Where would we be without the internet?

So in September 2010 I posted a blog about insurance companies, and mine in particular. I had a small leak of water which required £1000 of repair work and my insurer refused to cover it. Since then I complained and they agreed to pay the cost of repair, minus my excess obviously. The story goes like this:

I decided to rent out my flat, so arranged landlord insurance. When asked if the property was fully occupied I told them it was, because it would be in a couple of weeks (sort of the whole point of getting landlord insurance!) after I'd finished giving the place a fresh coat of paint. I got the policy documents through, checked the definition of 'unoccupied' and, as I was working in the flat four nights a week, the flat was 'in use' under their policy. Two weeks later I had the leak, prior to finding tenants. I submitted a claim and answered their questions truthfully, including telling them I had no tenants yet. This they did not like and they maintained that the property was unoccupied and not in use. I argued that there may not be anyone living there yet but it was in use, as it's hard to paint the internal walls from outside the flat. So we went around in circles. They appointed a loss adjuster who visited and was told the same story. The claim was repudiated.

Now in auld lang syne that might've been the end of the matter. Google Is Your Friend. Search: "Definition of unoccupied" and I found my way to the financial ombudsman website. Not surprisingly, this sort of situation has happened before and they publish examples of successful and unsuccessful appeals. Wouldn't you know it, there's a carbon copy of my situation described in detail, and the financial ombudsman upheld the appeal. Gotcha!

Procedure dictated that I complain to my insurer in the first instance, so I wrote them a pleasantly worded letter reiterating the situation and quoting their policy documents, and at the end referred them to test case on the FO website. They are allowed 8 weeks to respond. Last week I received a cheque for the full amount, minus excess.

T'internet...I thank you!

What a strange year it has been...

Where to start? I got out of the habit of blogging pretty quickly. The amount of time I was spending at the PC doing coursework meant I couldn't be arsed writing a blog, and the only thing I was doing was the course and I didn't feel the need for a running commentary on that.

So, after the crime scene ex, the 3 weeks after that were a nightmare, totally disrupted by an unprecedented amount of snow. We got there in the end. Some good friends made throughout the rest of the course and I miss them. The rest of the year went like this:

Jan 2011. Exam - passed with distinction, transferred to MSc course. Delighted.

Jan - May. Semester 2, forensic chemistry, and one tough programme.

5th May. SNP win a landslide in the Scottish Parliament elections, winning a majority of seats in a PR system. First majority for any party from an electoral system specifically designed by Labour to ensure that:

1. A Labour-Lib Dem coalition would always have the best chance of forming the government.
2. The SNP could never win a majority, thereby preventing a referendum on independence in a parliament dominated by unionist parties.

Whoops! The independence referendum I've waited for since I was 12 is now guaranteed to happen. I wept I was so happy.

May. Exam - passed with merit after making a few schoolboy errors in exam technique which I kicked myself about. Semester 2 practicals passed with distinction.

June - August. MSc placement - just awful. Equipment failures, little support, a few silly errors on my part and no results. In short, nothing worked.

August. Thesis write up. Some health issues, weeks of insomnia and the effects of sleep deprivation led to the submission of a woefully inadequate thesis, atypical of my usual standard of work.

September. Failed to pass my thesis (unsurprisingly). Re-write allowed but the MSc with merit I was on course for now impossible. Completely gutted. Appeal. Re-write put on hold until health issues sorted, plus there's the small matter of our wedding the following month.

29th October - get married. Felt like the luckiest guy alive, and a brilliant day from start to finish.

30th October - get told my mum probably has lung cancer. A few days later, cancer confirmed, stage 3B. Terrible news, but felt like it was inevitable. What can one expect when one has smoked for 50 years?

The next couple of months are a blurr with the only good news I want to mention being that my appeal was successful and that I can rewrite and resubmit my dissertation as a first submission. MSc with merit now the least I'm capable of gaining once again.

19th December. Mum suffers three seizures in one hour, blue-lighted to hospital. Scans show cancer in bones and brain. Stage 4. Mum won't see 2013. Hard to find words about that.

Christmas f*#%ing sucked. How can I celebrate New Year knowing 2012 will be the year I lose my mum?

Best / worst year of my life