Sat in my pyjamas at midday drinking a cup of tea which has a famous, funny and friendly Northern Monkey as it’s mascot, and I am in shock.  I’m in shock because I’m sat in my PJ’s firstly, that just is not me at all.  Secondly I am in shock because I have just hung up the call taken from my Official Receiver appointed to me by the UK’s Insolvency Service.  The correspondence I received from the Insolvency Service on the day of our friend Steve’s funeral, contained a date for an initial telephone interview, that interview was 10:30 am today.  My ear is still red from the non ionising radiation energy emanating from the 3 year old, white, Silicon Valley devised, hand held googleifier and eye lens damager, that I took the telephone call on.  In my second blog I talked about my day in court and how I could simply walk to the lovely old building in the centre of my adopted home town, to have my bankruptcy ‘finalised’ or ‘rubber stamped’.  I talked about not wearing the suit that I buried my Father in and also about proverbially tightening my shoe laces for that walk.  Well I stand corrected.  I will not be walking to that court house, nor will I be perambulating or indeed having to travel by any vehicular means to any courthouse at all.  My proverbial shoe laces have been tightened for the journey out of bankruptcy that lays ahead, but they’re now not required in the real sense.  I do not have to walk to court.  My telephone interview was the ‘rubber stamp’, and It’s now final.

“My proverbial shoe laces have been tightened for the journey out of bankruptcy that lays ahead, but they’re now not required in the real sense.  I do not have to walk to court.  My telephone interview was the ‘rubber stamp’, and It’s now final.”

Staying with Mark while I get through this ‘blip’ in life has created problems.  As well as being an organiser, I’m also a bit of a worrier because I care about those around me and the impact that I am having on them.  I worry because I’m a perfectionist, not in the way that some people struggle mentally with, like OCD and other forms of related Mental Health issues, but just that I want to get things correct, proper, accurate and complete.  I called my Official Receiver a few days ago because my friend Mark has kindly allowed me to live with him until I can get my backside in gear again, and my worry was that his address is on my initial electronic application and therefore now also on the official ‘sign here’ paperwork too.  I spoke with a lovely woman for a few minutes and asked how it would affect his credit rating, having his address cited as housing a bankrupt person.  She assured me that it would not.  She was fantastic to talk to and we said goodbye knowing that we would be having an official interview in a few days time.

I cannot tell you her age, I couldn’t even take a wild swing at a piñata with a custom made, professional cricket bat to have a guess.  She had life skills and was a pleasure to talk to and made me feel at ease.  She naturally had some difficult questions to ask and I naturally had some difficult answers to give, but we did.  She listened as I explained the odd circumstances and reasons behind the insolvency and she did not judge.  In fact she did the opposite and offered ‘off the record advice’ from a non official capacity.  Not only did she agree with this course of action but she actively offered help and more than anything she treated me like a human being.  I am having to deal, at the moment, with another Government run service to do with the circumstances behind this bankruptcy.  WHAT A DIFFERENCE.  The Insolvency Service have been nothing short of amazing in dealing with what is an extremely stressful, difficult and if I’m honest, a harrowing time in my life.  The other Government agency I’m having to deal with are inept, un professional, un coordinated, unhelpful, arrogant, un friendly and a rude organisation.  This was my concern this morning for this interview, in that I was expecting the same kind of ‘we don’t give a damn‘ attitude from them.  How wrong was I?  Like the scores announcer in the Eurovision Song Contest – “UK Insolvency Service – Dix Point“, “Other Government agency I won’t mention just yet – Nil Point“.

There is a reason for my rambling, and I’m getting there I promise, stick with me.

My ‘still hanging perfectly steady while I swing wildly at the piñata of her age’, Official Receiver, informed me that the Insolvency Service ‘did away with’ having to go to court last year – 2016.  The initial electronic application now goes directly to an Examiner (her) who researches, investigates and informs your creditors/bank etc, to see if it is all legal and above board, and if that is the case, authorises it.  They have cut away the embarrassment and indignity (and the need to wear the suit you wore to Aunt Peggy’s funeral in 2015 again), from having to attend court.

If you are reading this and you are about to have your initial interview with the UK’s Insolvency Service and like me, it worries you, don’t let it.  It is indeed a nerve wracking event.  You (should) know it is recorded, you know it is official and I hope you know that everything you say is all ‘on record’, but that should not put you off.  The Officer I have been assigned and spoke with this morning was amazingly reassuring and brilliantly human.  Why she works for the UK’s Government I’ll never know.