13 Moons part 2 - Freebird & Frugabulous

Karmacat

It sounds nice, Lula, really nice, and pondering is always good, if you get the chance. Interesting about the query from the cashier - and also *very* intresting that the rate's better where you are now!

makeup

All sounds good Lula, I bought a new handbag on ebay which I picked up today. Nice bright red one, good size and I think I'll like using it although it only has a popper to secure rather than a zip.

What kind of jacket did you get?

My sewing machine is on the blink and I can't work out how to fix it so I'm taking it in to the shop tomorrow and I am also going to pick up my new lampshades. Parcelforce tried to deliver and couldn't but they charge £1 to deliver to a post office and £5.50 to change delivery addresses :eek:

I did ring to see if htey would deliver on a Saturday but that is an extra £12!!!! :eek::eek:

So instead I'm going to pick it up, annoyingly the depot is in Camden which is miles from me - although on a bus route and the sewing machine shop is also in Camden so I'll do both at the same time :T

taxi73

Sounds like you've had a nice day and pondering is good

RosaBernicia

Sorry Lula wasn't intending to cause panic and drama :( ... if you have asked them anyway it should be fine. NHS are particularly strict on such things and I now check in advance - having suffered a long lecture on the legal complications of having bought a packet of Blu-Tac on a credit card and therefore the technical ownership remaining in my name even once refunded on petty cash, to the potential detriment of the service if I should run off with said item :rotfl:

Pondering is wonderful. I have been doing similar and am finally beginning to find myself under all the layers of stress and hassle from college and work.

Glad you are enjoying jacket

Rosa xx

museumworker

RosaBernicia wrote: »

Sorry Lula wasn't intending to cause panic and drama :( ... if you have asked them anyway it should be fine. NHS are particularly strict on such things and I now check in advance - having suffered a long lecture on the legal complications of having bought a packet of Blu-Tac on a credit card and therefore the technical ownership remaining in my name even once refunded on petty cash, to the potential detriment of the service if I should run off with said item :rotfl:

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: As if the potential loss of blu-tack is really one of the biggest issues the NHS should tackle :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Not really sure why it would be an issue to earn cashback on things you need to buy anyway for work? e.g. I buy tea and coffee for museum store and claim back. If at Mr T I use my clubcard. As long as I'm not spending more money than needed for the sake of it, I can't see why there would be any comeback. Although another museum worker told me that a council in wales had banned staff using their clubcards if they were making work purchases - I'm sure that'll help deal with their funding cuts :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Shoe_Gal

It's to do with tax - you receive a 'benefit in kind' so you are liable for tax on the 'benefit' - if you didn't pay for the purchase with your own money the 'gift with purchase/loyalty' rules don't apply. It's been an issue with travel agents receiving 'travel perks' for years! However, as somebody else said, the tax man is only interested if you are receiving several thousand pounds worth of benefits. Rules vary from company to company - NHS are obviously very strict, a lot of companies are like mine and don't mind as long as you are honest and don't incur extra costs to the business! HTH

Lula-Hula

Jolly good morning to all,

Shoe Gal - thanks for explaining the quidco/tax thing so clearly.

Rosa - well, I'm relieved to hear that our beloved NHs is being firmly held together by blu tack - I have a lot of faith in it, various parts of my home are held together with it .

Museumworker - good to see you here, guilty of lurking & not posting over at your again

Makeup - hurray for red bag :j, for some reason my own Ruby the Red has not been used this year, I take her out of her dustbag now & then, stroke & preen her, check all is well & then lovingly stash her away again. Ouch to parcel force costs :mad:. Would love ot hear more detail of lampshades & hope your machine can be fixed easily & cheaply ... I still have both of mine here, must get old one serviced or sold or something.



Well, I never did get to train station village in the end. While hanging washing out I started to wander about the garden & spied some juicy fat blackberries at the end. Gathered a chair to stand on, a pot to put them in, a stick to hold back the vicious thorns & some gloves to protect myself & then started plucking. I got enough to make a pie but spotted a load more due to ripen so have frozen some & will gather more when ready. There are loads more in the field & am torn between just hopping over the edge to gather or actually walking round to the nursery to ask if they mind if hop over to gather some.

I'm finding that work & playscheme routines & deadlines really do interfere with my flow of thoughts, pondering & planning. They are just so time consuming & it bothers me. It wont change & will probably get even more time consuming & hectic once DD is at high school so I must be the one to change. I must find a way to fit everything in to my day, or perhaps that's where I'm failing; maybe I should use an entire week & not worry if some days I don't get to do everything.

We headed to the library after I'd collected DD & inspite of my large pile of unread books I found 2 books at the library that intrigued me & I'm already halfway through one of them. I'm glad because a book hasn't 'grabbed & held' me for quite some time. I'll tell more when I've finished it.

Yesterday started off with a luxurious hour lounging in bed with the book whiel the washing machine did it's thing. When hanging the washing out I started doing a bit of clearing up in the garden & then sighed at the state of the path. It runs to the garden between the block of sheds on one side & the downstairs neighbours fence on the other & has the huge lime tree directly at the top of it. You have to dodge round the tree to get in to the garden, but it means that no one can see into the garden for the street .

Because of the tree roots & the prevous neighbours dodgy fence building, the path is uneven & becomes over run with earth sliding out of their garden & along the path when it rains. For years I have thought about how to retain the mudslide & up to now have just swept it all back when the path shrinks to become about 6 inches wide. Yesterday inspiration finally hit & I set to work. I cut into the earth bank with spade & moved it all to the garden then used some of the wooden slats that are no good for veg boxes ( rounded sides & edges) & made a small trench by the edge of the path & jammed the slats in. I'm hoping that the slats will act as a retaining wall to keep the earth bank from sliding on to the path.

Neighbours came out & admired the work & then set about sweeping their end of the path so it now looks really clear & accessible, whereas previously it was a bit daunting to the uninitiated . I discovered an ivy which I'm hoping to train up the shed wall & a clump of violets which I left to flourish.

Must go hang more washing out, will return in a bit ...

Lula-Hula

Right,

washing out on the line and all the towels currently being swished about at a very un-eco temperature ... but this does clean out the pipes & machine thoroughly so tuff .

Yesterday's washing up also done. "Quelle slutte" :eek: I hear you exclaim in horror. Yep, that's me at the weekend, all slutty & chaotic .

Back to yesterday; girls safely deposited at cinema & in spite of having the cash on me, I found myself using the Custard Coloured Co op Credit Card :wall:. I think I need to stop carrying it about with me. Full of glee at having 2 hours of child-free shopping I headed straight into TK Maxx & found myself holding on to the most divine pair of purple sequinned peep toe 3 inch stilletoes with a cute little ankle strap. They are truly magnificent.

I didn't try them on, I just carried them as though they were my life force. There was nothing in the homewares department that I was tempted by, no sumptuous bags, no clothes I wanted ... but a rail of very tempting leather jackets. I was unwilling to set the shoes down for fear of someone grabbing them & running to the till whilst I was trying on a jacket so I didn't although they were extraordinarily bargainous at about £60. At that point I realised that I really wanted the shoes (which were £50) because I believed they were beautiful, rather than because I had a specific occasion to wear them for.

This led me to recognise that my current life isn't really conducive to the wearing of such shoes on a regular basis. The leopard, patent & suede 4 inch ones are mad enough, but I can get away with wearing them to work as a statement item when the rest of my outfit is fairly plain. Satin with sequins on & sparkly ankle straps are a bit more difficult to justify when working where I do.

I put them back but have resolved to return there next week & buy if they are still there & they fit when I try them on.

I was very proud of myself & wandered off to Sainsbugs in search of licorice tea bags. Thankfully they had them so I felt rewarded for being so sensible.

I then became rather bored ( that whole sequence only lasted 30 mnutes) so I wandered in & out of all the usual shops in search of bargains, entertainment or inspiration. I became really really bored & actually rather resentful that I was there rather than in my garden doing constructive things. Not one of the shops enthused me & in the end I became rather disheartened by the whole business of shopping. All the usual ones were rammed with rail after rail of stuff, that is never going to sell because there is just too much of it.

Granted, out town is very much just full of the usual high street stores & there are no little boutiques, craft or indiviudal stores with unique items & my god was I jaded after 2 hours of it. I did end up in a bookshop & bought DD the Twilight series with the white jackets & red edged pages that she yearns for. This is meant as a birthday gift so they're stashed in my car for now. That was another £23.97 on the CC. Yes, I have looked on Amazon & no they didn't have that edition of the books. I did get a loyalty card ( yet another one to carry about with me - life would be simpler & less cluttered if I just bought nothing) so now have the grand total of 71p on that :rotfl:

Finally collected the girls & took them for a quick meal which cost £8. That was paid in cash as was the parking - £4.20 :mad:. Dropped DDs friend back & then came on home feeling what a wasted afternoon it was. I could have gone to the gallery, but DD made me promise I wouldn't go without her so that's another trip we can do together for very little outlay.

With the birthday season fast approaching I am faced with a bit of a shortfall for DDs laptop unless Quidco suddnely pays out all the money that's accruing - unlikely ! I do have the present fund, but with DD1s birthday just 2 weeks before little DDs & my nieces 18th neatly sandwiched between them, that uses up all the fund :think:

Having gained another £2 coin somewhere, I decided to count up the contents of the sealed-ish pot. I was pleasantly surprised; I have £120 in £2 coins & another £60 in £1 coins so a total of £180, more than I reckoned .

The solution to the laptop shortfall is obvious :idea: & although it will mean not having that cash for christmas - which it was intended for - I believe I can easily make that up & do still have co op vouchers, Amazon vouchers, Boots points & another 16 weeks of home-job to re-fund the presents fund by December 1st.

Typically, DD has since said that she's not too bothered about having a laptop immediately, within the next couple of years will be fine. I've assured her that this birthday is what I was planning towards & it is achievable but to think whether she might prefer something else for her birthday & to wait for christmas.

I know it's an expensive gift, but by financing it purely from Quidco rewards & £2 coins savings is completely painless & actually very satisfying. If I could determine whether techie guy had managed to sell my previous one for parts, that may contribute to the funding as well.

Due to yesterday & fridays spends, the CCCCC is now sporting a balance of £1040 . I really do need to just pay the damn thing off. It's annoying me now, I want to be free again. I want to start my Escape From Reality fund NOW. I need to work towards a goal before I become bored, disillusioned with work & my focus drifts off again.

I have to do something drastic to shift that balance.

Off to update sig & then plant something in the bit of ground I cleared yesterday, which was turned into a kitty latrine overnight :mad:.

I'm wondering if planting big dogs might work

Shoe_Gal

I know what you mean about needing something to focus on - little plan lurking in my mind!

Wordsmith

Lula-Hula wrote: »

Yesterday's washing up also done. "Quelle slutte" :eek: I hear you exclaim in horror.

I'm not too good at languages. Does "Quelle slutte" translate to "only yesterday's?"?