Jump to 0 top | 1 navigation | 2 content | 3 extra information (sidebar) | 4 footer | 5 toolbar

Content

Visited my mother

And I actually had a good time, too, not that I don't normally, but my mother actually surprised me with something on this visit.

When my mother moved into this community earlier this year, she sold her home. This has left her with an even nicer nest egg than she already had, which I’m rather grateful for. I like to know that she is set to live in the nice community she moved into for about two decades before there’s any concern about paying for everything.

Whilst visiting her, she told me that she had gotten a stack of forms in the mail asking her to sign off on the renewal of her home insurance and her contents insurance as well. She thought this hilarious, and even applied for a building and contents home insurance quote, though I think she just meant for a home and contents insurance in one package.

Once they got around to processing her quote, they soon realised their folly, that she no longer owned a home, and politely told her she didn’t need their services anymore.

So that was that, and my little old mother seemed to think this the best prank of the year! :lol: She has an endearing sense of humour. She then told me that I must close my eyes and put out my hands. She used to do this when I was a child and she was giving me a surprise. It didn’t matter what magnitude of surprise we are talking about, from my favourite chocolate bar to a SNES game I’d been wanting, it was our routine.

Sitting at her nice little table, with it’s white lace cloth, I put my hands on the table, palms up, with my eyes closed. My SO was grinning like a Cheshire cat at me, so I had a feeling they were in cahoots. My mother placed into my hands three smooth plastic cases, and when I opened them, I found to my utmost surprise that she had bought me three PS3 games from the list I just happen to keep on my computer of games I intend to get in the future. LittleBigPlanet, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, and Metal Gear Solid 4.

I knew then that she must have asked my SO for the titles of some games I wanted, and I was just stoked to get them back and try ‘em out. My mother told me that she had decided to do something nice for me when her insurance renewal came around, because it reminded her of how much I’d helped in selling her house for her and making sure it all worked out nicely.

Ahh, isn’t it nice with the generation gap can so easily be bridged? It doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does, it’s very refreshing.

posted by LucasH on Sep 19, 2009 8:13 AM | 0 comments
Tags: , , , , , , ,

  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • 0 ratings

Oh how depressing a means of advertising

More often that not, ads are either funny, or trying to make you feel like you could be this successful person on the TV too, if you just buy this! Some ads, though, take a more depressing way of trying to get you to buy stuff.

Have a guess which sort of product might market itself that way? Certainly wouldn’t be the normal stuff, food, clothing, tech gadgets, sporting equipment… no, all those things either go with just normal selling it’s good points, or ‘you’d be cool like this guy here if you drank/ate …’ kind of stuff. But there are a few that think they need to use scare tactics to get us to fork out our hard earned cash.

Insurance companies do this all the time. Have you ever gotten pamphlets in the mail for insurance companies? A few weeks back I was looking out for new term assurance and life cover, or at least a life insurance package. I looked into a lot of companies, trying to find the best deal. Some of those companies are rather poor at getting their advertising material out in a timely manner, or seem to just have you on a mailing list once you talk to them.

Basically, these pamphlets show up in your letter box – addressed to you in an envelope – telling you you could die, and don’t leave all the burden of burying you on your family and blah blah blah. I think this sort of advertising is abhorrent, and am thankful I didn’t go with the company who sent me this kind of crappy advertising material. They also talk about some statistics about injury from work, home or car accidents, which I seem to have miraculously avoided – according to these statistics – with the only exception being a case of whiplash earlier in the year. That was from a fairly minor car accident in a car park, so barely counts as a car accident anyway.

I don’t know, I just hate this kind of thing… it’s like trying to guilt you into buying insurance, or trying to make you really fearful about anything happening so you’ll pay up. Bah I say to those companies, bah!

posted by LucasH on Sep 13, 2009 5:43 AM | 0 comments
Tags: , ,

  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • 0 ratings

Not today, Mr Spammer

Not anyday! Get lost, Mr Spammer, what you're selling isn't wanted!

Spam got it’s title originally from a sketch by the Monty Python crew, where a cafe menu included spam in every dish. It doesn’t take a lot of brain power to see how this was translated into the title for obnoxious morons sending you reams of crap. For instance, I’ve spoken of my insurance issues lately, that I have had to renew my home insurance a short while ago… well now of course, I’m getting spam emails about ‘have you decided which carrier to go with for your insurance? We’re the best, blah, blah, blah’

I got news for you, spammers, one, I’m not stupid. A quick Google search reveals that this so called excellent insurance company is non-existent, and two, you’re spamming! Who in the name of all things good is going to base their insurance choice on who sent them an email because they mentioned the word insurance on a blog!? This company didn’t rate a mention anywhere, not any home insurance news sites that I've seen, nor forums, nor a proper website of your own! Bah!

It’s funny what is spammed about, too. For instance, this is the first time insurance has been spammed to me. I do, however, see a horrific amount of comments left on my blog, spamming the sale of non-over the counter drugs, and viagra. Lately my spam has taken a turn for the worse, and it’s become about geriatric pornography. I so wish that was a joke, I really, really do. But it’s not. My blog gets around two spam comments each day, and lately they have become walls of text, dotted with disturbing references and hyperlinks. Wherever you are, spammers, I hope a can of spam miraculously hits you in the head for putting so much spam on my blog!

posted by LucasH on Aug 30, 2009 3:39 PM | 0 comments
Tags: , ,

  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • 0 ratings

Life insurance, should I?

I probably should... but it's just so... I don't know, depressing?

This is something that most of us should have, especially later in life or if we partake in any extreme sports, neither of which apply to me. I’ve tried looking over life insurance news sites, or even looking over life insurance blog sites, but I just can’t get interested. I think I would have to get one of those broker companies that search out life insurance policies that work for you specifically.

I just find the whole topic somewhat depressing, and I’d rather not invest a heck of a lot of time into delving into it. That’s why I’d rather have the issue taken care of for me; I don’t mind paying for it, because I see good sense in it, like with any insurance, but I don’t want to spend valuable time in going through all the different options.

Thinking on this has made me rather philosophical. I wonder who the first person was who came up with the idea of someone paying them a monthly sum, on the off chance that they would find themselves in trouble with their health, or even dying. Hmmm, I’m going to look that up. There you go, insurance pretty much came about when human society did. Though insurance the way we know it today really started around 1750BC by the Babylonians, where a caravanner who took out a loan to fund a shipment would pay an extra fee which meant that if the shipment was lost for whatever reason, the caravanner wouldn’t have to pay back any of the loan. That little five minute look over the history of insurance was so much more interesting than anything I read regarding taking out insurance. Isn’t that funny?

It’s still something under consideration. I’m pretty sure in the short term that I will extend my healthcare insurance to cover life insurance, but as I said, I will be having someone else do the work to find the appropriate deal for me.

posted by LucasH on Aug 10, 2009 12:50 PM | 0 comments
Tags: ,

  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • 0 ratings

Remember that whiplash?

A short while ago, I was involved in a small car accident with a nasty little old lady. She drove into the rear end of my car whilst I was trying to get out of a supermarket car park. It sounds positively ridiculous, when I say it like that, but there it is.

As I mentioned in the blog entry that came out of the incident, I got out of the car and went over to make sure she was okay. She was such a little woman, all tiny and frail looking, that I didn't think of myself at all at the time and just went over to make sure she was okay. Well that was a mistake, I didn't realise just how much damage could be done with that one bump. I am still having issues with my neck, I don't have a normal range of movement and going to the chiropractor twice and week is time consuming, I am just fortunate that it is covered by the NHS as it is due to the accident .

I said that she didn't have insurance, so when I made the insurance claim to my company they were none too pleased about it. She isn't the only uninsured person driving around at the moment, I have noticed the greater amount of that mentioned in the news, but still. I hate making insurance claims too, half the time you feel like you are presumed guilty of doing the wrong thing and you have to prove yourself innocent. I know insurance companies are cracking down at the moment due to the recession, but it still makes for a largely unpleasant experience.

So yes, I am seriously considering filing a whiplash claim against this woman, which is not something I relish, but seriously, this could be just the thing to get that crazy driver off the road. I have actually had to have multiple telephone conversations with this woman, as she is paying for half of the damages to the car, and not once has she asked me if I have had any adverse effects. I am at a loss whenever I get off the phone with her, as she fits into the 'randomly mean' category I mentioned in a previous blog entry. I am as yet undecided for sure, but that whiplash claim is looking more and more likely. Being in pain whenever I work - I am so glad I can touch type or it would be much, much worse - is almost too much. I think I am talking myself into making that claim right now. :))

posted by LucasH on Apr 25, 2009 3:42 PM | 0 comments
Tags: , ,

  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • 0 ratings

Car park prang... -_-

Friday when I was patiently waiting to get out of the supermarket car park, I was hit from behind by a little old lady in a big old car. She was a tiny little thing, and I was quite concerned as she gave my car a pretty solid thunk. Apart from the violent jolt it gave me, I was okay. Of course, my neck is still sore three days later, but what can you do?

So, after I got my car out of the way of any other traffic in the car park - I made the HUGE mistake of going shopping at 4pm on a Friday afternoon, never again >:-( - I went over to see if this tiny old woman was okay and to exchange insurance information. By this time, she had also pulled off to the side, and had also gotten out of her car.

I walk over with my concerned face on, I mean seriously, she was one of those tiny white haired ladies who vaguely reminds one of a bird. As soon as I am within ear shot she was cussing at me about my poor driving abilities , and why had I not taken the chance to leave the car park when there was a space, did I need a gold leaf invitation... >:XX There wasn't enough space to leave the car park, perhaps if she could see over her steering wheel, she would have known that. :## I don't usually like to generalise, but I do think there needs to be a point where the elderly stop driving, or at least have to take a driving test every year to keep their license. Something like the shaken program in Japan , where they road worthy test cars every second year. You see so many news stories of elderly drivers causing accidents to not do something about this issue. As the population ages, and medicine is allowing us to live longer than ever before, this is something that needs to be addressed, in my opinion.

I am not one to usually be angered by other drivers, I am actually quite serene in my car. :)) But I am not immune from being frustrated by others , and being sworn at by someone who, in my opinion, should be supervised whilst driving a shopping trolley, let alone a car , is one of those things.

I am both proud and pleased to say that throughout her entire baffling tirade, I kept my cool, I wanted her insurance info so that I wouldn't be footing the bill for my dented bumper bar! She finally tells me, she doesn't believe in insurance ... :crazy: However she did say she would pay for half of the cost to repair my car... half... :**:

In this day and age, I find it so hard to fathom why one would go out without insurance, I mean, the my very own whiplash claim should be enough to convince this not-so-sweet little old lady to get some damn insurance!

posted by LucasH on Mar 31, 2009 2:53 PM | 1 comment
Tags: , , ,

  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • No ratings
  • 0 ratings
Pages: 1 (1 - 6 / 6)

» Next Space