The Wheel Turns!

It will be a quick blog this week because I floated the ad for the room yesterday morning and have already had a flood of responses so I’m busy trying to pick my way through them to sort out the wheat from the chaff. A young man is flying in from India on the 29^th of September. He would like to move in that day but doesn’t want to pay the deposit or rent before he moves in. Umm no. Sorry. No money, no key. Also, I am going to be sharing my home with this person, so I need to have at least met them beforehand. I’m not going to turn away potential lodgers for someone I’ve never met who is already causing issues over the rent. Next.

A young man whose English was so bad I could barely understand what he was saying but gathered enough to realise he has a girlfriend and child he also wants to move in with him – and again, he can’t afford the deposit. Next.

A young lady who is also not arriving in the country until the 5^th of October and wants me to hold the room until then. Next.

A young female nurse who informed me most obligingly that she would stay at my house for a month to see if it suited and if it did THEN she would pay the deposit. Umm no. Quickly disabused her of that notion. She arranged a viewing for 11:15 on Monday, so okay, but then messaged that she couldn’t be bothered to travel to Bury to view the room in person so please could I conduct a virtual tour for her. Hmm, my gut is telling me to pass on this one. Too needy and way too complicated.

An agency manager trying to find a room for a young male carer freshly arrived in the country. Again, can’t view but wants to move straight in. No. I must meet them first. Maybe I’m being unreasonable sticking to this rule, but this is my home. I will be sharing a kitchen and a bathroom with them. I must like them. There must be points of connection. I don’t want to feel awkward or in the way in my own home, and I certainly don’t want to feel unsafe.

Even though it was still early days, I did wonder if this was going to be the way of it, nothing but foreigners who didn’t have a clue about the rules and etiquette of renting a room. Then I had a message first thing this morning from a guy who is starting work as a lecturer at the local college which is only a seven-minute walk away. He seems potentially suitable. He can’t view the room until next Thursday, but at least he’s a backup plan. Then at eleven this morning (I am writing this on Saturday) I had a message from a man asking about the room. He has no car or bike (good), works at Waitrose which is a two-minute walk from mine (perfect), and works 6am to 2pm which is perfect. No crowding in the bathroom in the morning as he’ll be gone before I get up. His interests are music, theatre, and yoga (even better)! It’s when they list their interests as drumming and heavy metal that you think, oh no.

He is coming for a viewing in fifteen minutes, so I will let you know how it goes. Would be amazing if I found the perfect lodger that quickly, but it has happened before. It has also taken three weeks before so it just all depends on who sees the ad and when.

Anyway, more good news. After four weeks, over forty emails and two phone calls, the paperback version of Becoming Lili is finally up and available again. No explanation as to why it’s taken so long, and certainly no apology! It’s disgusting how much power KDP have over us authors. They can take away our livelihood on a whim and there is precious little we can do about it. Now Amazon is so huge it is being run mostly by AI so when there is a glitch – as there invariably will be – instead of a human being looking at the issue and solving it, the AI tries to deal with it. It takes an endless bombardment of emails before the AI finally gives up and spits you out of its system and further up the food chain to an actual person.

And then there is the not such good news about the scary fuel crisis that is currently gripping the UK. Regular readers of my blog will know the issues I had earlier in the year with Green Suppliers when they suddenly decided that my energy usage for May and June was triple that of December and January and took vast amounts of money from my bank account.

I fought back, left them, and joined Octopus Energy who so far have proved a lot more transparent and upfront than Green ever were. My account when I left Green showed I was £60 in credit, yet ever since mid-June when I left them, they have been sending me increasingly hostile emails informing me I am £63 in debt to them and that every month I don’t pay they will add £20 to the outstanding bill. Although I knew I didn’t owe them anything, the situation was becoming so stressful that I was beginning to think I would have to pay them £63 just to get rid of them – they could whistle for the extra £40, I wasn’t paying that!

Anyway, I was making dinner Wednesday evening when the news came on the radio. Of course, the ongoing fuel crisis was the headline, and they listed the small energy companies that had already gone belly up. And guess what, Green Suppliers were one of them. Of course, I’m very sorry for all their employees who have lost their jobs, and I’m even more sorry for all their customers who are suddenly without an energy provider and, presumably, are scrabbling around desperately trying to find another company to take them on. Am I surprised though? No, not in the slightest. Going by how they treated me they weren’t fit to be trading.

Listening to the news report it became apparent that I was right – it hadn’t been my energy consumption that had tripled back in April, but rather their unit prices that had increased. And despite all their protestations that it wasn’t them, it was me – it was them.

The government are saying that they won’t bail out any energy company that goes under and I wonder if the underwriters will bother to come after me for £63. I wouldn’t have thought it was worth their while but will wait to see what happens.

The situation re fuel is worrying though. I have a quarter of a tankful so will need to top up when I go shopping on Monday. Will there be long queues? Will there be any fuel in the pumps for me to buy? I also think my energy company will be putting its prices up soon to cope with the increase in costs, which makes getting a lodger even more essential.

Excellent news! I have a new lodger. My 12:15 viewing turned out to be beyond perfect. A quiet and nicely mannered guy in his late thirties, he works in the local supermarket which is a two-minute walk away. No car and no bike so that’s ideal. He works 6am to 2pm which means no queue for the bathroom in the morning and when I’m not working, I’ll have the house to myself. Over the seventeen years, I’ve been taking in lodgers I’ve learnt to trust my gut. And my gut was telling me yes over this one.

Of course, nothing is definite until their money hits my bank account and we’ve exchanged contracts, but he seemed all okay with that and is going to pick up the contracts and my bank details over the next couple of days, get the first months rent and the deposit paid, and then move in next weekend. But until I see the colour of his money, I will leave the ad up and continue to conduct viewings – hedging my bets in case it all goes wrong.

I have another viewing in a minute, but I’m confident with my first choice.

Okay, the second viewing went surprisingly well. Nice, polite young man from Morocco. If the first choice falls through, I would be happy to go with him. I’ve told him I have viewings until Thursday morning so will let him know by Thursday lunchtime. That will give contestant number one plenty of time to sign contracts and pay over the money.

Feeling a lot more positive about life now. Things finally seem to be on the up. Miss F is nicely settled at university and judging by her messages and photos is happy and making lots of friends. KDP has sorted out my book. I think the energy company will stop pestering me now. I received my replacement watch, and, best of all, I’m 99% confident of having a new lodger within the week so that’s rental income coming into the house again which will provide me with a buffer for rising bills.

I even had an old friend I lost touch with over twenty years ago walk into the shop on Thursday. It was so nice to see her, and we swapped contact details and promised to stay in touch.

Do I dare be cautiously optimistic that the run of bad luck that has dogged me since the start of the year is finally at an end? Am I back in the favour of the gods? Has the wheel turned and I’m now riding at the top instead of being crushed into the mud?

I hope so, I really really hope so. I’m so tired of dealing with one niggly problem after another and long for my life to be on an even keel so I can concentrate on trying to get this book written. Yes, I am very aware that we are at the end of September and I’m only halfway through writing the first draft, thank you for reminding me. It seems impossible that I will be able to publish it this year, but we shall see. All distractions and obstacles now seem to be cleared so I should be able to get my head down and write.

Anyway, that’s about it for the week – all good news for once. Take care everyone and wherever you are, stay safe and stay happy.

Julia Blake