Okay, I know that it's not grammatically correct-but I live over here, and nobody will ever know the difference...
Have I been busy since I last wrote? Yes, I certainly have-I don't give up without a fight. And I knew that a fight was necessary. I sat and read the caution letter several times, and I highlighted all the ridiculous accusations that made no sense. I then photographed all six pages on my phone and sent them to the Ombudsman. Then I called the Ombudsman. And waited. And waited. A lot of other people must have been complaining.
I'm waiting for notification that a case handler has been assigned. Apparently, the law changed on October 1, and anyone can complain without waiting the eight week cooling off period. And Haringey has so many black marks against them that nobody was surprised to read my complaint. But-and there is a "but"-the Ombudsman service is only there to mediate, not to make anything other than suggestions to the landlord. But-again-when the landlord comes back and refuses to make the changes that are strongly suggested by the Ombudsman, the landlord gets a black mark against them-and it's made public. As if Haringey cares.
I then rang our local councillor and told him what was going on. I emailed him the six page letter. I've been busy emailing-and calling-and threatening a lawsuit. And then I complained to the Haringey complaints department. This is another useless exercise, because complaints never get either answered or handled. They're usually ignored.
I did say that I've been busy. If I don't get any answers from anyone, I will contact the press for help. It'll be the local newspapers, since the big national ones are busy dealing with the fallout from the useless Liz Truss's resignation.
I went into my local Waitrose to do my shopping; I was met with some very long faces. All the prices have gone up astronomically, just as the utilities (gas and electricity) have shot up. Every borough now has places where people can go to get warm, and to get a free cup of tea, and to meet and commiserate. It's so sad that this is happening in a so-called civilized country.
I had printed out a small sign which I taped on the shelf over the vegetables-over the lettuce, actually. It read "Guaranteed to last longer than Liz Truss". I stuck it on, having looked first to make sure that nobody saw me. Then I slowly walked away.
Well! People kept coming over to read the sign, and there was a lot of laughter as shoppers looked around to see who put it there. When I chuckled over it and went to the self-service till to pay my bill, I found that the manager was standing right behind me. Uh-oh?
I've been shopping there for more than ten years, and many of the people who work there see a friendly face-and know their customers. I looked at him, he looked at me-and he said "That is so funny that I told the staff to keep it there and not take it down".
How about that? There are Brits who have a sense of humor. In this current economic freefall, humor isn't so easy to come by.
Every country seems to be affected-not just by Ukraine, but by everything from climate change to the Supreme Court deciding that women have no say over our own bodies. Next thing they'll do is target same sex marriages. Then it's women's right to vote. Trump won't be happy until he changes the country from a democracy to an autocracy, and takes us back 200 years,
The man should be in prison.
It'll be very interesting to see what happens over the next few months. That's assuming that we all live that long, and that Putin doesn't start a nuclear war. Meanwhile, I'll sit here and consider what to do to right the injustices of the past few months-in my own territory.
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