Further financial faux pas and even more disasterous decisions

moo2moo

IT nerd took an eternity and finally departed at 4pm having abandoned all hope of the new colour printer ever printing in colour. Apparently hes going to consult with the other IT nerds and try again first thing tomorrow. Does make me feel slightly better about being PC illiterate when it takes a highly trained super nerd seven hours to set up a single PC. Clearly its not just me that finds the whole thing a nightmare.

Hot footed it from work onto the A55 which is the Welsh equivalent of the M25. Enough said. Dropped off OHs medication and stayed for dinner before receiving gifts to accompany me on my return trip. Optomistically I was hoping for the bag with the leftover donuts in but instead I got a bagful of dirty laundry. Finally walked in the door ten minutes ago.

Since theres always something positive to be gained from these things I did experiment rather a lot with the fuel economy gadget in the car and managed to obtain an average of 75mpg. I soon got bored of driving like an OAP in a Robin Reliant. Even so the car was still returning 70mpg which is just as well considering I've racked up 120 miles more than I expected when I opened my eyes ths morning.

Am now torn between staring at the PC screen until midnight to get the hygeine course over and done with and investigating the contents of a Bajtra minature which I unearthed whilst clearing out the cupboards. Obviously I'm not that torn and curiosity always gets the better of me so with that in mind I'm going to enjoy my last few hours of peace whilst wallowing in the bath with whatever mud pack I can get my hands on whilst discovering precisely what a prickly pear tastes like. It sounds disgusting but since its the only alcohol in the place it will have to do.

moo2moo

Haven't made the bath. Have instead spent five minutes with a pair of pliers and a screwdriver attempting to open the minature. My eyeballs are reeling from the fumes. Its really gloopy and tastes vaguely like lychees with an afterkick of paint stripper. My tastebuds are revolting.

Did make it as far as the bathroom but discovered the four legged fiend had made a nest in the middle of the floor using the blankets from the sofas and a vast array of dirty laundry to achieve maximum devastation. Considering shes been home alone the majority of the day I'm amazed thats all shes done. Couldn't face clearing it up or looking at it from the bath thinking I should really be clearing that up so opted to do what all sensible people would do at 10pm which is to shut the door. Firmly. I'll deal with it tomorrow.

chevalier

good luck with the jam making you certainly have some interesting ideas for what to make. I do wonder though whether making more traditional jams to start off with might not be the way to go, and then once you have a loyal following, introduce some more interesting ones?
chev

moo2moo

I considered doing that Chevalier but the existing little old ladies all make exactly the same thing so theres not much variety. The onion and alcohol flavoured marmalades are things customers have repeatedly asked for which the others aren't prepared to make for whatever reason. Am hoping that being a bit different will appeal simply because its not something you can buy in a supermarket. Only time will tell. Besides if they don't sell I'll change the labels and give them the relatives for christmas.

In more exciting news having been awake since 5am I decided to get it over and done with and am now the proud owner of a level 2 food safety in catering certificate. Even better the college I used was on Quidco so I'll get 10% of the fees back eventually although Quico is showing this as tracking at a fiver which is simply fabulous.

Now have an hour to feel human, eat breakfast, consume lots and lots of caffiene in the hopes of staying awake, bung out a load of wet laundry and do all the obvious stuff I didn't get done yesterday to do before OH and the DDs arrive home. Am hoping they decide to stop off somewhere on their way home otherwise they'll be back before I am.

Doing surprisingly well with the non-spending week and am now at the half way point without any unplanned spending.

moo2moo

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgh! and breathe.

It could only happen to me. Turns out taking OHs tablets to the campsite was a complete waste of time since he put them in his trouser pocket for safe keeping and then got changed and dumped the same trousers, complete with tablets, into my car for washing before taking any and didn't realise until the following morning by which time he was only four hours from being home anyway. Meh.

Spent yesterday busy doing nothing. Seemed to spend most of the morning sitting around waiting but as a result of driving the IT guy nuts I turned his quick printer install into a mahoosive job requiring the relocation of a server so that school now has super fast broadband and a working colour printer. Result.

Also had another go at stopping the toilet I failed to fix last holiday from leaking, this time with success. Admitedly it needed another £3 worth of parts but its no longer dripping which should get rid of the damp smell.

Spent the afternoon unloading OHs car and doing laundry. Lots and lots of laundry. Got the majority done so we can spend today packing for the DDs trip to grannys, in and amongst walking the hounds in the park and doing the sort of mad dehairing of the house that occurs when grannys arrival is imminent. Despite doing the odd bit of tidying and cleaning over the past couple of days the house is a tip. Need to do something about that asap.

Spent yesterday evening atempting to stay awake and failing miserably. Too many late nights for me. Still haven't spent anything although OH has more than made up for that. He seems to have enjoyed himself though. The DDs have had a great time but are shattered and fell asleep in the car on the way home. Sent them both to bed at 7pm, they were both asleep when I checked on them ten minutes later. Have a feeling they'll be super grumpy today.

chevalier

glad to hear DD's had such a good time. what a relief.
chev

moo2moo

Its gloriously fabulously fantastically sunny out and yet I'm destined to spend the morning indoors frantically cleaning on account of how it was so nice out yesterday that we spent three hours in the park generating another load of laundry thanks to DD1 who decided to sit down in the river. Obvioiusly she had a little bit of help in that department when she got between 21 overexcited dogs and the stick that they'd hurled themselves after. She was collateral damage. Being a nice mummy I did laugh rather a lot, fortunately she saw the funny side too.

Spent a further three hours, post very long lunch, in the garden pruning hedges and hosing down bikes before I suddenly remembered I was supposed to be at work by 5. Cue a Benny Hill-esque mad dash round the house finding martial arts stuff and then hurtling out of the door as OH was coming through it. Finally got home at 8 and had dinner then realised the DDs hadn't packed. Need to do that this morning too.

Had a nice e-mail from the people at Quidco informing me that they've sent a little over £50 to my bank account so that should look a little healthier too but only temporarily since the I have to pay £56 for the DDs martial arts gradings next week. Easy come and far too easy go.

OHs belt is now on its smallest fitting so will need to borrow a leather punch from the riding stables next weekend. He seems to be losing weight very steadily so am anticipating the need to buy lots of new trousers this side of Christmas. Need to persuade him to stop buying clothes between now and then otherwise he'll end up with a wardrobe full of stuff that doesn't fit.

Meanwhile I've spent the last two days virtual shoe shopping. I have a hole in my back up boots so will need to replace them fairly soon. Am also tempted to splurge and buy a girlie pair of shoes so that I have something other than boots to wear with skirts... not that I actually wear skirts or dresses but thats because they look rather daft with boots. owever the whole shoe shopping malarky is a veritable minefield. Everything I think oooooh about would look great with jeans but ridicuolus with just about everything else. Then again people would be too busy staring at hot pink DMs to notice whatever it is that I'm wearing. Will have to give in and visit a shoe shop eventually. Not this weekend though because I'm hoping to do allt he stuff I didn't do earlier in the week. Really I am.

moo2moo

Stepping in a cold slimy turd in pitch black and skidding across the landing only to regain your balance by stepping into another pile of poo with the other foot is never a good way to start the day. Nor is trying to negotiate the route to the bathroom at 3am in total darkness leaving as few !!!!!! footprints on the carpet as possible whilst delaying turning on the light for as long as possible so as not to reveal the full extent of the carnage until sufficiently awake. Obviously being 3am the hot water isn't on and unexpectedly washing ones feet is even less pleasant.

Still by 3:30 the bathroom floor was clean and shiny and the carpet on the landing was a step closer to a one way trip to the tip. Despite applying copious amounts of water and an awful lot of disinfectant its still rather smelly. Will wait until its dry and then zap it with Febreeze although I'd be quite happy to chuck it in a skip.

Since I was unexpectedly wide awake I made the fatal mistake of having a cuppa and was still awake at 4 when OH got up. Am now totally and utterly kettled and could happily go back to bed for a couple of hours but the need to be at a village hall by 9am scuppers that.

Checked all my labels and loaded my jars into a box yesterday. It doesn't look very much at all. Weather is fab so its likely to be a very quiet market day. At least I'll get chance to chat to the other producers.

Ran out of bread yesterday as well as milk and fresh fruit so gave in and went to Mr Ts. Did a huge basic shop which should cover all eventualities for the next 2 weeks apart from bread, milk and fruit. Ended up spending £120 but did splurge on pizzas for dinner. Noticed a huge leap in prices again. Value sultanas have gone from 69p a pack to 99p a pack in the space of a week, considering we all lob a handful on a bowl of cereals that alone will add a tenner to our monthly shopping bill.

Whilst aimlessly surfing I came across Wii Exerbeat which sounds like a heck of a lot of fun. Amazons reviewers unanimously give it 5 stars although I've never heard of it before. Am rather tempted to blow a wodge of Amazon vouchers on it, or at least I was until I discovered its available at a variety of other places for between £12 and £15 although some of them are places I'm a little dubious about using without doing a bit more homework. Buying anything before Monday does rather scupper my no spending in the holidays plan even though I did do rather a good job of that yesterday.

moo2moo

Am a naughty moo and have blown £12.59 on Wii Excerbeat. Will keep the DDs out of my hair on wet days in the holidays. Well its as good an excuse as any.

Wordsmith

Hope you have good and profitable fun at the market.