Good news and, inevitably, bad.

The company which let me down so badly last week by not turning up when I had my slight water problem, have just written me a letter saying that after an internal enquiry, they find themselves to be at fault and will subsequently be sending me a cheque for £150. Just in time for Christmas. Not bad. However, this is the second time they've left me stranded; the last time being a complete power outage in the middle of winter, whereupon they gleefully told me that they weren't coming out despite my insurance being valid.
      On that occasion they found against me because apparently they'd ceased trading with the insurance company which offered the contract and I should have known despite them telling nobody that it had happened. So thanks, and goodbye.
      The bad news? I finally got round to checking Amazon's ultra fine print and discovered the reason for never getting a penny from them. Apparently the minimum threshold for getting any money out of them is £100 from the UK site and $100 from the US site. The fact that I've sold a few books (it's difficult to tell given their awful accounting system) in both the US and UK means that I have to achieve those thresholds separately. So Unless I sell enough books in both markets then I get nothing. Combined sales across the two markets (as far as I can tell) count for nothing.
     I may be wrong and I hope I am, but the end result is the same - nothing.
     On a brighter note, my Christmas holidays have just begun. Can't wait. Loads of writing and eating and my annual bottle of wine with my beloved's Christmas lunch.
     I'm getting into the swing of it now. In fact I've even stopped threatening to murder my daughter's Bengal kitten, till after Christmas day, anyway.