Keeping up appearances.......

Honey_Bear

• Zero spent.
• Zero alcohol.
• Dried cherries, apricots, er, that's it.
• Two mugs of fruit tea.
• No sugar.
• Quite a long time sorting, tidying, dusting and vacuuming my Room of Doom for futon-use by intermittent lodger.
• Nothing.
• Nothing.
• Hardly any spider. Difficult task begun.

I completely lost it yesterday with two lodgers, although neither of them knows it. If I'd come face to face with either of them and they'd said the wrong thing my palm would have itched uncontrollably to make contact with their faces. After 22 years of mostly enjoying having guests I'm seriously wondering now how much longer I can tolerate the self-centred behaviour.


I was so angry I couldn't concentrate on anything so we went out for dinner which was huge fun, fabulous and very inexpensive - £26 for two! Then went to see the BRB triple bill (organised by the third lodger, who I heart) which was exquisite. I cried, it was so good. A brilliant end to a carp day.

HappyNow

Honey_Bear wrote: »

I had news on Monday and a phone call yesterday, there is an entry in my diary for later in the week, and OH has strict instructions to be at home on Friday afternoon at 3.00 pm for about an hour. Fingers crossed.
.

My lucky fingers are firmly crossed for you. Not that you need luck

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Spider played just a bit too much, but loins girded eventually to tackle a difficult job that I should have got to grips with over 40 years ago. I've always hoped, somehow that the solution would just magically present itself, but I am going to have to methodically work my way through several sets of instructions, You Tube and a number of websites to get to grips with something and learn how to do it properly. Some progress already achieved.

You are a very mysterious lady!

Honey_Bear wrote: »

I completely lost it yesterday with two lodgers, although neither of them knows it. If I'd come face to face with either of them and they'd said the wrong thing my palm would have itched uncontrollably to make contact with their faces. After 22 years of mostly enjoying having guests I'm seriously wondering now how much longer I can tolerate the self-centred behaviour.

I was so angry I couldn't concentrate on anything so we went out for dinner which was huge fun, fabulous and very inexpensive - £26 for two! Then went to see the BRB triple bill (organised by the third lodger, who I heart) which was exquisite. I cried, it was so good. A brilliant end to a carp day.

Was it the pongy microwave again? I'm guessing male lodgers!? I think having people in your home must be one of the hardest ways to make a living. Unless you have a very large home of course and you can completely separate yourself from them. If it's one of these that's leaving next weekend at least you're on a countdown now.

Being not-very-cultured I had to google the BRB triple bill; it looks magical. I've never been to a ballet but not because I don't fancy it, it's just never happened. I understood about the lovely dinner though! So pleased your day had a brilliant ending - they all should

HappyNow

Yesterday's efforts. Not brilliant to be honest.

• Zero spends
• Zero alcohol
• Washed and scrubbed the outside of our dresser ready to apply a limey coat at the weekend. It was embarrassingly filthy, I hadn't realised.

That was the good bit. Now -

• Two fruit and veg - peas and baked beans
• Two glasses of water. For some reason I wanted to drink tea all day.
• an entire 80 gram packet of sugar free mints, which I thought would be healthier than normal ones, particularly if I only ate one or two. Then I read the label, which said 'excessive consumption may have a laxative effect'. Yep, confirmed and lesson learnt! Won't be buying THOSE again!
• Two games of Words, both of which I lost.

Honey_Bear

HappyNow wrote: »

Was it the pongy microwave again? I'm guessing male lodgers!? I think having people in your home must be one of the hardest ways to make a living. Unless you have a very large home of course and you can completely separate yourself from them. If it's one of these that's leaving next weekend at least you're on a countdown now.

Being not-very-cultured I had to google the BRB triple bill; it looks magical. I've never been to a ballet but not because I don't fancy it, it's just never happened. I understood about the lovely dinner though! So pleased your day had a brilliant ending - they all should

It was the pongy microwave lodger again, but a different issue. I cleaned the microwave with lemon juice and realised how much ready made meals make it stink, but not really of food. *yuk*

No, the thing that she did which is absolutely unforgivable was put wet laundry on a radiator. We very specifically say that we don't allow people to use the washing machine because of the problems drying laundry. It costs us a lot of bookings so it's not a light decision on our part. In her case we made an exception, thinking that once I'd explained that we've spent thousands of pounds tanking the basement, so putting water back into the walls is a really expensive problem for us - she went ahead and did it. Again.

She's put two loads through the machine every week she's been here consisting of five items in each load and frankly that's taking the urine anyway, and my patience snapped. (She 'Tuts' when I'm using my own kitchen!) It's about control, I know it is, and I should have been okay, but I just wasn't.

The other lodger had cancelled, yet again, after I'd sorted my office out ready for her, thus interrupting my clear day's work while OH was visiting Richard III's bones in Leicester to pay his respects. She's done it four out of the last five booked Wednesdays and she only told me when she did because I'd emailed her about the arrnagements because we were going to be out when she normally arrives.

Words will be had.

I like having people here, and so does OH. The theatre types can be a right royal pain in the butt, as this one is, because they can be ever so slightly self-centered, but normally they're up, happy, interesting and vibrant people. The scientists can be fascinating and immensely likeable; they can also be geeky and monosyllabic, but mostly we've had lovely, lovely people here. We've been to four weddings, two in the UK and two in Italy, and made some friends for life but just occasionally they try my patience, and yesterday was a trying day.

The third lodger we have here at the moment (which is why my futon is pressed into service) is a theatre technical-type and he is one of the people we'd describe as a friend. He and OH spend quite a bit of time texting each other rude comments after their respective teams win or lose each week, he's got a brilliant sense of humour, is a devoted father, and works humoungously long hours. He stays twice a year every year and has done for about 10 years. He helped OH out when he took a show to the Edinburgh Fringe by providing free kit and advice and I'm embarrassed to take money from him because it really is like having a friend to stay. He's why we do it - the good ones are all like him, and there are lots of them.

If you ever do get the chance to go to a ballet, please do. I'm astonished at what they do on stage, the orchestra is stuffed with people who are brilliant at what they do and the technical crew are incredibly professional. My absolute favourite at the moment is Still Life at the Penguin Cafe, partly because the music is so much fun but anything's worthwhile and deals can be had when a ticket only costs £10 sometimes. Bargain!

Honey_Bear

• Zero spent.
• Zero alcohol.
• Dried cherries, apricots, courgettes, mushrooms, beetroot juice
• Four mugs of fruit tea.
• Not much sugar. I even baked a batch of hobnobs to give to someone as a thank you and stopped after doing quality control. Amazed at myself.
• Finished the room of doom for the lodger for tonight only, and did the filing.
• Nothing.
• Nothing.
• Spider played when I'd finished doing what I had to do today.

Was the minty ingredient sorbitol? Do you think the amount of tea you wanted had anything to do with munching too many sugar-free mints? There were times when I used to drink builders' tea that I just couldn't get enough into me, so I know what that feels like. Surely they all count as water, anyway?

Honey_Bear

• I'm really quite astonished at how much I spent yesterday, although that's a relative evaluation. All necessary stuff, although I accept my definition of 'necessary' may be open to negotiation; I required chocolate cake and that's that. I went to the market as opposed to the supermarket, so it was all money that will stay in the local economy and it was great value for money. Good.
• Zero alcohol.
• Apricots, peas, broccoli, tomato and beetroot juice.
• Four mugs of fruit tea.
• See above about chocolate cake. (Hobnobs resisted.)
• Swept and swabbed the kitchen floor and (garden flying), planted sunflower seeds, nurtured tomato and herb seedlings and fretted over them.
• Homecheck went well enough for the lovely chappie to say, 'Well as far as I'm concerned I wouldn't have any hesitation in putting [breed] with you' so we know we passed.
• Three phone calls made, and for the first time since I started this recent initiative, I may have a taker. She wants me to phone back after Easter. They're very, very busy which bodes well. Putting myself on the spot like this has taught me several really important things. My stuff won't sell to traditionalists, so I should check the style of the stock of the shop first when cold calling for which Google street view is invaluable, and despite the first and second takers of the product being blokes, all the other people I've spoken to during this sales push have been women.
• Very little Spider played. I was totally exhausted after the homecheck and I suspect I was far more anxious about it than I'd realised. I hiked upstairs and watched youtube videos on something else I want to learn how to do instead of kickstarting the dy$on. I love learning new stuff.

Honey_Bear

I know I'm taking over your thread, and I'm really upset about that. I've tried to work out how to edit the longest post above down, but it all makes sense - to me. I love your posts and hope that you're okay - I always assume the worst when you go AWOL for a couple of days, although I know you're Secret Squirrel at heart. Thinking about posting my successes and failures daily has a really positive effect on my choices, so I'd like to carry on but only if it works in tandem for you.

Apparently several small goals are more beneficial than setting one large one, because when we fail at smaller things we can pick ourselves up and move on quite quickly whereas a big failure leads to abandoning it completely. It referred to big goals as setting out to lose a ton of weight, give up smoking after 20 years, or stop drinking after knocking back a bottle a day for a decade. That seems to be fairly logical, on reflection which is why I'd like to do an Awesome April with slightly different goals.

HappyNow

Here I am! Nothing wrong whatsoever but my diary is still a secret so sometimes it's hard to post without blowing my cover. I suppose there's no reason to keep it secret now Mr H knows about the debts, but if he reads my diary he'll know I've deliberately withheld information from him for ages. 'Oh what a tangled web we weave' and all that....:D

Honey, PLEASE don't worry that you're taking over the thread. You're absolutely not, and I really look forward to reading your goings-on. I would be very lonely here if it wasn't for you, so please think of this as a shared place .

I'm so pleased the inspection went well. I knew it would of course, but nice to have it confirmed. Did they give any time-scale? Can you choose the dog that comes, or do they call on you when any animal needs a fosterer? EXCITING!!!

I've just googled my sugar-free sweeties, and the sweetener was Steviol Glycoside. I daresay it's perfectly safe, but altogether too alarming for me and I won't buy it again, lovely as those mints were.

Don't know if you ever came across Brizzle's diary, but she used to take lodgers too and really enjoyed having them. So did Box Of Fluffies. Not an option for me - only the most bonkers of lodger would want to stay here! Our house is half of a lovely old farmhouse, which sounds very appealing, but the downsides are enormous. We're literally miles away from the nearest bus stop, shop or streetlight, the house is cold, damp and in need of lots of TLC. We have undrinkable spring water, a septic tank, coal fires and no hot water. The access lane is steep and bumpy, the postman drops quarter of a mile away and the binmen/milkman/paperman don't come at all. When I see all that written down, I wonder why I'm here, but I love it and there's lots of good stuff too. Not sure if we will stay here when we're very, very old, but for now it's home.

The 'several smaller goals' thing rings true for me, and I'm already starting to give some thought to my Awesome April goals. Might be a bit of tweaking done.

Wow, such a long post, and I haven't even confessed to my ridiculously massive inappropriate spends yet . Back tonight........

Honey_Bear

As I said, I know you're Secret Squirrel, and I'd realised Mr Happy probably doesn't know about the diary, so I do understand.

I'll have a search for Brizzle and Box of Fluffies diaries next time I'm looking for something to read. Why are MSE forums so much more enticing than books? I've come to the conclusion I am really nosy!

Your Des Res sounds ideal for lodgers - not! I'd be okay with all of that, and positively love it too, but OH has the vapours when he goes anywhere that doesn't have exhaust fumes, street lights and a pub on every corner. How do you cope without no hot water? *yikes* When I'm feeling blue I jump into a hot bath with a good book, and then I feel human again.

HappyNow wrote: »

I'm so pleased the inspection went well. I knew it would of course, but nice to have it confirmed. Did they give any time-scale? Can you choose the dog that comes, or do they call on you when any animal needs a fosterer? EXCITING!!!

I emailed a few questions to the Oldies Club and then had a chat with them about it, then filled in a form because those were the things that I wanted to know. I've said which breeds, crosses and type I can take, and which I absolutely can't (terriers, sighthounds - we've got a cat - and giant dogs). I think they're fine with that, it's what they asked. Apparently there's a waiting list of dogs coming into Oldies Club care, so when a suitable match occurs there would be a phone call. They've told me I can say no if it's not convenient, and they won't mind. They also said they try not to make the dogs travel longer than three hours when they go into foster, so that might limit things a bit but I'm leaving it up to them now. But yes, very exciting and thank you for your kind words.

Honey_Bear

• The only spend today was a glass of wine for OH when we went to see The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel tonight at the Arts Centre. (We absolutely loved it; it's even better than the original film.)
• Zero alcohol.
• Apricots, courgette, onion, mushrooms, tomato.
• Three mugs of fruit tea. Oops.
• Hobnobs not resisted.
• Planted more herb seeds in the pots that haven't produced anything yet, and three additional pots.
• Practising patience now.
• Slothful Saturday.
• No spider.