Further financial faux pas and even more disasterous decisions

moo2moo

Can you really imagine taking it treking? No power point = no book to read. Thats assuming it isn't stolen in transit or confiscated in customs for containing a title banned in the country you're attempting to enter and considerably worse consider if you drop it or a sherpa bangs it a bit heavily damaging the screen thats it all your holiday reading gone instantly. I don't think sand would be too kind to it either or wet wether so your treking would be rather restricted.

So far everything has been automatically sent to my Kindle bypassing the PC since the Kindle has its own e-mail address and has to be registered I'd assume this is a pretty nifty way of detering people from owning duplicate books otherwise there would be a fair amount of back door Kindle book exchange going on but I haven't found any. Yet.

Plus the whole download music thing has bypassed me. I don't have an Ipod or an MP3 player. I listen to the radio in the car. I'm simply not hip and trendy enough for the gadgetry of modern life. However there are many worse confesions to come. Make up you'll need to be sitting down for this.... I don't own a handbag, not one (unless you count the tiny one with boobs and a corset someone bought me as a joke). If I can't get it in my jeans pocket when I go out then I simply don't take it. So on an average day I exit the house with keys and a phone (although its 50/50 whether I remember the phone) occassionally I'll add a wallet to that but thats it.

There isn't anywhere to sit at horse riding so I usually end up watching the DDs or more often than not decapitating poultry for the instructors dinner as shes tooo squeamish to do it herself. Plus note the comments appropriate to trekking and then add huge puddles and steaming piles of horse shoite.

Still feeling like the worlds biggest whingy biatch for being so ungrateful and awkward and negative and worse still OH is already dropping heavy hints as to its lack of useage.

FF- in pro-Kindle news the pages do actually look like those of a book, they don't flicker and it is light enough to hold with one hand although I'm pretty sure this would rapidly lead to the loss of letters on the keyboard which is pathetically small and painstakingly slow to use.

In brighter news yesterday was payday and the nice people at Santander want me back and are willing to pay £100 for this which is v. nice of them but a bit cheeky since its £150 to do the same thing via Quidco mind you it would mean moving the direct debits from the Halifax which would stop me convincing myself I'm going to forget about them and end up with a months worth of £5 a day charges plus theres the whole free money thing going on.

Yesterdays cleaner showed up and worked considerably harder than the last temporary cleaner. Am thanking everything I can for this. Spent a happy half hour reattaching Jesus' arm after a close encounter with a basketball left him as an amputee. The boss was not impressed with the one-armed bandit jokes although the worst of them were admitedly supplied by the vicar who then went on to nuns and bicycles.

Am stuck at school for the majority of the day to partake in some energy efficiency audit which necesitates a carload of environmental bigwigs from some far flung English city using up loads of fuel to save the planet one primary school at a time. Have been told to be on my very best behaviour. Who me? I'm not entirely sure thats possible.

moo2moo

Kitten was remarkably lively when collected from the vets. Procedure over and done with in 5 minutes. No stitches at all. Have been told to attempt to stop him leaping around like a mad thing today purely because he'll be a bit sore rather than to stop him doing any damage. Can turf him outside in the garden from tomorrow. He doesn't seem at all bothered and is most yowly about being shut in a cage even if people do keep feeding him chunks of meat to shut him up.

beanielou

No handbags :eek: :eek: :rotfl:

beanielou

Oh & ipods & the like have passed me by too.
Thought me was the only one.
DS says not to even consider a touch sreen phone!!!

makeup

moo2moo wrote: »

Can you really imagine taking it treking? No power point = no book to read. Thats assuming it isn't stolen in transit or confiscated in customs for containing a title banned in the country you're attempting to enter and considerably worse consider if you drop it or a sherpa bangs it a bit heavily damaging the screen thats it all your holiday reading gone instantly. I don't think sand would be too kind to it either or wet wether so your treking would be rather restricted.

I probably would still take it

I took a solar charger with me and a surprising number of lodges had power points. We managed to charge batteries, cameras, ipod & speakers (worked our way though the BFG, many Womens Hour podcasts and Ben Fogle & James Cracknells trek to the pole) and my friends electric toothbrush.......(yup, we know how to rough it....)

I suppose the dropping it bit could be a problem. But surely that is an issue where-ever you are?

Am intrigued at the speediness of the download and that it goes direct to the kindle itself! I can see that would be a pain - nice to lend / pass on books when you've finished.

And well done on lack of handbag-ness. I always have a bag - on the rare occasions I go out with one, I'm always double checking my pockets to make sure I haven't lost everything!!

moo2moo

Thats an entirely different type of treking. V. posh indeedy. The last treking we did was of the dig your own latrine no running water for over three weeks sleeping under canvas in the middle of nowhere type. I enjoyed every smelly minute of it.

Took the Kindle to school with me yesterday to kill an hour between meetings. Vaguely getting the hang of it providing I invert the screen and use it upside down. Still finding it quite awkward to hold since I'm ending up pushing buttons at random which whooshes me several pages or even chapters into the distant future. Have yet to figure out how to use the inbuilt dictionary function which enables you to instantly look up the meaning of some obscure word. Thought that would come in quite handy should I eventually tackle Siddartha.

As with all meetings yesterdays meeting was both tediously dull and overly long with little achieved at the end of it appart from an excuse to leave early today and tomorrow because I've racked up sufficient hours to do so. Poor woman was supposed to be implementing money saving environmental policies to help save both schools budget and the planet. Sadly it appears she can't do wither but has to visit school on three further occassions in an attempt to try. Turns out the things we can do involve spending several thousand pounds to do the things we already do well better. Poor woman made the mistake of telling the children that there were only three fossil fuels.... oil, gas and coal... big mistake... huge... as a year 6 pointed out that peat was also a fossil fuel. Only apparently its not as some convention on climate change has decreed its a biofuel even if it is 1000 years in the making. Cue a massive debate since as far as children are concerned 1000 years is a v. long time indeedy and biofuels are usually annual crops or in the case of methane from cow dung a daily cropper. Poor woman was at a loss to explain this and the little darlings sensed her weakness and went in for the kill with many more questions along similar lines. Think she was glad when she eventually departed.

OH meanwhile is now two days into his two week break and has commenced building a log store, one which I predict taking the majority of the two weeks to complete which is fine by me since he is installed in his workshop at the bottom of the garden appearing randomly for food and coffee. I do believe I'm expected to assist today. Can also let the kitten out into the big wide world to play for the first time ever today. Am hoping he finds somewhere more fun to play than in OHs shed otherwise OH will be most annoyed.

ebayqueen_2

Hi Moo
You are a busy woman. I dont know where you get the energy. I thoroughly enjoy reading your diary, so keep going.
Aren't kids great!!!!!!!!!!!!

Isn't it marvellous to see the evenings get brighter, not be long until the garden beckons
take care
E

moo2moo

Think the nicest part of the year is the light mornings. On those days I love to pootle outside with a cuppa and a book and sit and eat breakfast in my PJs, usually with the additional need for a blanket but I'm not easily deterred. I have been known to pootle away weeding and randomly pottering only for OH to enquire why I'm wearing PJs and gardening gloves when I should be departing for work. My current record for the whistle stop tour of the bathroom is under 5 minutes from garden to car, although on those occassions I usually leave OH to drop the offspring at school considerably later than normal.

Plans for today involve the mass purchase of cheap dog chow taking full advantage of Mr Ts 3 for 2 offer. Have successully weaned the hound from hell off the v. expensive stuff simply by forgetting to feed her it. Also need to venture to the farm store for imitation creosote - will not be getting the award for the most popular neighbour ever as mine complain when I take the lid off and then whilst I'm using it and then for days after that the smell wafts into their house. OH has run out of screws already which means a trip to Screwfix but hes progressing remarkably fast and the end result is awesome.... of course the shed roof still isn't quite finished even if it just needs 5 bits of wood and ten screws inserting and the overhanging felt trimming off. May well end up doing that today.

The dreaded credit card bill arrived today, despite having what seemed to be a relatively frugal January its still hideously high. The food side isn't overly bad but school shoes and roofing repairs plus the materials for the log store added an unexpected £250 to it. I get the impression the next bill is going to be just as bad. Seems the harder you try the more stuff bites you unexpectedly on the bum.

In v. good news DD1 has a dobok to grow into which was given to her by the instructors wife who didn't want anything for it. DD1 decided that whilst that was all v. nice thats not the way things are done and so, since one gift deserves another, she gave her some eggs and homemade jam and marmalade and is now much happier that shes not viewed as a poverty stricken charity case.

Despite this the fridge is still under seige. We're currently averaging a dozen eggs a day and it can only get worse as the weather warms up. The poor stray animal phone calls have started too. Yesterdays involved a dumped cockerel with an injury. Whilst I agreed that it wasn't nice for an injured animal to be left roaming the fields to feed the fox I wasn't exactly overly enthusiastic about a four hour round trip to attempt to capture him in order to nurse him back to health and give him a long happy life. I get far too many phonecalls like that.

Kitten is a bit bemused by his newly aquired freedom. He sits at the door lookingout longingly then spots us in the garden comes bounding over to us when we're close wnough and then attempts to impersonate Scooby Doo by skittering back to the house without his paws touching the ground. Can only assume he doesn't like the cold under his pads. Hes already eyeing up the birds from the safety of the house and is wiggling his bum and puncing like hes going in for the kill only to abort his mission after his feet hit the cold wet mud outside the door, tis most funny to watch.

In muchly brighter news today is the last day of school for an entire week, unfortunately I think I'm going to end up going in for some part of every day but hopefully not for too long. Can't do anything much on Monday since the water is being cut off for the day - damn shame! However by 8am on monday I need to have emptied the hall of PE equipment and displays and the random tat thats stored there as well as removing all the curtains and the notice boards and anything else that I spot. Tis shaping up to be a very long weekend.... and to top that I've had a message from the upholsterer to say shes ready for the next batch of furniture which means a trip to her to drop a carload of stuff off and collect the finished stuff.

moo2moo

Have never been so glad that its the weekend. DD2 is out kicking !!!, OH is playing chaufeur to her and DD1 is at a party till 9. Could happily curl up in a ball and go to sleep. Have had the mother of all days. Think I managed to get done everything I needed to do apart from the minor need to vacuum half a dozen classrooms and a bit of corridor but since I have all next week to do that I'm not overly concerned.

Its taken almost four hours to remove all the furniture and random junk from the hall which just leaves the removal of a dozen pairs of curtains on Monday morning. Only left that because its a 2 man job. Without furniture the room seems enormous. Hoping to get all the floors repolished whilst the furniture is out which means working next weekend which isn't as bad as it sounds since I've done enough prep today to wangle this weekend off. Theres nothing left to do that will take overly long on Monday apart from the removal of several thousand staples from the stage walls but I refuse to go in and do that on a weekend.

I've had a relatively frugal day *cough cough* in that I left Mr Ts having spent a smidgen under £50, mostly on 3 for 2 offers of animal chow and cereals. Now have to figure out where I'm going to stash 45 kg of dog food as well as several dozen cans of cat food.

moo2moo

Whooo hooooo its the school holidays! Started today with a v. decadent lie in and didn't wake up until 7:15. Am currently attempting to type with two cats on my knee, one who is blissfully asleep and the other who randomly hisses to remind the kitten just who is top cat, not htat the kitten is taking any notice at all.

Plans for today involve getting cold and wet at riding lessons before pootling off to the farm store for creosote and a couple of things for school. After that I need to attempt to do all the housework that I haven't managed to do yet this week although I've managed to keep up with the laundry despite DD1 needing clean bedding evey day.

Roofer is coming tomorrow afternoon so hopefully the holes in the roof will be dealt with then although I'm anticipating being told that the roof has had it and a conservative guess in the region of 4K will be suggested for replacing it. Oh joy! The bigger challenge will be in shifting the immobile project Landrover in order to get scaffolding on the drive. Might just be the kick up the bum OH needs. Project log store is progressing in that a further £50 has been spent on assorted screws and hinges but the biggest giggle of the day came when OH arrived home with a tube of this. Must get me some for school!