Uninsured Loss Recovery

Someone ran into the back of me in February resulting in my car needing a new rear bumper. The insurance company of the other driver called me to offer to do all the work but I decided to use my own insurance company and pay the excess which I knew I would be able to recover. The work was carried out within a couple of days and my car was as good as ever.

It is now 3 months later and the insurance company have written to say they are trying to recover my excess under uninsured loss but the other insurance company deny all knowledge of the incident and they are “making their allegations known”. Why does it take so long? The other insurance company have already admitted liability!

Now, if I were the cynical type, I might conclude that it is not in the insurance companies interests to recover these losses too quickly as it means they need to pay us from their coffers. Insurance company A won’t chase insurance company B too hard if insurance company B doesn’t chase insurance company A too hard and in the meantime the money can sit in their accounts earning a nice sum of interest. Cynical? Moi?

Sublime Golf

So it took 6 pretty horrible holes in which the highlights were my playing partner getting par on the 4th and me parring the 5th and hitting 7s and 8s for the others when a moment that will probably live with both of us for a long time arrived. No practice shot, just ball down, driver out and straight and long followed by my slightly more prepared but equally straight and long drive. Now us both hitting the fairway is rare, for us to both hit the fairway and be a long way from the tee is unheard of. We set off down the 354 yard walk to the hole, got to the 150 yard marker and the balls were still some way in front of us. The look that passed between us said it all “how far!?” “You’d think we were tour pros” might have been pushing it but we waved to the imaginary crowd anyway. We’d hit to within 3 feet of each other and about 270-280 yards. It had to be a fluke, it had to go wrong. We both take a pitching wedge to the middle of the green and 2 putts for par. OK, so the next wasn’t so good and the 7 and 8 on the 9th was more of a reflection of the round as a whole….but guess which hole we discussed most over the post game beer!

RAW photography

I’m a convert! After reading a lot about it in various photography magazines, finally got around to shooting in RAW mode rather than just jpeg. Wow! A whole new world opens up – combining RAW conversions for pictures that are perfectly exposed in all areas is pretty easy and the results are spectacular. I can see many hours being lost in front of the PC with Photoshop from now on.

It was 15 years ago today…

..that I stared work at my current employer.

5 roles, 4 office locations and 2 marriages later I’m still there. These days seem to be the most difficult in a long tenure with more uncertainty than ever. However, whenever people ask why I’m still there I’ve generally been at a loss to explain it…until recently. There is an emotional tie that is difficult to break that a lot of people don’t and possibly could never have. In the time I’ve been there we’ve (see, I’m talking about it as a “we”) have actually been 3 different companies and I’ve seen it change and morph and am heavily involved in the most recent change. That creates a bond. Any illusions about that being a bond based on two way loyalty were recently destroyed when another long serving member was made redundant in what can be at best be described as a clumsy manner but I’ve not packed my bags, am still one of the first in and one of the last to leave.

The last 15 years have been interesting, frustrating, educational, inspirational, emotional but rarely boring. Right now I’m wondering if my commitment to the cause through thick and thin will ultimately result in the success I crave….or has been misguided and naive. I guess the next few months may well tell.

ebay

There is something about bidding on ebay…that feeling as you wait to see if you’re going to be successful or outbid at the last minute. The there’s the adrenalin rush of trying to make a late bid…how much to offer…how late to wait.

This week I bid early on a camera to see what would happen. I later increased the bid but didn’t up it again in the final minutes as I might normally. I lost by £5 but had set a limit and was determined to keep it. An hour or so later I got an email from the vendor offering a second chance offer at my “losing” offer price. Quite a result ! Even better as the camera arrived the next day and is wonderful.

There may be trouble ahead…

…but while there’s moonlight and music and love and romance….let’s get the CV up to date just in case (apologies to Irving Berlin)