Saturday 1 March 2008

Can't help lovin'...

The Sage is entirely adorable, and never more so than when he's screwed things up.

He paid his car insurance, and a couple of weeks later, realised that his car tax was due and his insurance certificate had not arrived. He phoned, and was told that a replacement would be sent out at once, but it still hadn't got here yesterday. "Never mind," I said, "I'll pay for it online; the DVLC are notified by the insurance company and you don't have to produce the document." The trouble was, he also hadn't had a reminder for his car tax (what is it with the postal service?) and so he didn't have the reference number. "what about the log book then, that'll do?" He searched. He couldn't find it. He tried to ring them, but the line was constantly engaged (no queue, just an engaged signal) from 4 pm yesterday and we concluded that the weekend had started early.

I tried to think where the registration document might be. "Where's the MOT certificate?" I asked. He tapped his pocket. "Okay, where was it before you put it in your pocket?" He looked boyish. "I couldn't find it, I got a replacement from the garage."

Today, the replacement insurance certificate arrived, but the logbook still is nowhere to be found. He went to get an application form for a replacent...which will cost £25.

We're working on the catalogue for the next sale. There are a few pieces from one seller which didn't go in the last sale, which are being re-entered this time. The Sage was worried. Three saucers, but no matching teabowls. And two cream jugs were missing. He was still fretting about it when we went to bed. "Look," I said. "We didn't leave them behind in the saleroom and the owner didn't take them away" (he'd phoned to check). "So they're here. You just put them in a different box." "But there was plenty of room in that box, so why weren't they together?" "When you find them, you'll remember why you packed them separately. They aren't lost. You are careful and you would never lose a piece of china that belonged to someone else."

This morning, of course, he found them. They were in a box that has divisions, in which they fitted perfectly; which is the reason they were there.

I love it when he's fallible. He never complains when I lose or forget things but is pretty reliable himself - usually. It's rather a pleasure to be the one to comfort him.

12 comments:

Dave said...

Pride comes before a fall, so i won't say that I have an efficient filing system and rarely misplace papers.

Z said...

I'm dreadfully vague about such matters, so it's always a thrill when I find something straight away.

I hope you don't fall, Dave.

Monozygote said...

ooh, remember when you lost your notebook? that was terrible. did you ever find it in the end?

Z said...

I do appreciate it when someone remembers - no, I never did. I had to make up the minutes of the meeting and confess to everyone. They were awfully kind about it.

martin said...

Vive le Sage !.

Brom said...

I come from the same school. The number of times that I put a tool down when doing DIY and then spend an hour looking for it!

Anonymous said...

It's a relief to know that someone else is almost as badly organised as I am.

Anonymous said...

Unless you are *very lucky*, I'll put money on you gettting auto-fined £80 for not renewing before the first of the month (and I'm not a gambler). I know of 3 people to whom the same thing has happened, in almost exactly the same circumstances.

But there are still thousands of people somehow driving without insurance...

Easy money. Just like speed cameras.

Z said...

I was *very lucky* myself last year, BW, when I was late paying my own car tax (it's not the same time as the MOT and the insurance renewal and it slipped my mind) and I got away with it. If we don't this time, we'll shrug and move on, because there's only so much anger it's worth expending.

The good news is that I remembered to pay my insurance last week. The bad news is that this means the MOT must be due any time now, and I'd better book it PDQ.

I'm terribly disorganised. I waste so much time by it, too - fortunately, I'm quite efficient when I have to be, so keep my head just above water. The Sage is perfect in every way of course, because he's my little darling.

The Boy said...

Not that it should be used as an excuse, but if you check the small print you have a month's grace to sort out the tax disc. Its precisely to cover postal delays and such like.

Z said...

They keep that quiet, Boy, and I didn't know that.

My MOT doesn't run out until the end of the month. I'm not cutting it so fine after all.

Anonymous said...

Not that it should be used as an excuse, but if you check the small print you have a month's grace to sort out the tax disc. Its precisely to cover postal delays and such like.

The Boy - where's the small print please?

One of my fined friends was away on holiday for 3 weeks. Renewal only comes 15 days before, she left 2 days before (didn't think about the car tax, and you can only renew 15 days before anyway), got back 6 days after and got fined £80 (2 weeks ago). If you can point me to the small print, I can hopefully save her the fine as she hasn't paid it yet (they give you 28 days for that).

However, the 2 others definitely got fined for not renewing by the 1st - no grace period for them.