lot. I'll do one more lot of water and keep the windows open until bedtime and keep my fingers crossed.

Lucky you checked it in advance...

Yes.

I hope your visitors appreciate your personal sacrifies in aid of their comfort and well being!

This makes me so angry. PLEASE go to student services or your welfare rep and tell them about this - it is NOT immature to report people (I thought it was so just put up with stuff like this for a year! I was once picked up and put in the bin...).

Also, take Mad Tom up on his offer!

Good advice. Find someone trustworthy to speak to. I put up with some so-called friends for way too long (long time ago now). These people aren't friends. Took me a long time to realise this. Best decision I ever made was to ditch them.

My son had this problem in Halls for a while, and he went to the Student Warden, which quickly stopped those responsible.

Don't put up with it, Guitar-tempo. And good luck.

It can be difficult to draw the line between normal student pranks and bullying, but if its making you unhappy you should talk to your resident tutor / halls warden / equivalent person in the first instance, and ask to be moved it it persists.

In my flat it was quite common to find that doors had been clingfilmed, or belongings moved around if you left you room unlocked. We once held a jumble sale in the kitchen, and forced people to buy back their (now washed up) belongings that had been hanging around growing mould for weeks. The guys used to push each other up and down the corridor one a wheely chair, making the most almighty racket, and on one memorable occasion colliding into my door (which was toward the end of the corridor), which burst open, scaring the living daylights out of me, let alone the guy who fell into my room, as I wasn't fully dressed...

I considered all this part of normal student antics.

When, at 3am the night before a exam, one of my housemates was rolling around in the corridor outside my room, drunk and yelling his head off, I opened the door and told either to shut up, or go to bed. And then added that if he was too drunk to move, I'd tip a bucket of water over him, and then kick him off to bed. (I'm not at my best at 3am, with a looming physical chemistry exam!) And if that didn't work, that I'd report him to security. The university took causing a disturbance in the halls during exams very seriously... you could get kicked out for it. I never had a problem with noise during exams again.

This was not normal acceptable student antics.

Similarly, when a couple of the guys from the floor above broke into one of the bathrooms and squirted all the various bath products and shower gel across the floor, walls and ceiling; it was reported. They were told if anything similar happened again they would be asked to move out of university accomodation.

So make your own judgement call; but really no-one should be made to feel unhappy or victimised by the people they live with. If you are, then it isn't worth putting up with for the sake of not rocking the boat. Get things changed, or move somewhere else, where you can be happy.

Grrr my violin solo has been pulled from the concert on Friday. BM says it's the band parts (lacking tenor parts, the moving stuff is in Bassoon and Euph, that we are missing) but I'm not so sure. Think it may be a convenient excuse. I've worked so many hours on it, I'm just a little cheesed that he didn't tell me last Thursday. And I'd rather he was honest.

Still doing the folky one though and I suppose I can relax with that one now.

Aaaaarghh ... all that sitting on the couch with my leg up (to help the circulation) ha given me a bad back

It never rains ....

Sounds more like totally inconsiderate behaviour when sharing living space.

Being asked to work on my day off - normally I wouldn't mind but I had a couple of things planned in the evening that I now can't go to and I was really looking forward to them

completely unacceptable


Minor aaarrgghh from me, work colleague - lazy, inconsiderate, arrogant and selfish don't even begin to describe him

As it's behaviour they would (I hope) be unlikely to indulge in at home I don't think that any of the things you listed are 'normal' or acceptable behaviour.

I agree with the others who've pointed out that 'friends' isn't the right word.

Take photos of everything they do like the tub and the door writing, and make a list, because a whole stream of things can't be discounted as various isolated incidents. I see your post was a few days ago, and do hope that you've been able to see someone about this by now.

Sorry , I posted in wrong thread !

The point I was trying to make was that there are levels. 18 year olds, free from home for the first time and perhaps getting very drunk for the first time do not behave in responsible ways. They also, in groups, encourage each other into increasing stupidity. There is a difference though, between daft antics or lack of consideration, which is impersonal, and attacks, insults and doing disgusting things to your property; which are personal. I put up with all the the prior, because I'd have been a right misery guts / kill joy / unpopular prig if I hadn't. I would not have put up with things that personally distressed me.

To put it in perspective, my halls were on top of the student union nightclub. Compared to the racket that produced 4 nights per week, any antics of my housemates were no trouble at all! I rather thought the university were inconsiderate for putting us up there!

Message just found on eBay.

Dear barry-clari,

I have not received my item that I paid for on 1st August. Where is it?

Signed : a disgruntled customer.

I sent it same day. I'm smelling a rat...

Thank you all for the considered and supportive responses Apologies also for the late response, I've just been home to give all my loved ones hugs, always helps
I've decided to just leave it for now and see how things go until Xmas break in just over a month, mainly only two/three causing most of the problems drunk or not drunk (stolen cups etc ) but the rest of my flatmates have been great and totally rallied around me in support, particularly about the door and so I've been having some good times with them, so it's not all out war yet Still can't wait to be in a house next year though!


Awwwwww, Thanks Mad Tom I shall keep an eye on it and if it happens again, they won't know what hit 'em


I do like my friends, really! They can just be very annoying as they're so much more outspoken than I am and constantly telling me to do things I don't particularly want to do... which I find *really* irritating particularly as I don't seem to get a say when I'm 18 and fully capable of making my own choices so it just ends up in resentment/confrontations and I don't enjoy being peeved with my friends!
Actually all the halls here are self catered (Kitchen is disgusting though!) but yeah, in terms of maturity I suddenly feels like I'm back in secondary school and not uni! I just wait for the work and exams to pour in!
I had to tell my step mum how to spell weird properly when I recounted this to her! doh!


Yes, it is a fine line between pranks etc and picking on people which is why I'm a bit unsure, so I'm just going to watch it for now but I mean, bangers in cupboard a few times = a joke, many times over several weeks = not so. Particularly when it was ONLY me!

Doesn't sound great. But why would someone wait 3 months before letting you know that their purchase had not arrived? Definitely fishy.

Exactly... It was only a cheap thing too (3.65 GBP)...

Have they opened a case through the official channels of items not arrived?

Nope. I'm a fairly experienced and prolific eBayer, and I'm expecting this might be the next thing they do. I'm pretty hardened to things like this, but it's still a tad annoying...

Well you can prove the item arrived if it was signed for or recorded delivery. However I doubt anything will come of it, at worst negative feedback.

'twas neither : not worth it at 3.65 GBP. I suspect he'll call me all sorts of lovely names, but I'm a tough little cookie...

They can't harm you over the interweb.

AARGH!!!

I'm in so much pain right now

why am i such an idiot?

i really don't think accidentally standing on the side of my foot was a good idea earlier. I now have a suspected sprained ankle and it really really hurts.

Hope a good night's sleep helps it recover somewhat, Rach

I hope so too. my dad said it should take anywhere up to 4 days for the pain to subside though.

Not really an aargh..but I'm feeling really washed-out. I'm tired anyway and have a big week - I had two students due this afternoon as well as my evening class and I am SOOO behind with lesson planning that I was feeling a tad stressed about seeing them.

The second guy arrived early so I didn't have time for a breather between the two of them - and he was SOOOO down that we didn't do any music but just talked - for an hour and forty minutes. Bless him - he is a real sweetie, a very new student, and I like him enormously - he just needed to talk and I was happy to do so, feed him tea and try to help in some way.

I'm now just emotionally totally pooped and I still haven't finished my lesson planning for tonight.

Hugs to everyone having problems this week.

I'm still really suffering with my back and had a very grumpy GP lecture me yesterday and would only prescribe me something on the condition I didn't go in to work for the next few days Last night I couldn't sleep at all grrr..

Grrr spanish insurace companies and builders......we still have a hole in our kitchen after 3 months.