Mr Dodge - our rental agent

This is an email I sent to the UK Office of Fair Trading tonight (OFT).
________________________
Hi,

I have recently started renting a property through an estate agent.
I have been paying my rent from my bank account, it comes out automatically by direct debit every month.
I decided I would like a receipt and rang my estate agent asking for a receipt for the two times I had paid rent.
He said he could write me a receipt each quarter but that it would cost me £25 for that privilege.
I refused his offer.
Is that illegal for him to charge me a fee to write a receipt for my rent?
Surely I can receive a receipt for my rent without having to pay for the receipt, and if I did pay him to write a receipt could I then ask for a receipt for the receipt payment - maybe he would ask for another fee for writing that receipt and so on until he has reached real estate utopia and I, bankruptcy.

Please advise me of my rights.

Regards
XXX
__________________________

Our rental agent still thinks we are fresh off the boat, well we may have been when we arrived and signed his lease.

Mind wanders back to 20 Jan 2005 - Real Estate Agent's office
Mr Dodge: Hello Mr and Mrs A, That property you are looking at is OK, but to be honest I wouldn't want my wife living in an unsafe area like that. Now here is a property that is a little bit more expensive but you will have peace of mind for your wife Mr A
Mr A: Gosh, well my wife's safety is the most important thing. We certainly won't be looking at places that are unsafe for her.
Mr Dodge: You are in luck, this expensive place has just become available (Read: not being advertised so we don't know the market price) and we may be able to convince the owner that even though you don't have the necessary rental references and haven't been in the UK for long, you will be able to pay the rent. Usually there is a reference check which costs £235 - but because I trust the look of you, I won't do the reference check. How's that?
Mr A: Thats great, thanks very much Mr Dodge!
Mr Dodge: But you will still have to pay the fee even though I don't do the check.
Mr A: Umm OK (This money still seems like monopoly money to me and I left my brain on the plane)
Mr Dodge: OK, well just let me ring the owner to see if she will OK this without a reference check, I like your chances because her sister is a teacher and must understand what you are going through.
Mr A: ??? Yeah sure mate.
(Watch Mr Dodge have a 5 min heated phone conversation with "Owner" - Look trust me on this one, Mrs XXX, blah blah blah)

Mr Dodge: Well good news Mr and Mrs A, the owner has agreed.

Back to present time

Well the moral is that real estate agents are sharks and our Mr Dodge is a white pointer.
But don't worry, I've hired Vic Hislop.

That sounded really good when I wrote it but I'm not sure the UK OFT will be as good a shark hunter as our Aussie Vic Hislop was.

Ernest Lycett WW1 Medal Card 

Easter Monday research

Went and did some shopping today at Tesco's, we are boycotting our usual supermarket (Asda) because they sold us a dodgy coffee mug (The handle and the rest of the mug aren't comfortable with each other).

Spoke to my grandparents today which was very nice, I haven't rung them for about 6 weeks.
Asked them about grandad's father, Captain Ernest Lycett, who fought in both World Wars. Since we are going to Turkey/Gallipoli for ANZAC Day (April 25), I want to find out as much as I can about his time in the area. He was British and went in with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment at Suvla Bay which is a little bit north of Anzac Cove. You can read a good overview of the Gallipoli Front here
http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/overview_gf.htm

Found what appears to be his WW1 Medal Card on the National Archives website.

Description	Medal card of Lycett, Ernest Corps Regiment No Rank South Staffordshire Regiment 11272 Serjeant Royal Warwickshire Regiment 268623 Serjeant Royal Warwickshire Regiment Second Lieutenant
Date	1914-1920
Catalogue reference	WO 372/12
Dept	Records created or inherited by the War Office, Armed Forces, Judge Advocate General, and related bodies
Series	War Office: Service Medal and Award Rolls Index, First World War
Piece	Langley P A - McGrath D
Image contains	1 medal card of many for this collection

See the link here
http://www.documentsonline.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=3925994&queryType=1&resultcount=1

The National Archives office is at Kew Gardens, on the other end of the district tube line from us at Barking (About an hour away).
We might make a trip out there next saturday to do some more research.

Anyway thats all for now.

Number One

Finally started our blog. I was going to start one when I moved to Kowanyama in mid 2003, but never got around to it.
Well here it is, a great resource to write stuff in, add photos and generally keep posted anyone that is interested in our progress/travels.
So I hope the postings are informative and enjoyable.

We have moved into a town called Barking in the Essex county, it is zone 4 on the London underground. We moved there so my missus could do supply teaching in Essex - she got the contract before we left Oz so our choices were limited. This is the closest we could live to London while still being close to her schools.
For a laugh, do a search on google for Essex girl or Essex boy
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=essex+girl&btnG=Search&meta=
There are lots of funny jokes about them.

Barking is a very multicultural, cosmopolitan place. That's what I keep telling Meredith anyway. When I tell English people we live in Barking they generally say "What the **** are you doing living in that **** place!" and that's the civilised responses.
Meredith was talking to a local Barking guy who noticed her Aussie accent and when she told him we lived here he said "What the **** are you doing living in this **** place!
So that's Barking.

We think we are the only Aussies in this area, sort of like pioneers I suppose.

Cheers from the 2 mad Aussies in Barking.