Squizz's Fizzy Diary

redsquirrel80

se999 wrote: »

Thanks - Sounds like it's worth signing up for, just got to work out which city!

You can flick between them and buy vouchers for different ones I think, so even though you are signed up for one, you can still look through the others if you can use them in different cities

redsquirrel80

OK managed library and post office, but forgot to take vouchers with me for the massage place, so that will have to roll forward to tomorrow.

Just realised my sig still had the Oct-Dec challenge on it, so I've taken that off and have a new one - to pay off £2000 in 100 days. That should put me well on track to be debt free by the end of the year, I just need to think how to do it now...

In fact my whole list of things to do in 100 days is...

1. Have established a routine of healthy eating and exercise.
2. Have given blood (going next week)
3. Be up to date with my OU course (should have completed 2 assignments by then).
4. Have completed a first course in teaching/ training.
5. Have read three non-study-related books (trying to read one a month).
6. Have done something towards refreshing my knowledge of languages/ learning a new one.
7. Have paid £2000 towards my debt.
8. Have done something which I would normally find really scary - not sure what this will be yet!

Talking of scary things, I've been asked to talk to a meeting of finance people at work next month about my area of things.. that is quite scary...

Karmacat

Wow. I love the way the things you do are all related to going forward - thats a great list.

redsquirrel80

Well I've taken the thought that I may have to do more scary presentations in future, and signed up for another course through work on presentation skills. Not for a few months though... wonder if I can find anything sooner...

I've got a meeting to go to this month which is all about 'networking' with people from other institutions, that's fairly scary too!

redsquirrel80

Good morning - it's snowing! Quite heavily as well, wondering if we might get an early finish again.

News today - got a bit of reading for course done last night, and woke up in the middle of the night thinking about something that had occurred to me about it! So trying to do a bit of research on that between work today. Work itself is a bit less hectic...

Emailed second job people yesterday as they'd asked for ideas on improving and developing the project, and got a nice email back today asking me if I'd like to attend their development meetings (and be paid for it ).. sounds like the project will be going forward to another stage so good to be involved with that.

Got a lovely birthday present from my mum in the post this morning - a handmade sewing/ knitting bag/ holder sort of thing - it looks like a mini laundry basket made of gorgeous material. She really is good at that sort of thing, she keeps saying she should do stuff for craft markets and she really should!

Going out for dinner tonight/ tomorrow (Thai place with good old Groupon voucher again), can't decide which day yet, pretty tired at the moment but we'll see later...

Right, back to doing something, probably hunting for biscuits because I'm quite hungry

redsquirrel80

Morning.. feeling rather Monday-ish today. Had a fairly quiet weekend - meal out on Friday was lovely - restaurant was unusually busy which was nice to see as it's a great place.

Got a lot of reading done, both for my course and of the book I'm reading. I also picked up my flute for the first time in months, and played on both Saturday and Sunday - really enjoyed it so this week I'm on the hunt for sheet music from the library as I can't find much of mine. Playing felt a bit strange (aside from the achy arms) - it's tied up with a lot of emotional stuff as it was a major part of my teenage years, and my time doing music at Uni was not entirely happy. I finally feel that I can move on from that though, the good feeling of playing outweighs the 'baggage' at last.. I am pretty rusty though, but think with some practise I could be alright again, might even think about joining some sort of group at some point.

Me and Mr S spent some time at the weekend talking about and drooling over the property pages looking at houses with land, some sort of smallholding - it's definitely a goal.. we just need to figure out how to do it.

Couple of annoying things this morning - got a really negative email from the other person in charge of second job project, I could take some of it quite personally but I'm trying not to as I get the impression she is generally p*ssed off with the whole thing! It is a bit offputting though, and I'm sort of tempted to take a step back from getting more involved with it at the moment.

Also email from old landlady saying that council are still chasing outstanding council tax, which I've paid..grr. And still no sign on my laptop - have given seller till midday today then I'm filing a dispute with ebay/Paypal.

And finally, my list for this week:

- finish chapter of OU book
- find sheet music
- start doing some BBC Spanish
- fill in allotment form
- give blood
- register with GP
- book massage which I've got a voucher for
- get a bit more exercise
- listen to guided meditation at least twice

Think that's it for now....

Karmacat

Those are good goals, Squizz - I think weekly goals can be quite helpful, that longer viewpoint can reallywork for us.

Grrr to the council tax - do you have the receipt/bankstatement? It reminds me tho, I inadvertently didn't register with my council when I moved, tho I thought I had - they're taking it in two *massive* chunks, and I need to check they've taken the single person's discount.... thanks for reminding me!

redsquirrel80

Yeah I've got the bank statement. Hope the two big payments aren't too painful! Must check if Mr S has sorted out the council tax for our place now actually, not sure if he's let them know I've moved in yet!

redsquirrel80

Ooh I nearly forgot - my other challenge for this week is to not buy any lunches - I was really bad last week and went to Boots or the deli every day Inspired by the River Cottage Everyday book (great ideas for lunches) I bought lots of bits and pieces at the weekend and we defrosted the freezer so I'm also using up odds and ends from there.

Today is gnocchi with peas and goats cheese and a sprinkling of spicy nuts & seeds, and a bit of Mr S's homemade soda bread

redsquirrel80

redsquirrel80 wrote: »

Morning.. a very sleepy but rather smiley little squirrel here this morning. Both the award things yesterday were really nice but at the evening one there were a few surprises - the extra work I'd been doing was made quite a fuss of (it was being shown on a big screen when I walked in!). I wasn't as embarrassed about that as I would have expected to be I also had some really fascinating conversations - and for some reason agreed to be filmed talking about the project, again, nothing like as awful as I thought it would be! One of the people I'm mentoring is quite shy and I kind of talked her up into joining in the filming too, and she really enjoyed it, so I was really pleased about that. I generally surprised myself by not being shy and chattering away to people a lot.. oh and the food was great

This was nearly two months ago, but I've just finally seen the video evidence of the above! Wasn't too bad really - I wouldn't win any prizes for public speaking, but my interview was OK I think