6th September 2013

So you pay your money for Stage payment 2a and ask Richard to let you know when it has reached their account. Easy. Well you'd think!

Mick paid our first installment by moving money from one account to another which took a few days to do before sending it to the builders, but this time we wanted to show our support and send it as quickly as possible. So I set up a payment from my current account (one of those that gives you good interest if you keep it topped up) and sent the money off. Mick then would pay me back when his money had moved from his savings. He is paying for the build and I am paying for all the extras, both with money left to us.

So I clicked the send button and off it went from my account. Richard didn't receive it on Saturday and when I looked at my on-line statement on Sunday there seemed to have been a time warp. So the following day (not yet happened!) the money got paid back into my account due to a Rejected Bill payment. But then it also left again. All this happening in the future. I've had payments come back into my account twice before and go out again, but that was for nowhere near the amount I was sending this time.

Monday whilst waiting for a train to Manchester I popped into my bank to check that the money had actually left that day and asked why it had happened and where my money was on the day that it was being rejected in the time space continuum. After phone calls and lots of checking that I was who I said I was the answer came back that they were checking the transaction for fraud. Okay so I'm all for them checking such things, don't want my Daddy Fatsos money going AWOL, but this keeps happening to me. The nice lady said that head office must just think I'm dodgy or something. The money should arrive in the account today.

We didn't hear anything that day from Richard and on Tuesday I was starting to get a bit twitchy. I checked that it had gone to the right account a couple of times. In the evening Richard emailed to say that yes it had arrived. Phew! So it ended up being no quicker than if Mick had payed it. But we tried.

So now it is back to concentrate on work for the next week, waking up longing to be in the rain on the back of Oleanna instead of buying hair grips and hair spray for actresses.