Not sure quite how this secondary blog idea is working. I've just updated t'other one with work sh*t, and now feel exhausted!

Hardly surprising though as this is turning out to be quite a challenging week.
Baggins is teething (again) and waking us up like clockwork at five o'clock every morning AND being grumpy and hot most of the day. Physically too, now that she has mastered the art of two feet, she is a clumsy so and so, and seems to have a deathwish when it comes to the bath, the stairs, the kitchen cupboards, the doorstep etc. She is constantly crashing into things, falling over etc, but makes no fuss and just pulls herself up and gets on with it.
And strangely LC has got some kind of weird Skin Thing going on. She started with a few brownish spots on her back two weeks ago and it slowly slowly spread up to her shoulders and a few on her tummy. Not chicken pox, not an allergy and not itchy or bothering her at all. Doctors on Monday morning and he prescribed some shampoo (???) to be used as a cream. She's reacted badly to that and though the main spots have gone the back of her neck is now a problem. It looks a bit like psoriasis or some kind of eczema - she has the skin of a 90 year old - avery dry, brown and wrinkled. It hurts to turn her head because the skin is pulled tight.
Very odd - and we are not sure what to do about it.

I've done virtually no production work at the office this week and that is now piling up. Day out of the schedule yesterday as we interviewed all day, and tomorrow morning I have a Big Meeting with the bank to apply for my third Business Loan.
Today, Girl 1 has spent the day with a photographer as the second part of her interview with him as a potential assistant. No news yet, bu I'm nervous for her.

Then its Saturday. Girl 4 is off for her first camping experience. Brrrr… She needs to be dropped off in the Forest at 10am.
My train to London leaves at 3.08 and then its the Big John Foxx showcase at the ICA which is, understandably, the talk of the town this week. I intend to return on the 11.35 from Waterloo mainly because even I could do with some sleep before I meet Girl 2 in Npton about half ten on Sunday morning.
We are allowing maybe a couple of hours to pack her things into the car (I need to take the seats out first!!) and then come back down to enrol on her University course early in the afternoon.
Early because I need to then go back over to the Forest to pick up girl 4 from camp!

Aaaargh!! Yes, we probably will get someone else to do the collection, but its useful to have a reason to leave the University Hall fairly swiftly, to give her some time on her own to settle in. And its only about a mile away from here anyway!

No time for Church in all this, but both Tx and I are managing to pray more regularly now and I have been spending a few minutes in the Building most mornings after the school run. We have agreed to start working with the "Closer to God" series with the October edition, and it will be very nice to have something like this to work with together.
We don't yet pray together or do much worship together outside of the church, so its an exciting (and quite daunting!) prospect.

Four CDRs turned up today in a package that I expected to contain two.

Alongside the much-anticipated and grateful-I-am-thankyou-very-much Mr Puddle Budd and Guthrie pair "After the Night Falls" and "Before the day Breaks" I now also have a second copy of Pulp's "We Love Life" (produced by the Scott Walker) and a mysterious offering entitled "Sandpaper Green" by Neuphonius.
This doesn't even appear on myshite, so I have no idea what to expect...

I am SO looking forward to hearing the Budd/Guthrie work. Both masters of the ambient, the Moon and The Melodies from 1986 hinted at the way theat GUthrie's blanketwash of tremelo guitar provides a perfect backdrop from Budd's sombre, simple melodies - rather like the way the indigo sky complements the twinkling of stars or the glow of a bright moon.

Perfect way too chill out on a full moon, actually, after a stressful day interviewing.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!

I just found out that Harold Budd is playing a unique, un-promoted special one-off recital at the Holywell Music Room a week on Wednesday.

How do I pull that one out of the fire?
Leave here at 6pm, immediately after dinner so Tx has to do all the bedtime alone agin, and get back late. And spent money on a ticket.
How can I not???

Then she walks in while I'm on the phone to Ris (who gave me the news). So I close the conversation.
"What does he want then? how is he?"
"Oh, he's cool. Just telling me about this one-off... etc.. which is a real bastard. I've told him I can't go?"
"have you? But you'd love it. Why can't yoou go?"

Hurrah - she's VERY lovely

I (almost) never use credit cards these days, and today's experiences illustrate part of my case against.

It's been necessary to use the card to purchase a mac for Biscuit from the Apple Store (education) as we simply don't have the funds otherwise. Should be simple enough.
But because I have never used the card online before the transaction has been marked as 'suspiscious' and declined lots and lots and lots of times!
Really pi**ed me off, becasue I've been whittling away the balance for the last three years and its now down to a manageable £500 with the end in sight.

I suppose I should be grateful for the security checks etc, and the phonecalls at home from both Barclaycard and Apple but to me its sits uncomforatbly and puts me right off.

It's yet another example of the innocent being made to prove themselves not guilty rather than the other way around, which I think is where the attention needs to be focussed. More difficult to do of course.

Hopefully this will be the last time this needs to happen.

More fuel to my "LET THERE HENCEFORTH BE NO CREDIT" idea.
I am beginning to work through ways that it might just work.

No-one can get credit for anything.
All debt and card bills are written off.
From now on you can only buy things that you have the money for yourself at the time.

Think about it...

By me.
I've just gone through what's been on the turntable this month or so.
Some interesting stuff

Ichabod Crane - Kid Cocotte
from myspace, and a couple of gigs in Northampton. This album makes them sound like a goth/darkwave version of early Teardrops

Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
mmmm… nice shouty lady. great, inventive stuff more original than most.

Device - Obstacles and Playgrounds
Can't make myself like this band based in MK. Sorry dan, but your vocalist really doesn't grab me

Kai Motte - England's Going to the Dogs
protest songs with a hardcore electronic edge. urban folk music? maybe not. hoodies instead of cardies

Siouxsie - JuJu
not their best, but a classic in its own right.

Bestival A to Z
Excellent compilation. Not a bad track hereon and includes the truly wonderful single Konichiwa Bitches

Hotknives - Ska compilation
I love hardcore ska as it drifts towards the skinhead moonstomp. go go dave and Mary

John Foxx - Metamatic
sublime. Everything starts here.
Out now, in 2CD remastered format. Superb sound quality, and with three previously unreleased tracks on the extra disc. Puts everything into perspective and defines the sound of an era.
Do buy this album. Please. Only eight of your earth pounds.

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 2
Hmmm - not sure about this one. Tx described it as unbearably irritating. needs more work

Kate Bush - Aerial]
currently being slated at the forum for daring to suggest this is not her best album. it doesn't have much staying power, but "Tal" is a beautiful track.

Iggy Pop - Nude and Rude]
Rock and roll. There's no-on elike Iggy and this just grabs you by the balls and makes you see things differently

Mary Coughlan - Love Me or Leave Me
no apologies. a genuinely great singer/songwriter. her version of saint judy is breath-taking

Current 93 - Black Ships Ate the Sky]
one of the best discoveries i've made this year. genius from the leftfield. right over there somewhere.

Robin Guthrie - Everlasting
noodling and wiffly. some beautiful pictures and evokes all manner of headspins, but does it really work?

Scott Walker - Climate of Hunter
dark, diffciult and dangerous. the start of Walker's slide into the abyss of genius

"Now then children I hope you're all listening. It's time for us to give out this week's class award.
Kid A has brought the Award back, which she was given last week for Helpfulness leading the councillors round the school. And here it is. Thank you Kid A. Pardon?
"Yes, I know you have been even more helpful this week with the interviews and the newspaper, but you won the Award last week. It's someone else's turn now.
What is it, Kid B? Oh yes, you have been very helpful too. All those books, pencils etc, tidying the library and bringing all those things in from home. Buut don't you remember you were given the award the week before Kid A, for Working Hard and getting all those worksheets finished?
"No, Kid B, it's not an award for Helpfulness every time. It depends who has made any special effort or achieved something important that week.
"This week, the Award goes to Kid C, for Not being Late.
"Yes, Kid A, I know you have not been late this term either. No-one has. What's that, Kid D?
"Well, yes, I know Kid C is late every day (when he actually comes in to school) but yesterday he was not late, and that's a really special achievement.
"No, Kid A, you really can't be late on purpose. Everyone has to make sure they get to school on time every day.
"I know 'nothing happens' when Kid C is late, but we do have a Policy approved by the school inspectors in the filing cabinet, ticked off in lovely red pen, for dealing with attendance.

"Next week, I think the award will go the Kid E, who always has such lovely hair…oh, she's not here again today?

Seems strangely odd that I haven't been on here since last Friday...
Not really sure where to begin now I have realsied that.

Lets' go with music, since the new 2CD version of Metamatic is now on full UK release and EVEN IN THE SHOPS!!!
I picked up a copy on Monday and was impressed straight away with the quality of the artwork and the minimalist nature of the packaging. No sleevenotes, no digipack etc - just some exquisite period photographs (well played RH!) and all the lyrics to ALL the songs, including the two new ones and the 1979 version of Like A Miracle which is, as people correctly hinted, rather like Vince Clarke's early material!
I've raved extensivley too about the quality of the sound and just about every other aspect of ths release. It really is the absolute definitive version of a classic album.
It was particulalry exciting to hear the two new songs and the original version of LAM but what really strikes me is, as A suggests, how To Be With You and Cinemascope take the package to a different dimension. I have always thought that Tiny Colour Movies and Sideways are the best albums Foxx has produced since his first, and its really evident here that these 'new' songs have their roots in the Metamatic-era but have been re-purposed now to emerge as part of his contemporary work.
It's that which makes this such a complete, definitive package.
Cinemascope too provides the perfect link between Touch and Go and Making Movies, bridging at the same time everything that's gone in between This City and Xray Vision

What comes through, now that we can set the ten songs that 'made the cut' into the context of the other material recorded at the time, is a real sense of the design process at work on the original Metamatic album, It's fascinating to hear how these songs were selected for the 'strip-down process' from among all the others which remain much more personal and warmer in their sound and style (LaM, ANKOM, YL, Mr No, Glimmer etc).

I watch myself from years away and there is definitely 'an emergence' going on - an evolution of thought, and its wonderful to behold it now in such superb quality (check that bass 'dub' on ANKOM!) and at the perfect time when all things Foxx are Coming into Focus.
As heralded by the sublime beauty of Metanym on CO3, I sense a circle closing, threads coming together. Sparking moments of great radiance and Fireworks of Synergetic Completeness
did I really just write that???

The running order for Disc 2 is absolutely brilliant, and Burning Car remains a work of seminal genius.

This new exploration has set me back off into the dark underworld of Foxx - perhaps I'm getting excited about the ICA show?
I reckon I have NINETEEN different 'recordings' of He's A Liquid, if you include all the live versions on bootlegs.
That's a song approaching it's 30th year...

So this entry is fragmented - I say what of it?

PCC last night approved our plan for the lateral extension of the dais in The Building, with surprisingly few questions. I haven't been able to get any decent pictures in order to work up an artist's impression, but we are now going to write a faculty application. I have several volume sof minutes to read through of meetings of the DAC on alterations to churches. There are so many people goin through all of this now - even on The Archers!!!

My case against Lloyds has come to a temporary halt. Apparently there is to be a OFT case brought against them in the High Court in February 2008, and this will be regarded as a precedent.Inmy case, the judge has decided (quite properly I suppose) that my claim shoul dbe decided on the result of this test case, and action will be suspended at that point.
B*stards still had £70 out of the account last month because the wages check went in late.

Oh yes, and I had a long chat with Kink on the weekend. Things are looking up for her since her interview with Russ (??) Valentine, photographer a fortnight ago who is looking for an assistant. Thursday week she has a day out with him to see how things work out.
Third of four exams today too as part of the Web design course and I have forgotten to call her for the verdict.
Must try to remember to do this tomorrow night

I've written a little before about how they come and they go, and like it or not they exist in all our lives in on form or another.
Today has been more than a little ridiculous, and if I hadn't been there myself I wouldn't have believed it.

IW1 - School playground. A far more intereting and dangerous place than you might thing.
First day for a one-time friend of Tx who we haven't seen for about a year. Far too small and cute for comfort, with the kin do feyes that make you take notice of them whether you want to or not. Nice hair, and far too much happy smily flirty shit for that time in the morning.
Then it just got crazier
IW2 - For twenty minutes I sat outside at the Bargate, watching the world go by. Fascinating things people. Beware of men with pointy hair and pointy shoes, and girls whose skirts flap up too high in the breeze. Felix Da HOuse Cat. Mee -ow! Walked back inside the centre and got hailed by a girl who was waving at e like a nutter, and eventually had to pull my shirt to get my attention. Enter the very lovely Layla, friend of Kink, whose deposit I paid on her house a few months ago. And there she is. Large (or shouIdI say 'small') as life and very excited at having moved into her digs yesterday. She talked, and taklked, and smiled, and laughed, and talked - and remembered three of the kids names. And the cats. We went for tea and cake. She was lost, so I had to walk her to the bus stop. She wants to meet for lunch tomorrow.
Txt has been exchanged. Scary, scary thought.

Note to self - the irony of the bus connection. Never come along in ones, or when you expect them to.

IW3 - Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. We've moved up to the next swimming level with Boy, so now its on a Thursday. Same place, same time slot. And there was Sally, and it was as if she'd never been away. Nine weeks I reckon. So we had a lot of talking to do. Or at least she did. her voice is one of those that I could just listen too all day, and she has the most attractive turn of phrase. And pretty cool hair too. Aaaargh - i don't need this. Why can't you just have disappeared, like yesterday?
What the f*ck has happened to move her son to a Tursday as well?
What are you trying to do here?

Not only, but also

Beers tonight with Mirf. Long overdue. Great company, great conversation as usual. But WTF is this fascination with Rush?? I'll give yoou Amon Duul, that's quite cool - but prog rock? hmmm - a man has to have some lines...
On eof those nights-in-a-thousand when there is more than a moment when the barmaid's conversation lingers too long in the air. Magnetic questions pulled me in, and I found myself spending far too long getting the drinks in listening to her trying to get herself a job as a photographer - even as a secretary. Or something...

And all too soon I did return
Like a moth to a flame

And then again.
Serving pints with paper, upon which is etched a phone number, a web address and a hotmail account. I know this kind of thing happens all the time. But not to me.
And always when you least expect. I was clumsy, distant and - but m thinks I handled it all OK, though like a couple of sixteen year olds we have wondered about what happens next.

So what have I done?
Sent an email.
She's replied already, but without checking the inbox first.

I'm scared now.

My life is F*CKING WEIRD

Feeling Low.
Difficult and dark.

A mood that pervades everything and makes all things seem to conspire against me.
Like my exhausted, nerve-shredded wife (Baggins is teething and being VERY grumpy, and little big sister LC is going through a bad reaction to the baby walking stage with some VERY challenging behaviour) going to bed at 8.30 without saying goodnight to me bacause I had my head stuck in the music and obvious wanted to be left alone. It's the last thing I needed, and I've taken that badly too, which is totally unreasonable.

Not just work, but I'm not quite sure what else has made me feel quite so abrasive.

Felt on top of it all yesterday after meeting Ris and Ekin off the boat for lunch after the Bestival. Some great anecdotes of what went on behind the scenes in the Foxx camp, which are all completely ridiculous. The Tour Moanager sounds entirely useless. Surely you get crew passes for the whole weekend and make sure 'the band' have regualr meals and don't have to buy their own sandwiches/beer etc. Anyway, not my stories...

I am very glad now that I didn't go across to the festival because Foxx and LGS did not play the 'world premier' of the Metamatic albumafter all, but instead a set not very different o most of their gigs for that past twelve months. Two songs live for the first time "My face" and "ANKOM" but otherwise standard fayre that would not have been worth £115.00!
Worth more maybe to have had the experience of CO live outside in woodland in the dark, but be reasonable. It's only a piece of music and I can set up stunning experiences of it myself pretty much anytime now.
GREAT to catch up though, and I'm now starting to look forward to the ICA showcase on 29th.
Hopefully I won't be too tired to enjoy it.

Immersing myself in an interview tonight,and finding some consolation in the familiar.

"Kick Inside"
"Climate of Hunter"
"Exotour"

feels liek I've harly been at home today.
Went over to the church to open up at 9.00 and put up the second banner which, for whatever reason, no one else had seen fit to do.
Fiddled about with this and that until we opened at 10, by which time FG had managed to come down from his bizarrely timed appointment in Romsey. he's good, and led two guided tours during the day, but he does terribly wander off the point and really needs a script.
We had a steady drizzle of visitors all day, more than 40 in all, including a representative of English Heritage who has offered loads of advice about funding and can see "enormous" potential" in The Building.
It does feel good when a day like this goes so well and gets our name into the conscience of people in the wider community.
And we ended up with £72.50 on the plate, which is an unexpected bonus!
Then tonight, after probably two whole hours at home which was taken up by cooking the dinner (an excellent fish risotto - one of my specialities and one of Tx favourite dishes) I took Girls 1 and 2 back over the church for the second Flute Concert performed by the students of the very very lovely Jay Barron.
Beautiful stuff (in fact, the music was good too) but somehow it didn't quite hit the heights of last year. No doubt because I knew what to expect and it wasn't quite such a reveletaion.
We have a wonderful asset in that building and I feel inspired that we are beginning to makes steps in the right direction regarding its future.

I'm a little disappointed to be honest that the Foxx 'management' replied to any of my messages regarding a visit to the Building tomorrow on their way back from the Bestival? I do hope it went well - the debut performance of Metamatic 'live'. i think also that Ris is similarly frustrated, but he's more used to how these things work than I am so I suppose its not entirely unexpected.

But but but, I did have the cerebral pleasure of Cathedral Oceans through the new PA blasting out during my shifts today. It works so, so well in that environment.
Didn't quite get a chance to put The Pearl on as well, which I also think would sound awesome.

I think we are half expecting a visit form Biscuit tomorrow afternoon, but I'm not sure when. I'm off to meet the others for lunch at 12.30 when they get off the ferry, so I don't expect Iwill be home before 2.30. It would be something if I can persuade them at least to see "my" church as it is looking wonderful at the moment given all the cleaning and the flowers in prepartion for the HOD. Tx wants to meet him too, but he is steadfastly refusing to talk about my family. Weird, I suppose, but perhaps we just don't have that kind of relationship yet...?

Everything has gone very well today, the big return to school.
Flo has enjoyed the first day at Secondary, even if we did very nearly miss the bus. Seems crazy to have to be over the road and waiting by 8.05 when everyone else is still having breakfast, but it doesn't then get to town until 8.25, and the five minute walk then means she has only ten minutes before the day starts. Long and tiring, but she'll pick it up quickly enough.
I took the opportunity of being that side of town to pop back into Orchard House and see CQ. It was a bit early and I had to wait 20 mnutes until she arrived for work, but it was well worth doing.
Despite clumsy and somewhat insensitive mails on my part and failing to meet her twice for lunch this year, especially since her dad died suddenly in May, meant that I felt awkward, but that soon disappeared nd we got on well again immediately. Plannng to meet for lunch next week or three and catch up properly, but I'm so glad the tense 'silence' has all but passed now.

Ended up not being at work until 11, and then I left at 3 to meet Flo from school, so very little got done today.

Working tonight on the new Marseilles job for PCG and I'm struggling with the commitment required o finish this by Tuesday week. Seems really hard now, doing these late nights when I have so much else on. Out tomorrow at the church working on the floor and the PA, then out for a new season of cell on Thursday which I am leading. Looking ofrard to that.
The church website is up and running, and looks excellent. Meets more or less all the brief, is easy to navigate and easy to read. I'd say too much text, but I'm hyper-critical. DT has done a superb job given his initial reservations about his own competence and deserves a big hug for this major step forward.

Spoke to Ris this evening, and as I suspected there is no explanation Forthcoming for either the delay to the Metamatic release or the abscence of Cathedral Oceans from the Bestival line up? The plan seems to be that he and EG are coming off the island around 11 on the Sunday, wwhich should tie in erfectly for a pub lunch in town somewhere.
Really looking forward tomeeting them again - I just hope Ekin's mum stays well enough for him to be able to get down at all. She's been too ill for too long and I think the strain is beginning to show.

One of the biggest days of her life tomorrow for 11 yr old girl 3 - the start of secondary school.
Not just the new school either. She is the only girl from her primary school going to this secondary, and it involves a bus journey starting at 8 a.m.
So all change everywhere - no wonder really that she has been nervous, silly and excited all weekend and probably the most unpredicatbe and difficult of all the kids the last week or so!!
Seems strangely odd to us as well that we won't be seeing again any of that group of parents we called our friends with whom we exchanged daughters on Brownies or swimming evenings, fetching and carrying to birthday parties etc.
She's a very sensible, mature kid for her age and I'm sure of course that everything will be OK.
I'm going in on the bus with her and a girl from church for the first time tomorrow, and meeting them afterwards. The Wednesday I'll go in with them again, but not meet them, leaving them to their own devices by Thursday.

Boy moves into a class with his first male teacher, which should be just about the perfect time.

None of them have seen any of their friends over the summer - on occasions we have mentioned it they have chosen not to. i don't think I really understand why not, but there you go. That is the way of it.

Today was supposed to have been the 'official' release date for the 2CD re-mastered Metamatic but it seems, not surprisingly, that this has been held back for probably another two weeks. What does surprise me is the reaction of other fans to this. It has become a real issue with people who pre-ordered in May or June, and, like, Oh-my-God-yeah, it's like the most disappointing thing EVER??

What?

Get a life. It's a piece of music…

Ooooh, I'm good!

Two years researching this now, and I have just found another date on the tour!

According to WC's interview with Jonas the band played a gig with The Police in one of the mid-west states and at last I have tied it down. Two sites list a Police gig at Glinnell University (outside Des Moines) in IOWA on 10th March, and one of those has those magic words "with Ultravox" beside the entry.
Hurrah!
Cross referencing this with the other tour dates when the two bands were in the US at the same time, it has to be this one.
Using my little map that I have put together this also ties in perfectly because obviously IA is en route across the country, giving the band 3 days before their appearance in San Francisco.
And as I have now also found out where the University of California is (Davis, CA) where JF and BC were interviewed, it is reasonably safe to assume that they, like the Police a few days later, played a set in the Coffee House This is in fact referred to in the interview. Davis is near Sacramento, a100km or so from SF so maybe this was the next day, after the SF gig? Certainly the next known gig was in LA two days later than SF.

I've now established 13 dates.
The definitive archive.

Buuut - they are FIVE DAYS between the gigs in Washington and Boston. That seems too long without a show. So maybe there is another one between 25 Feb and 3rd March?

An exploration of the deeper realities of London through Ballardian soundworlds of music and refrained speech. Empty sunlit streets populated only by plants and animals. Subterranean spaces perturbed by looming forces from the unknown. Sonic trance-portation into a city contacted by fictions and dreams. What is eliminated in the mediocre melodrama we are invited to call adult reality is not fantasy, but the uncanny - the sense that all is not as it seems, that the kitchen-sink everyday is a front for the machinations of parasites and alien forces which either possess, control or have designs upon us. In other words, the suppressed wisdom of uncanny fiction is that it is THIS world, the world of liberal-capitalist commonsense, that is a stage set with wobbly walls. Tthe Real of the London Underground is better described by pulp and modernism (which in any case have a suitably uncanny complicity) than by postmodern drearealism. Everyone knows that, once the wafer-thin veneer of 'persons' is stripped away, the population on the Tube are zombies under the control of sinister extra-terrestrial corporations.

OK, now some of that I understand.

It makes so much more sense when you listen to the recording. Lasts an hour and a hoalf, and its absolutely mesmeric.
Among lots of soundbites, readings and dialogue overlaid with layers of bizarre, ambient music and unusual sound art is a reading of The Quiet Man accompanied by extracts from the very beautiful Translucence album.

I've had to shut the windows up here otherwise I can hear the Macarena irritating the back of my head, and people hooting and whooping. There is another Wedding of the Chavs at the club opposite. Grrrrrr…

This moring in Borders I browsed the music biographies and convinced myself more than ever of the need to get my own work into some comprehensive order and seriously attempt to publish something. Somewhere on the web might be the way to go to start with…??
Spent a few passing moments lusting after the new edition of Proust (hey, Christmas is coming now, it's September!) and then accumulated ALL SIX of the Arden Shakespeare's that carry cover art by Mr Leigh. Felt slightly uncomfortable when I seriously considered buying htem at £8.99 EACH just for the sake of having the artwork?
Perhaps it was fortuitous that this morning's post included not only the aforementioned recording, but also a nice letter from Mr lloyds informing me that they have charged me £35 for the privilege of not paying the Direct Debit that is my mortgage again this month. That is VERY unhelpful, and confusing. To have done so would have left me with an overdraft figure that is well WITHIN that which we have agreed? So what's the problem.
I can't help wonder if this is not in someway related to my case against them in the courts.
Yesterday I received their Statement of defence, which effectively denies all the charges. I think all I have to do is tick the appropraite box and send my Statement off and let the courts do the rest.

WHY did they pay that £750.00 if they deny ALL the charges?

It's also unhelpful because the cheque cleared today that covers everything. They know that I get the same amount of money on more or less the same date each month, and that the mortgage payment of exactly the same date comes out on 31st.
Whatever happened to flexibility and common sense. Customer Service, even…

And well, b*gger me sideways with a pointy stick.
Seems I've had more than DOUBLE the amount of hits during August even than in July.
Coming up on two years of bloggng now at this place, and still feel naively uncertain about it all.