Oh Pants

[Miss Wiggle]

right, been having a majorly stressful time at the moment, me and my partner have both been made redundant, he's struggling to find work so we agreed until xmas he'd work on the house as we've some renovations that need doing and just hope that the jobs market picks up a little in the new year.

needed to pull the bedroom ceiling down and it's such a big messy job that we agreed to move in with his parents for a week or so while he did it, pulled down the bedroom ceiling and realised one of our neighbours has built the dividing wall for their loft conversion on our ceiling, rang building control and they've no planning permission for it either.

so we've now got the joyous prospect of months of wrangling through the courts before we can move back in, so staying at his parents, going home everyday to look after the animals, just wanting to progress things with building control for a week or so to get some idea of timescales before we decide what to do with the pets.

so as you can imagine we've not been able to give all the animals the full attention they've needed over the last few days, went over today and noticed a dead fish in the tank, looked around and spotted some more, couldn't see a single fish alive. put my hand in the tank and it's freezing cold, the plug for the heater got knocked, as we're not in the house there's no heating on through the day, the tank was 12oC

thankfully the water tests came back good so no problems with that, they've just frozen to death the poor things, we've a couple of survivors but will have to see how they make it through the night.

just one thing after another at the moment, totally feel like giving up on life

 

[Jazzzz]

i did something very similar i feel for your loss

 

[Jallen]

thankfully the water tests came back good so no problems with that, they've just frozen to death the poor things, we've a couple of survivors but will have to see how they make it through the night.

I highly doubt it, their enzymes will have stopped functioning at that temperature, aka hypothermia. Their organs will shut down.

Recession sucks.

 

[Jazzzz]

people do keep tropicals tha low after loads of settling in so i say they could make it. my wcmm went fro tank temps of 22 to tank temps of less than 10 and made it

 

[Syphoniera]

I'm so sorry - everything always happens when you're distracted/called away by other disasters and it really is all at once...
And losing pets is definitely the worst.
There's never anything really adequate one can say, especially with everything going on with you right now.
But maybe now all the bad stuff's run out and everything'll pick up now.
One can always hope.
Best of luck - you're certainly due.

 

[shelaghfishface]

hey you, come on,your stronger than that Alice
these thngs are sent to test us as my grandad says and test us they bloody do!!
the only way is up hun,c`mon smile,please..2009 is just around the corner and heres to it being the best one ever for you and Ian

thinking of you ( if u need anything gimme a shout ,or just a shoulder to lean on )

shelagh xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[raptorrex]

gona echo shelagh here, chin up MW. if i can be of any help? whilst i cant see you crying on my shoulder, if you fancy kicking someone, I'm your man

 

[Miss Wiggle]

thanks peeps, well tank is now back up to temp, we have one bristlenose, 3 praecox rainbows and 3/4 nannacara still alive which is better than i had expected so while it's clearly still pants at least we didn't loose everyone.

found out today that building control won't do anything about our neighbours dodgy loft conversion because it's so old, so we've got to go through solicitors/courts to get it all sorted...... i can feel this one dragging on and on and on.

 

[shelaghfishface]

isnt there a way to do the work u need to do without all the extra hassle??,

 

[Miss Wiggle]

no, we need to pull down our ceiling joists before they fall down. their wall is entirley supported by our ceiling joists so if we take them down then their wall comes down with them which would be criminal damage on our part. leave them up and we risk the ceiling caving in on us at some point!

nowt we can do at the moment, got building control coming round this afternoon and a solicitors appointment on friday to start legal proceedings to get them to move their wall. in the mean time we're living in Ian's parents spare room and going back to the house everyday to see the animals, not ideal to say the least, just don't know what we're going to do!!

 

[shroob]

If you are having to travel quite far to look after the animals, and could be doing for a long period of time would it be worth getting a 'fish sitter' or asking a LFS to look after them for you?

Hope things get sorted for you, but it does sound like it could drag on.

 

[SharonCC]

I'm so sorry, Miss Wiggle...that does sound like it's going to drag! Keep your chin up!!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

If you are having to travel quite far to look after the animals, and could be doing for a long period of time would it be worth getting a 'fish sitter' or asking a LFS to look after them for you?

Hope things get sorted for you, but it does sound like it could drag on.

yeah we're not sure what to do with the animals tbh, it depends how long this will all drag on for. in all honesty it's more the cats that I'm concerned about than the fish, fish we can comfortably feed every day, water change once a fortnight (bearing in mind it's now a 60 gal tank with plenty of filtration and about 5 small fish) and they'll be fine. the gecko we can bring over to Ian's parents but we can't bring the cats over and while they're fine for now, it's just like the cattery but they've a bit more room, if they're like this for months they;ll be feral by the time we move back in. Might have to give them to my Mum or one of my friends for a few months. For now we're only at the beginning of negotiations, we've not yet managed to make contact with the owner of the other property to see how they respond. When we get the initial response from them we should have a clearer idea if we're dealing with a few weeks or several months of this situation. We'll have to come to a decision at that point over what to do with the pets.

I'm so sorry, Miss Wiggle...that does sound like it's going to drag! Keep your chin up!!!

Thanks hun, we'll see!

 

[saz326]

Miss W - Just a thought.

If you and the Mr have lost your jobs and have all this mess going on - you may want a change oc scenery and some different things to do.

..I wonder if you have many old/elderly people living in your area.

Where I am, I see plenty of older people wanting to do their christmas shopping, and either not being able to drive there or needing someone to be with them - maybe you could offer some kind of service. £10 for an afternoon of shopping and carrying would go down a treat with some of the oldies - and bring in a bit of dosh too.

If you're interested, maybe you could offer your services at the local community centre.

 

[Schmill]

Is it criminal damage if they have built on your property without your permission? I'd like to think of it more like 'evicting' them from living in your property, (only just but none the less... )
With regards to criminal damage, does that mean if my neighbour put up a new plasma screen on a thin joining wall and the fixings came through to my side, I noticed, and hammered the fixings back into the wall, in the process causing his screen to fall down I could get done for criminal damage?? Not a proper question, just one of amny thoguhts that run through my mind when things like this happen...

Good luck MW