Sometimes, I wonder why we bother...

My ex is trying to move in to a new flat, and while strictly speaking the fuck up isn't the state agents' fault, they're not being particularly proactive either - in fact, they seem to have stopped even returning her calls. The landlords gave the go-ahead to get a tenant before they'd actually completed on the purchase; that was 2 weeks ago now and still no keys in sight. I wouldn't mind, but

1. it affects my daughter
2. I leant her the deposit, both of us expecting her to be able to pay me back a week or two later when she gets the one for her current place back
3. Oh ok, she's also one of my best friends, and I stand by my friends

That's £1200 I'm (temporarily) down. I'm hardly starving, but having the money back sooner rather than later would be nice... My ex has come to an agreement with her current landlord - the estate agents have two weeks to produce the keys, or she'll stay where she is. (He's with them, and she got the flat through them) That was a week ago...

Oh, and they've charged her for following up references again, when they presumably only did that 6 months ago. And 50 quid "key release" fee? They're having a fucking laugh.

Luckily, she works for a local solicitors, so should it come to a fight, it'll be free. For us.

Work continues to astound and confound me. The project I'm on is limping to a bloody finish; I can't see it going live on time unless our project manager puts his foot down and tells the client to fuck off. He is clearly gearing up to do so, and has been getting progressively harder and harder on them. I just wonder if it's going to be enough - they're very good at throwing entire tool kits in the works...

In addition to that, the senior management team seems to be pulling the company in several different directions at once. The latest news is that we're all going to (temporarily) become product implementers - installing and configuring $product as well as writing any required code for extra functionality (the old 80/20 rule is almost universal). My boss assures us that this will only continue until such time as we have sufficient work coming to as to justify hiring people to do the job. My cynicism and years of experience tells me that's a crock, and that once we start on that road we'll be stuck on it. After all, "you're doing it now, and doing it so well..."

Anyway, that's quite enough of that! The plan is progressing nicely, and so I must away. Peace out, y'all!