Did you know that the 15th of March is a day that we need to beware of...... according to Shakespeare in his play.
The Romans didn't number the days of the month as we do now but used points in the month to divide each month into groups. The Ides were the 15th of the month in March, May, July and October and the 13th in the other months. The Kalends were at the beginning of the month.
The Ides of March was the day when debts had to be settled and became so well known by us now after Julius Caeser was killed by a group of conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus on this day in 44BC.
When you think about it how amazing we know something that happened on a specific day over 2,000 years ago............... providing the Roman historians and Shakespeare got the date right.
***********
I was pondering, while hanging on the phone, how difficult it is to do some things when moving yet how easy it is to do others. BT took 3 phone calls to find out why they'd sent me an email telling me to ring them about my order. TIP - ring at 8am exactly on a Saturday morning. Then there was the hour spent trying to ring Eon last week to give them my final meter reading and sort out a query- No tips for getting through - just have to hang on.
Essex and Suffolk Water company was easy, all done online and the bill to pay the final amount came just a day after moving. The Post redirection was also simple. Fill in forms, take ID and form to any Post Office and pay and hey presto the post is straightaway transferred to the new address on the right day. Of course it will need to be done all over again in a few weeks time.
I'm avoiding changing some addresses twice which hopefully won't cause problems or get me into trouble....guess I'll find out!
Taking the car for it's annual service and MOT today, I expect my mates at the repair place will lend me my old car for the day as I'm a few miles further away.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
Postal redirection is on my list for this week. Hoping this works OK - in Leicester they made a mistake and got our address confused with that of another resident who'd moved. We kept getting all her mail! Fortunately she only lived two roads away, so I was taking it round myself till the PO sorted it out.
ReplyDeleteI've been lucky with post redirection every time I've moved - thankfully - so far.
DeleteI did all my meter readings and changeovers online it's so much easier. The postal redirection one was so straight forward, no ID needed online and it's set up in minutes. Not so good for company redirection though, over £600 for six months, we decided to just inform everyone ourselves instead.
ReplyDeleteI hope your car passes it's MOT, it's always good to have a service done at the same time isn't it, then they put everything right so it passes, I do this every year now.
I couldn't do some things online due to moving into a holiday let -it's made things very complicated
DeleteSetting up a new energy provider was easy and I provided a meter reading to them on an arranged date. I also provided the initial reading here to the vendor, as she had forgotten it and got the agent to phone us. So I assumed she would give that to SSE. But no, she didn't and they gave me a high bill based on an estimate. I have been trying to get through on the phone - managed once, and the girl put me on hold while she looked at my account - after 10 minutes I gave up! I only had an account for 3 weeks and not in my name. I gave up in disgust after waiting 15 minutes last week and couldn't get through to complaints either (you bet!) so I wrote them the opening reading on their bill and asked them to amend it. We shall see.
ReplyDeleteTrying to change the bank account address (2) is another stumbling block. May have to drive all the way to Carmarthen to do it!
I'm trying to avoid changing things twice. I'll be glad when I get settled
DeleteMarch is not a good time for me apart from the lovely spring flowers. 11th is by daughters birthday, 13th is the 33rd annerversay of my husbands death and 15th would have been he's birthday.
ReplyDeleteI had a nice surprise yesterday my daughter took me out to Waddesdon Manor quite near to us, getting out of the car when I suddenly saw my GS and his GF and they had come to see me, they live near but in the opposite direction to us. We did a lovely 3 Mille walk and not many people about.
Hope you had a nice weekend in your holiday home Sue.
Hazel c uk 🌈🌈🌈
11th was my late husbands birthday - he would have been 64 this year
DeleteThere is nothing more frustrating than ringing any of the services where you can hang on for ages while they keep breaking into the muzak to tell you just how important you are to them.
ReplyDeleteI found that BT have lots of different numbers that all go through to the same place!
DeleteDarling Sue,
ReplyDeleteHungarians have a National Holiday on 15th March to commemorate the 1848 Revolution and the following War in 1848-1849 against the Austrian Hapsburg rule over Hungary.
Usually, it is a time for a wide variety of cultural programmes, speech making and general celebration. This year, as last year, it has taken on a more sombre tone with everywhere and practically everything in Hungary in lockdown and curfew.
Let us hope for winds of change with the coming of Spring.
Sorry, but I'm still not sure about the "darling"!
ReplyDeleteI often wondered where the term the Ides of March came from. I did not realize that the Romans divided up the months. Thanks for sharing that information.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Being a Roman historian by training I've always believed the true power behind the murder of Caesar was Antony!
ReplyDeleteIt's surprising how much there is to do when you move!
ReplyDelete