The Ultimate Hard and Fast debt clearing mission

archersluck

Hi lilmiss stay around, we're all nice!

Hope you've had a lovely time Dinah and you enjoyed father daughter time NIM!

I've had friends staying this weekend, our first house guests, now OH is home from work in 45 mins and the house is still a tip. He ferried us around all weekend and put up with much girl talk so I should stop being such a slob, my hangovers almost gone now so no excuse!

shrimpy_80

Archers, we had a party on Friday and OH did nearly all the cleaning up afterwards while I quietly felt sorry for myself on the sofa! Had to pull myself together for a choir performance at an old folks home on Sat afternoon as well.

Also had a very poorly cat on Sat night, had to rush him to the emergency vet who kept him in overnight, they think he may either be diabetic or have hyperthyroidism. He is back home today and we should get the results of his blood tests tomorrow. Poor little mite!

I get my hair done at a local college, its only £10 a time for a cut and blow dry but the down side is that it takes much longer. I dye it myself, always have done, and have been known to cut it myself when I haven't been organised enough to book an appointment.

Lara44

Lovely pics of your day out Dinah! I thought of you all watching Laura Trott win gold in the Omnium, since she was also premature and was born with a collapsed lung. Who knows what Grace will go on to achieve

Congrats Shrimpy!

Hugs to all x

zigmeister

HEY! :j

Super quick message to say that as of tomorrow I will have no job for a few days so I'm gonna [STRIKE]job hunt[/STRIKE] waste my time on here and catch up! What's going on with everyone?!

Dinah, I've been watching Grace's progress on FB - so glad to see she's doing so well And yes, she has an awesome birthday

How is everyone?!

Quick update from me: spent the last 9 months in Melbourne, will be spending my last 3 months in Melbourne haha. I stupidly met a guy here so have been enjoying spending time with him really! We're gonna go to New Zealand in November though and then to Asia. And we're going to the Whitsundays, Tasmania and Sydney before then though. Really happy with life at the moment! Although I'll definitely be back on the DFW boards when I get home..

Birdie85

Hey Zig! :wave: Great to hear from you! Sounds like life down under is brilliant! You'll not want to come home to the real world

Hope your cat is feeling better Shrimpy.

Did you have fun at your cousin's Hen do Dinah?

My friend's wedding on Saturday was great; a really lovely, fun, relaxed day- just what a wedding should be! Quite sad that the next one on the horizon isn't until May and I won't be able to get a big fancy hat for that one as we're flying up to Scotland for it and it won't fit in my hand luggage!

Got a call from my brother yesterday morning to say that my Mum had been taken into hospital on Sunday night, in an ambulance no less! :eek: Went to see her in the afternoon as I'd been assured that she was doing OK and there was no point rushing through as they'd make me wait for visiting hours, it looks like a kidney infection bless her. Hopefully she'll be home today and no doubt she'll be knackered, the lady next to her was a right moaner and groaner so it'll have been a miracle if she got any sleep. She's so funny though, all excited about having had jelly and ice-cream for pudding and the highlight of her afternoon was being taken for a wheelchair ride to x-ray!

shrimpy_80

Aw Birdie, hope your mum is feeling better today, glad the jelly and ice cream went some way to making up for it! I had a kidney infection a couple of years ago and I've never felt so awful in all my life, but the antibiotics kicked in really quickly as soon as I started them, hopefully your mum will be the same.

Great to hear from you Zig and Lara, sounds like you're having an amazing time Zig! I'm not a bit jealous

Tete_en_l'Air

Hello girls and boys, how is everyone? I'm sorry I don't have the time to read back over everything I've missed but I read back a couple of pages and Dinah I loved your post on the day of your Grandad's funeral - lovely sentiments and so true.

Nice to see you back on the debt-busting bandwagon too as I also need to give myself a big kick up the bum. I normally have a good £2k in my 'savings' account and in the last couple of months it has dwindled to £650 as well as my current account going (a little bit - <£50) OD each month.

I think last time I posted I mentioned that work might be moving us to another site? Well it's definitely happening. Our little team of four was told we have to go or be put on the redeployment register, then if we hadn't found a new job within the uni in 6 months then we'd be made redundant with statutory redundancy (1 week per year worked - ie sod all!). We've been trying every avenue possible to fight this or at least get some sort of benefits for it (even just to get them to waive the £22 pm car parking fee we pay as a gesture of goodwill), we've consulted with the unions, the CAB, allsorts, but they weren't moving on it. So me and the other full-timer will be moving (he's really happy as it's 10 mins walk from his house, he'll save a fortune in train fares) and the two part-timers are going down the redeployment/redundancy route. Morale is absolutely through the floor - we feel we've been treated like numbers which is not something I'd have expected from an organisation with an Investor in People award.

Anyway, it's given me a kick and I'm having a good think about what I want to do. I've been here five years now and I never ever intended that, but life just flies by sometimes without you noticing. It's like Shrimpy's sig: "A year from now you'll wish you'd started today" - so true!

Whew, sorry, bit of a rant! Hope everyone is well, lovely to hear from you Zig and hope your Mum's OK Birdie!!

PS - I tweeted NIM the other day about a dream I had in which he and Dinah had a baby boy called Luke. I'm putting it here as well as I'm sure I'm psychic! (Friend is pregnant with Baby #3 and I had a feeling she would be even though it was a bit of an accident!)

Dinah93

Great to hear from you Zig, I can't believe you've been gone 9 months already! You sound so happy though. As lovely as it is to hear from you I hope you don't have to come home for a while, it sounds like this trip is doing you the world of good.

Eeee not good about your mum Birdie, hope she's feeling better soon. Glad you enjoyed the wedding too, I'm like you, love a good wedding, any excuse to get dressed up.

Sorry to hear about your work moving Tete, but maybe it'll be a good thing in the end, either help you focus on what you want to be doing, or at least be a change of scenery.

Sorry Tete, but your psychic powers are misaligned, currently have first AF since I fell pregnant with Grace - and suffering horribly for it. Almost wish I was pregnant again as I'd feel better than I do right now! Have devoured 100g of dark chocolate today in a stupid weak moment, felt sick afterwards as it was baking chocolate not even the good stuff.

NIM and I had a debt busting chat last night, and he has agreed to take more of a support role, after all, Wiggin's wouldn't have won the yellow jersey if he hadn't had Froome behind him (I'm sure there is an olympics metaphor too but I'm damned if I know it). This is great as if he can do more of the cleaning and taking care of Grace on an evening, I can do more moneymaking.

Lovely to see you Lara, hows things with you?

Cousin's hen do was great, we had an absolute blast. It was really relaxed, but we all felt completely spoilt at the same time. Loved Ascot, hoping NIM and I can go again next year.

Grace got another thumbs up on the breathing at the hospital yesterday, but for the second week in a row only an oz gain. So she's been put on an even higher calorie formula (normal formula is about 66cals/100ml, her usual is 75cals/100ml, she's now on 100cals/100ml). She had the first bottle this morning and she threw the entire thing back up again, apparently its a lot heavier on her tummy and can take some getting used to. She was also at another hospital yesterday to get her kidneys checked out, poor bairn had a catheter stuck in her 12 or 13 times before they got it right, she wasn't happy. She even weed EVERYWHERE, over the doctor, the bed, the sterile kit in protest. Should get the results of that next week. She has another echo of her heart next week, the consultant doing it is one of the neonatal guys. He's said he might do another 24 hour trace on her breathing in the next week or two, if she does well on that then they'll probably do a room air test, to see if she can come off the oxygen for a few hours a day!!! Also have appointments at a charity for carers, they've indicated I might be entitled to some form of benefit since I care for Gracie, it's worth looking into as I'm really not convinced she's going to be well enough for me to go back to work in March. Official advice is an oxygen dependant prem should be off oxygen for two complete winters before going into a nursery setting.

Birdie85

Morning all!

Nice to hear from you Tete, did you enjoy your holiday? Crummy news about the office move You should get in touch with the Investor in People people and tell them that they might want to rethink their award! It sounds like its a good opportunity for you to have a change of career though, hope something great pops up for you! How's your Dad doing by the way?

Glad you enjoyed the hen do Dinah! I'd love to go to Ascot, one of OH's friends is mad for the races so I'm going to have to convince him to take me some time!

Great news about Grace getting more thumbs up! Surely she's already had the room air test though?! Hope she adapts to the new formula quickly and gets some baby podge. LOL at the pee protest!

My Mum's back home now and she's doing OK, hopefully she'll be right as rain after a few days

Cinny91

Great to hear from you Lara, Zig and Tete I got your message on the ride down to London yesterday, Zig. Your travelling plans do sound amazing! Hope you find a new job too. And I've said it before but you and your new fella make a cute couple!

Not good news about your work, Tete. But at least you've found a silver lining in it The world is you oyster pretty much! I'm sure you'll find a new path. Second Birdie though, holiday details please

Sorry to hear about your Mum, Birdie At least she's making the most of it! And your hat was amazing at the wedding!! Thought of you yesterday in Hamleys when I accidentally on purpose wandered into the [STRIKE]expensive[/STRIKE]fancy Harry Potter section.

Glad Grace is doing well And you never know about Tete's dream. It might happen. I keep on dreaming I have a pet donkey, so I assume that will happen in time (he lives in my shed like on Tots TV)

Had a great day in London yesterday. Spent £50 which included bus fare, tube ticket and about £10 on presents. So not too bad! Even made one of the Queens Guards laugh, and another one smirk and look away And ambushed a former Big Brother Housemate in Hamleys.

Only thing was, we were constantly asking The American if there was anything she hadn't done in London. And she said she was good, seen all the sights, was happy to just spend her last day with us. So chubster here takes control and maps a food trek. Tea, Pastries, Eton Mess, Bonbons, Biegels, Donuts, Brownies, Cupcakes, more Tea, Pizza, Snog, Cookies. With lots of sights and shops inbetween, I thought I did well considering I don't know London! Then 20 minutes before we need to head back to the bus to come home The American starts throwing a strop. Apparently wanted to go too Hyde Park. But I'd mentioned Hyde Park about 5 times and no one was interested! I just felt so bad because it was her last day, and it isn't like London is a 4 hour, £15 bus ride for her But then on the way home it turned out she'd come to me making rude comments about my Sister and our friend, then gone to my Sister about me and our friend, and when mine and my Sister's back was turned she was gesturing towards our friend that she was fed up of us. And I tried so hard with her, hanging back so she could take photos, offering to take photos of her with landmarks, sharing my food with her because I know she's pretty much broke now, gave her my day tube ticket before I came home to save her money and got her a snazzy oyster card holder because she kept losing hers and I thought she could use it for her "college" cards in the "fall" She was nice as pie 80% of the time, but after taking an unpaid day off work to go keep her company it just felt like a waste of time!

ETA: Woops! ESSAY ALERT

Forgot to say, after saying no August wins I got flipflops, a Brothers Cider flag (wrapped it around Ryder's bed in the living room because I'm dead classy), a sports bag and some other little bits in the post