I nearly shat myself this afternoon. I got back from work to find a bill from my gas company, Scottish Power. Upon opening it, I was shocked to read my invoice for the last month – £181.36!!! Nearly £200 for 28 days of gas! I’m not running a fucking sauna!

I immediately rung the company to query the amount and was assured that there was no error and I did indeed owe £181. I found this totally bizarre as my gas usage is minimal. My flat faces south and therefore receives a lot of sun – because of this, the radiators haven’t been turned on once and I have had the windows open most days!

I was proving a difficult customer and the poor girl on the phone was struggling. She suggested I check the gas meter. Upon inspection, I discovered where the fault lay. When the gasman came to read the meter, he must have checked the neighbour’s one – idiot! This reduced my bill from £181 to £17.50. This reduction meant that they owed me money, £7.50 to be exact.

A lesson from this, kids – always read your bills!

The Sky engineer called round on Tuesday in another attempt to pick up a signal amidst the forest of trees at the rear of my flat. Yet again he was unsuccessful. He did suggest I contact an independent engineer who doesn’t suffer from a fear of heights, so that a dish could be fitted on the roof – abseiling equipment required. However, I have given up on Sky and just decided to save £37 a month.

Now I need to try and get back the £64 which Sky decided to take/steal from my bank account before I even had a dish erected. Apparently refunds are not dealt with over the telephone. Therefore I had to write a letter to somebody in Scotland. Typical – they don’t have a problem taking your money over the phone! Talk about getting blood from a stone!

Since moving into my new flat, I have found myself going to bed a lot earlier on “school nights”. Instead of my previous bedtime of 11pm-midnight, I’m tucked up around 10pm. Good thing I say – I feel alot fresher ahead of the weekend, when I will be up later, and I haven’t fallen asleep at my work desk once – I am now the model professional!

This hasn’t been a planned change – although think it is probably linked to various factors.

• No TV or broadband internet to waste my evenings on
• No housemates making noise outside my bedroom door
• No housemates preventing access to kitchen & bathroom
• Nicer bed, which makes sleeping more attractive
• Loads more stuff to do at work, which is tiring me out

People say that you require more sleep as you age. I’m 25 next week. It is a worry, as at the rate things are going, by the time I am the same age as Leeds United owner Ken Bates, I will require 87 hours of sleep a day!

These last few days, I have been making hundreds of telephone calls in relation to my recent flat move. It seems that every company, whether it is for gas, home insurance or telephone is out to financially rape you.

• Endsleign Insurance – tried to charge me £60 a month for cover. I snubbed them for a company I was “more than lucky” to find.

• BT – all I wanted was a telephone line. Why do I have to keep telling their operators I don’t want any of their broadband packages! Also, why does it cost £25 to reconnect me? Surely it just takes a few clicks on the keyboard?

• Gas/Elec – This was a hard enough task in itself. Originally, NOBODY knew who supplied my gas. At one point I was told I didn’t have a supply, I duly corrected them by saying I could se a blue flame inside my boiler. Now either I have a gas supply, or somebody has stuck a firework inside it.

• Council – Simple enough to sign up. Bath and North East Somerset are rip-off merchants though, charging their residents some of the most extortionate council tax rates in Europe. Personally, I would rather not fund The Spa and Team Bath Football Club!

• Sky – Richard Branston will disagree with me, but unbelievably, Sky have been OK this week. They sent an engineer round on Tuesday to try and install a dish. He couldn’t pick up a signal as the neighbours have a ridiculously high tree in their garden. Sky are coming back tomorrow with an extra tall ladder to put a dish right at the top of the building, apparently for no charge… apparently.