13 Moons part 2 - Freebird & Frugabulous

Lula-Hula

Oooh gosh, MSE's answer to Monty, Alys etc has arrived :j

Hiya Pippi & thanks for stopping by

We've had a quite a busy day; excellent laundry weather - nearly all the creases blown out so only minimal ironing on school shirts required. Returned cat basket to petshop so CC will be refunded shortly. Whooshed by store to collect bbq & table covers & then came home to rustle up some rock cakes before heading off to visit dear Grandmother.

She's very frail now & spends a lot of time in bed, but was happy to see us & rock cakes. Dad popped in too so we had a chat with him & I was really touched at just how lovely he is with my grandmother - although quite irreverent when she's not listening.

He chatted a fair bit about his 'friend' who he's mentioned previously. He seems to enjoy her company & they gad about visiting places & people here, there & everywhere. I'm pleased he's found a lady to share some interests with & accompany to concerts etc. He has plenty of friends but losing my mum has obviously left a big hole in his life & he was in danger of becoming a bit of a opinionated grumpy old man . He's certainly stopped heckling me & that is very welcome, although it seems that I am now the only unattached person in the family.

I'm wondering whether perhaps heading off up river or on the road alone is not the best way to increase my social life. Might need a rethink there & need to be proactive too.

So, back to business; on arriving home we headed out to the garden to take down the 'parasol ' hah !, cover up the bbq & table & chairs. It was windy out there then but mini hurricane or not, the stuff needed covering up so it's a good job done. The covers were less than the cat basket refund, but I also bought plain duvet & pillow slips as the others were coming apart at the seams. This means that I've increased the balance on the CC by about £10 so unfortunately not a NSD, but will clear it on monday when I make the next payment.

We finally got around to potting up those poor herbs. They are now happily ensconced in new homes & after Pippi's advice, have a cosy covering of 'topping stones'. Aside from making them a lot more able to cope with winter, I really like how the stones look in the pots too so will probably be buying some more of those to add to the other pots. I must remember to get the ultra cheap pansies too to put in hanging basket to cheer the place up during the dark months.

All chores done, tasty meal of jacket potatoes tonight & tomorrow (weather permitting) we are aiming to head off in search of some fun & culture; all for the princely sum of £10. That's all that's in the fund at the moment & I'm not sure quite how much culture we can get for a tenner, but we'll have a good try .

Hoping for a more indulgent lie in too,

G'night
xx

museumworker

OOoh, fun AND culture :j! Hope you have a great day. I should really sort out my peeling table and chairs in the garden, and find out which types of herbs should be potted up over winter. I will then get OH to do it :rotfl:, as the only green fingers I have are most likely radioactive!

Lula-Hula

Still pottering about in my pj's at the moment but nearby gallery has a pop art exhibition on so that's where we're heading later ...

Just enjoying catching up with diaries with large coffee at the moment

Souk08

Glad you're sounding more on the case Lula, and enjoy your culture!

Wordsmith

Your weekend seems to have shaped up nicely. May the coming week follow this steady course. I am sure your cat will love the duvet cover and pillow slips with which you have replaced her basket!

As for being the only unattached person in the family, I bet you are envied by some of them!

Lula-Hula

Thanks guys,

my plan of working hard all week to earn the day off worked, I felt calm & in control of things this morning, enjoyed pottering on here & we had a great time out at the gallery.

The exhibition had some great wall art & a good selection of 60s'clothes & shoes from Mary Quant & Biba. DD was very unimpressed with the display about the opening of the first self service Sainsbugs in Croydon. There wasn't a lot of choice on the shelves in her opinion.

There was also a whole room full of photographs of Paul Weller who was my teenage hero so that was a great bit of nostalgia for me. I managed not to buy anything in the shop which was an effort & am proud to declare that yes, we did get a bit of culture for under a tenner .

Car parking £3
Cookie & drink for DD £1.99
Donation £5.

We had a tasty meal tonight & I've made a batch of tuna & pasta to take to work next week. I also have plenty of apples & plums, so will take those too.

Still feeling the joy of not having to do packed lunches for DD - they were hard work to get right .

Completed a couple of surveys & have received my £10 amazon reward .

I also had an email advising me of half price body butter at the body shop ... couldn't resist as it's the one I use in the summer & I finished the last pot on friday. I'm now on the autumn & winter flavour but buying next summers at half price is definitely worth it.

I have 2 tubs of my winter one left as I bought that in bulk last time there was a sale . So, what I'm trying to say is that I bought 4 tubs of body butter - would have been just 3 but by spending £20 I got free delivery & 4 tubs for just £2 more than 3 tubs & paid delivery would have been.

Make sense to me & the tubs are great for storing things in too :rotfl:.

I am a good girl though & have made a payment to the CCCCC which tidies the balance back down to a neat £600.

Think this CC clearance will be down to the wire, just another 7 weeks left & CB already diverted to other bank acct so can't use that as back up.

Need to cut the grocery budget to £30 for this week, but can't draw out of the bank until Friday.

I have 80p in my grocery purse & about £6.50 in my pocket money purse.

We have all that we need for the week & I just have to keep away from shops until Friday.

Have pledged to Shoe Gal that I will exercise tomorrow & am already late for lights out so shutting down now,

G'night
xx

taxi73

Sounds like a fabby balanced weekend and culture for under £10 ..how good is that?

bast

Hello Lula..... Whenever I hear this song I want to jump around like some teenage idiot... give me a few G and T`s and I do to the dismay of the kids and friends...:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m94ip38UKs

Lula-Hula

Oh that's brilliant bast, thank you , G&Ts & loving that tune, you've come to the right thread I think

People at work are amazed that I still have vinyl ... my Jam collection just wouldn't be the same on cd.

It's been a pretty good day here; work was fine; the Goblin has finally gone back to her weekly swim sessions so just Grumpy & I in first thing . Apparently there was a bit of barney between Design Dude & (No Longer) Highly Annoying on Friday. Not quite sure what's going to happen but Gropey & Grumpy disappeared off site to discuss it so perhaps it was quite serious. I shall of course, keep you all up to date with developments

Grumpy finally seems to be taking an interest in the business & working together with Gropey so hopefully, life will be a bit more harmonious there for a while.

I arrived home to discover not too much home-job work so dragged hoover out of the cupboard & wielded that about in a fairly proficient manner. Need to stick the chores & tasks plan as it's DD1s b-day at the weekend so hoping to take her out somewhere.

Got on with home-job while DD was very organised & actually checked tv schedule to see what she wanted to watch & then planned her homework around it. She amazes me, I'm still not that diligent :rotfl:.

After our meal, I got all the washing up done & then headed out for a walk. DD accompanied me on her bike & I felt like she was my trainer as I kept being told to 'hurry up'

I think walking is my preferred form of exercise. I know how to do it as its a natural human activity, it doesn't require any equipment & I get to have a good nose about the 'hood whilst taking in fresh air. I think I can see why people enjoy running ... wonder whether that's a natural progression after much time spent perfecting quick walking:think:.

I've also had a half hour yoga session, a soak in the bath with a book & am already in bed & feeling very relaxed.

It's very blustery & windy here with a lovely full moon & I have NSD number 5 achieved & hoping for number 6 tomorrow.

Time for some sleep now - was far too late yesterday.

G'night
xx

makeup

Lula - been lurking quite a bit lately. But always enjoy reading your diary.

Well done on getting DD2 to do her bedroom. I was an untidy child / teenager and now adult!!

My parents used to pile up all my stuff that I'd left around the house into plastic carrier bags so I end up with all my stuff in carrier bags in my room. And then I'd just get it out of the carrier bags rather than actually putting stuff away....

I'm super busy at work at the moment although things are going ok for me. My secondment has been extended and they've agreed funding for my Masters (well it has been verbally agreed so I just need to get them to send me the confirmation email!) but I'm quite scared as it involves day release and I'm now really busy as we've moved to a new office and a new structure and I now have quite a big team and we cover a bigger patch and my inbox just keeps on filling up :eek::eek: Stayed at work til 7.45pm tonight.... (we only get paid til 6pm :eek:) But I am on better money so I don't mind investing my time, I just hope I can manage it all on 4 days work.

Anyway I'm off to Cornwall on Friday for my cousins wedding! :j:beer: although I need to double check the invite as there was something about hats and I'm not clear if they mean fancy-dress type hats or posh fascinator weddingy hats (can do both but not sure which they intend!!!)

Here's hoping the good work carries on with Grumpy, Gropey and Goblin (fingers crossed emoticon??)