Daffy's 'a nice cup of tea cheers you up' diary

Cheery_Daff

Morning

Sorry, was all a bit moany yesterday and finding it all a bit stressful. Things feel easier after a kip! :T

Off in an hour or so, all packed and dressed, so just drinking tea :coffee: and will tidy up a little, then trot into town to see if they've got a map/guide book in the library.

Should be a pretty MSE trip - work has paid for train tickets, and will be able to claim food etc back, I'm staying at a friend's house, work will pay for a small present for her too :T I'm visiting a friend this afternoon, but going to her house rather than out and about. Work will pay for tube tickets. And I've got a little tub of seeds/nuts/dates to munch on, and a couple of little blackberry cakes I made the other day, so no need to buy snacks at all hopefully! :T

Let's see if I can *really* get home without spending any of my own money :rotfl:

Have a good one all! :T

Pippilongstocking

Goodluck and have fun - be interesting to see how you get on!

Happytogetdebtfree

Good luck and enjoy the trip xx

Lemon_Tree

good luck in the big smoke, be carefull

RubySewSew

One of my friends is a sew-er. She makes sock monkeys and lots of other pretty things and is very very prolific. She asked me to come along (I think because the vintage thing freaked her out about - low confidence!). I spent some of last year collecting bits and pieces of vintage crockery - just pretty bits and pieces I thought I might be able to sell on. I also had a lot of other things lying around that were planned for some of my own projects - pin up girl playing cards, circus postcards, old butterfly brooke bond tea cards. I made cards from these and bought some rescued frames from a charity shop to make framed prints. I was really pleased with what I got together but it was way too much for Worthing! I sold one print to an artist and a couple of cards to friends but that was it! A bit disappointing. The other crafters said you get used to it - you win some you lose some. Gonna chance my arm on ebay and also try some of the Brighton emporiums. Not giving up yet Have you got cards to sell to?

Cheery_Daff

Sounds exciting Ruby! If the more experienced people are saying some you win... then I'm sure they're right. I can see it must have been a bit disheartening for you though but hey, you did great, you DID sell some things! :T And good on you for being positive and looking for new opportunities!! :T

Well, I'm back from London, and I did actually spend NOTHING that I can't claim back! :j :j I'm so impressed with myself :rotfl: I might just NOT claim ONE cup of tea though, just so I feel like I'm not taking the p*ss. I had to laugh, I stayed at a friend's for dinner yesterday, and she didn't have an onion, so I popped over the road to buy one, thinking pah, I'll have to break into my own cash - and the man gave it to me for free because he said I was 'a lovely lady' :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Then I got told I was 'very easy on the eye' by a couple of builders I (stupidly!) asked for directions this morning :rotfl: :rotfl: Didn't give me any vegetables though :rotfl:

Anyway, am worn out, and have been drinking gin, so should probably go to sleep about now! Back tomorrow with exciting tales of what happened....

Karmacat

Wow! I want to read the exciting tales! Can I have a summary first, of what you were doing in London? It sounds great, whatever it is, and you did it in a very mse way. But next time, can you do it on a day when I'm free to meet you and buy you a cup of tea please?

Pippilongstocking

Cup in hand - off to pass to toast around - anyone for butter?

MrsMoo2U

Sorry I missed the toast. Any pancakes going yet? Cup in hand and cap on head.

Cheery_Daff

Yep, just turned the pancake maker off, but there's more mix left, so I'll just turn it back on! :coffee: tea for everyone I say! :coffee:

Oooh, KC, is there a possibility of meeting you in London some time? How very exciting! :j :j :j I'm actually going again in a few weeks - 5th-7th Oct if you're likely to be around... Gosh, how very exciting! :j

I went to London for work. The project I work on is part of a consortium of university depts, and there's one in Kent doing a similar project, so while our boss's were in London for a big consortium meeting, they thought it would be nice to get us researchers from the two projects together to chat about cross overs. It was only for an hour, so we thought we'd go down the night before (to get cheap tickets), and I met up with a friend who had a baby 7 weeks ago. Very cute (although she was being a bit new-mum-stressed - you know - 'he's just been fed, and now he's fallen asleep, but he's supposed to have 40 minutes of activity so I might have to wake him up!' - that kind of thing...)

Popped over the road to buy an onion to add to dinner - and the man said I was a very nice lady and gave it to me for free! :T :rotfl:

Had a lovely sleep in house of friend who wasn't there, but met her lovely housemate, who is fab :T

Then met up with cheery colleague and a woman from a charity - turns out we can't work with the people she works with for this project as they don't fit our criteria, but she was really helpful in other ways, and suggested that some research should be done around the people she works with as they're often missed out of research/support etc. So we're busy hatching a plot that involves us being JUST the people to do it :T Spoke briefly to boss who thinks we should put together a funding bid :T Which is all very exciting - everyone at work is only funded through projects like this, nobody is on permanent contracts through the university or anything, but I'm not high enough up the scale that I'm expected to put in bids myself yet. However, it'll certainly go in my favour if I do - especially if it actually gets funded! So that's an exciting new thing to get fired up about in the new year :T

Then colleague was talking about potentially dropping a day next year (she works full time) but she didn't know if the project could support it - but I'm only working 2 days, and intended to try and get something for another day or two a week next year, so I might end up taking on one of her days, which would nicely suit both of us! :T So got to set wheels in motion for that. Would also give me a bit of extra work time to work on our new potential funding bid :T

We finished our meeting at 3, train wasn't til 6.30 (cheap fares again! :T) so we were going to find a cafe and work, but boss told us to go off and do something cheery instead, so we toddled off to the British Museum :T Had a nice wander about, then more tea, then train home.

Altogether I spent about £42 (plus around £37 on train fares). That included all food and drink, travel cards etc, and a taxi home from the station last night :T And I can claim ALL of it back again :rotfl: Gosh I love my job! :rotfl:

Anyway, best crack on with this PhD malarkey, got a couple of hours before I'm popping round to a friend's for a cuppa