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As my cousin doesn't work Fridays at the moment, I've stayed home today and done some online training. I ran over to the corner store for milk and boy is it chold out there! Brrr!!! I've been feeling chilled since i got back so i think a hot cuppa is in order.
There was also a letter pushed under the door from the new property management company about that so called rebate on our rent we were supposed to get because we couldn't use the balconies a lot of last year. It implied our rent payments would revert back to the full amount but mine never did get any discounts. I got on the phone to them, found out that they just built up a credit on my account but also found out that they never got the January rent. Now, there was a change of companies and i do know i got letters about a change in the automatic bank withdrawals but i interpreted it as something anyone who hadn't set it up through online banking would have to do. Apparently the account the rent was going to is no longer in existence but the bank took it out of my account anyway and if it did reject, it didn't come back to me!
So as of today, i owe January's rent and February's but what i've done is contact the bank to find out what's going on. They're going to get January's rent money back i think, hopefully in about a week or so if i'm lucky. In the meantime i've set up my own monthly transaction for the rent to the new company and account starting in March, and i sent them February's rent as well. When i get back the January amount, I can send them that minus the credit amount i have built up. I did call the woman back at the property company but she didn't get back to me. I'll have to try again Monday to let her know what's going on. Anyway that's $120 i don't have to pay against January's rent. It's all good.
I think i've found the hotel for Quebec City. I get a weekly "deal" newsletter called Travelzoo and this week's had a really nice hotel in the old centre of Quebec for 109 a night with a free upgrade to a superior room. Not sure if breakfast is included but for that price it doesn't matter. It seems to be less than half price too. Sundays through Thursdays up to the end of May. Check. We're staying with friends for two nights but in a hotel for the other two. Right across the street is a big museum and they'll have an exhibition about Samurai when we're there which is Ace!!!! G. Loves Samurai and i think they're pretty cool too!
The next collection of books read: I've linked to the full review on Goodreads but there's a summary as well.
Sin - Josephine Hart
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/255487168
A story of obession and jealousy between two women raised as sisters, one good and sweet and the other horrible, always out to find ways of taking things from her sister or making her suffer. The book is not long and there's not a lot of plot but the writing is riveting and it holds on to your imagination. You feel like you're right in the mind of Ruth who's a nasty piece of work. The author also wrote Damage which was made into a movie with Jeremy Irons which i really liked. I must try to find that book, too. The book was first released in 2003, though it seemed to be a "new release" as an ebook last year on the Kobo site.
Soul Identity - Dennis Batchelder
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/269860940
It was a good story but the dialogue was clunky, cliche and a bit tiresome.
Big Girls Bounce - Lulu Dean
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/270263406
Random unconnected anecdotes from the author's life. I thought it was positive stories about big girls but it had a lot of negativity in it and the chapters/anecdotes kept ending abruptly. And....? what happened next? Too bad because the characters are funny and some of the chapters could have been hysterically funny if they'd been fleshed out and taken further, especially the one about the sex toy party.
Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great - Eva Stachniak
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/246486583
It's not actually a fictionalized account of Catherine's life but an account of court life in the Russian Imperial court around the time Catherine, who was Sophie, came from Poland to marry the future Peter III who was entirely dominated by his mother Empress Elizabeth. Barbara, a Polish girl who's Russian name is Varvara, ends up in the court, as a spy to pass information about the courts of Elizabeth and the young Grand Duchess Catherine for the Chancellor. The story is from Varvera's point of view and about her life and interaction with the Royal family. The novel ends just after the coup that puts Catherine on the throne of Russia.
There was also a letter pushed under the door from the new property management company about that so called rebate on our rent we were supposed to get because we couldn't use the balconies a lot of last year. It implied our rent payments would revert back to the full amount but mine never did get any discounts. I got on the phone to them, found out that they just built up a credit on my account but also found out that they never got the January rent. Now, there was a change of companies and i do know i got letters about a change in the automatic bank withdrawals but i interpreted it as something anyone who hadn't set it up through online banking would have to do. Apparently the account the rent was going to is no longer in existence but the bank took it out of my account anyway and if it did reject, it didn't come back to me!
So as of today, i owe January's rent and February's but what i've done is contact the bank to find out what's going on. They're going to get January's rent money back i think, hopefully in about a week or so if i'm lucky. In the meantime i've set up my own monthly transaction for the rent to the new company and account starting in March, and i sent them February's rent as well. When i get back the January amount, I can send them that minus the credit amount i have built up. I did call the woman back at the property company but she didn't get back to me. I'll have to try again Monday to let her know what's going on. Anyway that's $120 i don't have to pay against January's rent. It's all good.
I think i've found the hotel for Quebec City. I get a weekly "deal" newsletter called Travelzoo and this week's had a really nice hotel in the old centre of Quebec for 109 a night with a free upgrade to a superior room. Not sure if breakfast is included but for that price it doesn't matter. It seems to be less than half price too. Sundays through Thursdays up to the end of May. Check. We're staying with friends for two nights but in a hotel for the other two. Right across the street is a big museum and they'll have an exhibition about Samurai when we're there which is Ace!!!! G. Loves Samurai and i think they're pretty cool too!
The next collection of books read: I've linked to the full review on Goodreads but there's a summary as well.
Sin - Josephine Hart
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/255487168
A story of obession and jealousy between two women raised as sisters, one good and sweet and the other horrible, always out to find ways of taking things from her sister or making her suffer. The book is not long and there's not a lot of plot but the writing is riveting and it holds on to your imagination. You feel like you're right in the mind of Ruth who's a nasty piece of work. The author also wrote Damage which was made into a movie with Jeremy Irons which i really liked. I must try to find that book, too. The book was first released in 2003, though it seemed to be a "new release" as an ebook last year on the Kobo site.
Soul Identity - Dennis Batchelder
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/269860940
It was a good story but the dialogue was clunky, cliche and a bit tiresome.
Big Girls Bounce - Lulu Dean
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/270263406
Random unconnected anecdotes from the author's life. I thought it was positive stories about big girls but it had a lot of negativity in it and the chapters/anecdotes kept ending abruptly. And....? what happened next? Too bad because the characters are funny and some of the chapters could have been hysterically funny if they'd been fleshed out and taken further, especially the one about the sex toy party.
Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great - Eva Stachniak
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/246486583
It's not actually a fictionalized account of Catherine's life but an account of court life in the Russian Imperial court around the time Catherine, who was Sophie, came from Poland to marry the future Peter III who was entirely dominated by his mother Empress Elizabeth. Barbara, a Polish girl who's Russian name is Varvara, ends up in the court, as a spy to pass information about the courts of Elizabeth and the young Grand Duchess Catherine for the Chancellor. The story is from Varvera's point of view and about her life and interaction with the Royal family. The novel ends just after the coup that puts Catherine on the throne of Russia.