Keeping up appearances.......

HappyNow

joeyjimbles wrote: »

Hello all. Gosh you've been busy.
Sorry to have been awol.
I had the job of doom to do, and no, they still haven't upped the fee as apparently we're still on the original contract, but I do have a good system for working through most of it now and whilst it remains a pain, it is less so than when I first began it. Though I still despair at a client who asks us to purchase and monitor items that are not sold in the UK; surely they ought to know that?
And I decided to shift furniture around which meant reinstating the desktop in the office and then couldn't get it to work with the internet. £30 small piece of plastic at PCshop and it works. And the next day a small but apparently vital file has been corrupted and now various programs don't work. Fortunately I do still have insurance so its off to be mended tomorrow and I am borrowing DS1's laptop in small doses.
Apart from that, boys are settling into school. I've done a lot of volunteer work, not enough real work and even less housework. I've at least 3 pages of household stuff that needs to be completed/achieved and currently all I've done is fold the plastic carriers into samosas. (I like the kondo-ing and find the drawers do stay tidy once you get in the habit, but the samosa-ing of carrier bags is the thing I enjoy most). So my October targets are

- do stuff off household list.
- do stuff off household list.
- do stuff off household list.

Welcome back Joey . Sounds like you have been madly busy - but at least your carriers are now samosa'd :rotfl::rotfl: I'm going to look into the kondo-ing, even if just to read how to do that! Good luck with the household list. I still haven't even done the self-assessment return that you encouraged me with yet. It took ages to get the registration number through so I can log in (they have to post it to you for security) because apparently I had overlooked the pressing of one little button when I requested it. Anyway, it's here now so that's this weekend's job :cool:

HappyNow

Dolphin1 wrote: »

Done twice yesterday but not done them yet today :eek: so that's what I'll be doing next.

GO DOLPHIN! GO DOLPHIN! GO DOLPHIN!
Do they make you feel sore after you've done them? I used to have physio on mine, and I always felt far worse coming out than going in. And it cost £40 a go, which also hurt! (Actually work paid for it, but still.....)

Dolphin1

HappyNow wrote: »

GO DOLPHIN! GO DOLPHIN! GO DOLPHIN!
Do they make you feel sore after you've done them? I used to have physio on mine, and I always felt far worse coming out than going in. And it cost £40 a go, which also hurt! (Actually work paid for it, but still.....)

Sometimes I feel achy (not pain) but generally it improves as I'm doing them as things start to loosen up and over time I can definitely see an improvement. Ouch, £40 a session :eek:! Thank goodness all of my physio has always been on the NHS. I know people sometimes moan about the NHS but generally I think it is amazing and I am really thankful that it is available to us for free (well, not really but you know what I mean).

joeyjimbles

HappyNow wrote: »

I still haven't even done the self-assessment return that you encouraged me with yet. It took ages to get the registration number through so I can log in (they have to post it to you for security) because apparently I had overlooked the pressing of one little button when I requested it. Anyway, it's here now so that's this weekend's job :cool:

If I can be of any help on the self assessment form then please do say, though I must stress I am no tax expert but have been using the system for quite a while. The first time I did it I simply used the hard copy my accountant (worth having in my former life but long gone now), and used the allowances and calculations he had done but with the year in questions figures. Now I just let the form lead me as it does feel relatively straight forward. If you are used to the paper form then it is no different except it doesn't make you repeat yourself and it does the maths for you.

If you can why not just log on and put your address and details in and save that, there's nothing worse than a blank page is there? Like having to do an essay, its always easier to continue with something than it is to start with an empty page just staring at you. You don't need to submit it for months yet so you could fill it in a bit and it will save your progress, so you could muse on it for a while till you are sure you have put everything in as you would wish to do. I often do the basics on mine and then come back when I've dug out any interest paid/received etc forms at a later (often last minute) date.

As for busy. Yes, I am but not productive sadly. The list is very long but I am not in the mood for it so small jobs are taking too long, and the big ones are being ignored. I keep doing that 'when x is over, I will...' procrastination which solves nothing so I must actually just crack on. OH is working a few weekends and late nights which should make that easier but these dark chilly evenings just make me want to hibernate. Today I did actually sit down and revise my plan of attack on various budgets and repayments so that was something achieved - though I realise as I type this that it wasn't actually on the list! I'll take it as progress though.

Oh and do learn to samosa your carrier bags - lots of you tube videos will show you how but here is one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po7A9Tl-YM0- I cannot promise that it is either a good use of your time or even very useful but it is oddly satisfying. The other things that I have learned from Kon Mari has been folding fitted sheets, changing a duvet in a burrito roll - will try and find a video for that, and the way of folding t-shirts so that they stand up by themselves. Some of the other stuff I've flirted with but not wholeheartedly adopted. The process of keeping/discarding stuff by finding out if 'it brings you joy' and/or coupled with 'do you ever wear it/what are you keeping it for' is also very sage.

Sorry - don't contribute for ages and now I've gone off on one!

Honey_Bear

If I'd heard my dog howling I'd be horrified! Fortunatley for all of us, Kelpie just loves being stroked, tickled, rubbed with a towel and being the centre of attention, and now that he's got over his fear of being groomed, he's fine with being brushed, too.

I don't buy books any more, having realised I was keeping hundreds of them just because I had them. I get everything from the library, although I do use Amazon for reviews if I'm puzzled by a book having read it, such as The Slap. It's how I find new authors - we're really lucky being in the middle of a city and therefore within walking distance of the central library, and there are branches everywhere that I pop into when I'm in another part of the city.

• No computer after 9.00pm. I feel a lot better having had a few earlier nights because I've reverted to this. I've finished Major Pettigrew's Last Stand *wail*but I have a pile of others to dip into so hopefully there will be more treasure amongst them.
  
• Five fruit and veg a day. Total fail, although I did have dates and tomatoes. Does finishing up hummus count? It should, shouldn't it.
  
• 15 minutes flying a day, sticking to the new schedule: Monday: Dusting/dewebbing; Tuesday: Kitchen; Wednesday: Floors; Thursday: Bath/shower room; Friday: Windows/Paintwork. The kitchen is still a disaster area.
  
• Go flour-free. Found myself having two sandwiches yesterday made with gluten-free bread. Sandwiches are always, always, always my go-to food when I'm tired. And Saturdays, I've realised, have always been a gluten-heavy day for us - bacon sarni for brunch and pizza for supper, and a sandwich of some sort when I got hungry mid-afternoon, usually. I genuinely hadn't realised how much I was eating and stopping it, going cold turkey, has really made me think about it.
  

Honey_Bear

Have you done your exercises, Dolphin?

Dolphin1

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Go flour-free. Found myself having two sandwiches yesterday made with gluten-free bread.

Did you manage to find a decent gluten free loaf of bread? I have been gluten free since last December and still haven't found any gluten free bread that comes anywhere near the real thing so I rarely eat bread at all now except toast very occasionally for breakfast.

Dolphin1

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Have you done your exercises, Dolphin?

Yes , done them once just a short while ago, will do them again later, starting to feel the benefits already.

Dolphin1

That's weird, thought I had done an update yesterday for Thursday & Friday but I can't see it now so here's my update for the last 3 days...

1) Thursday - butter on toast and two chocolate biscuits that I had left over. Friday - none eaten. Saturday - we went out for a meal and I had a piece of chocolate cake.

2) Thursday - 11.00pm. Friday - 11.30pm. Saturday - 11.45pm. Really must do better from tonight.

3) Back exercises done twice all three days :j.

Honey_Bear

Dolphin1 wrote: »

Did you manage to find a decent gluten free loaf of bread? I have been gluten free since last December and still haven't found any gluten free bread that comes anywhere near the real thing so I rarely eat bread at all now except toast very occasionally for breakfast.

Fortunately for me I really, really like the Genius Triple Seeded sandwich loaf, which is stocked by both my local C0-0p at the bottom of the road and Morribunds where I do my weekly shop. I think other people think it's expensive at £2.99 but as I only eat one loaf a week that's okay. I freeze half and keep the other half in the fridge because otherwise it grows fluff in our kitchen. And at the moment I snack with oat cakes rather than bread as I used to.

And don't forget, I'm not doing this because I have a problem digesting gluten so it's not actually necessary. I'm doing it because I wanted to know if it was causing my lethargy, so I don't have to be super-strict with myself. I think when things are an active choice they're easier to stick with, although two sandwiches in one day just goes to show how unimaginative I am when I already had half a tub of hummus in the fridge and the oatcakes.