Caz counts it down

grey_lady

Hi Caz,

Hope you don't mind me asking but how do you manage to stay motivated? in terms of daily routine I mean.

atb

cazmanian_minx

grey_lady wrote: »

Hi Caz,

Hope you don't mind me asking but how do you manage to stay motivated? in terms of daily routine I mean.

atb

Gosh, that's a question. I suppose just because I think I'm so lucky to live in such a beautiful place and to be able to work from home and everything I get through on a day-to-day basis enables me to keep living this life as opposed to having to commute every day or even live away during the week working somewhere else.

Today's been so busy that I didn't get lunch until 5 o'clock. 48 orders packed and posted (that includes all the ones that didn't go during the power cut), three files proofread, three files typed up for Mr Regular Private Client who also asked me if I'd be interested in some extra admin work putting information on their back office system and being a first-line point of contact for some of his clients. Absolutely I would :D:D

The weather has been pretty horrible; strong winds and hail here, but fortunately the number of missing roof tiles doesn't seem to have increased and it's calmed down enough for Mr Minx to have got his flight okay.

DebtFree2012

Congratulations on the extra work - fabulous!

cazmanian_minx

Another busy day, but I did at least manage to get lunch on time It got off to a bad start with the realisation that the water was off. A quick look at Facebook determined that it wasn't just me, so I rang Scottish Water (after checking their website and seeing they had no known faults) who said they were on it and supply would be restored around 12.30.

So, orders packed and posted, though getting the post office was a bit more of an adventure than usual thanks to a fairly hefty dumping of snow in the past 24 hours. Hooray for winter tyres I confess, because it never usually gets that hot here in summer, I drive on something that can cope with winter all year round.

No proofreading at all today, but I did get some work through from Mr Regular Private Client, though I'm learning that when he says he'll start uploading things for me around 2pm, I've usually got at least two hours before the first file comes through He's rushed off his feet, by the sounds of it. I may get some more work through from him tonight; I'm waiting up for Mr Minx whose flight has taken off late from Aberdeen, so he probably won't be back home until about 10.

While I was waiting for that to come through, I started catching up with the bead shop accounts, as I really need to get the VAT return done tomorrow. I'm nearly on top of it now, all that's left to do is put the remaining entries in from my daily cashflow sheet and then reconcile the bank statement.

cazmanian_minx

Holy VAT bill, Batman! Yes, the accounts are up-to-date and the VAT return has been submitted. I've only averaged £600 a month for the proofreading and transcription for the past three months, so need to pull my socks up - not being helped at the moment by the agency being very, very quiet after Christmas, so not much work coming through (I've made a grand total of £2.50 proofreading today - before tax!).

Anyway, the good news is that all the VAT owed on the wordsmithing is already set aside and all the VAT owed on the beads is nearly all set aside - I need another £305 before 11th February. The tax bill due at the end of the month is also all put aside, so I'm actually feeling quite on top of things for once.

Just going to stick all the address labels on today's bead parcels (not an impressive amount I'm afraid) and then see if my car will make it up the drive - yes, we still have snow. Finn is not wildly impressed:



(I tried to take one of Merlin too, but he was following me round with his nose superglued to my cheek with his best 'FEED ME, MINION!!!!' face on!)

AlexLK

That's a wonderful photo.

Mara_uk7

Lovely pic Caz, we are lucky to live where we do . ... Even in this weather !

Cwtchie

Oooo snow! ours has gone now, just left with strong winds and heavy rain. nice pic x

ScattySkewbald

Beautiful piccie Caz x

cazmanian_minx

Ooof, busy day. I wasn't on shift for proofreading and I'd let Mr Regular Private Client know that I wasn't available in the afternoon, when I usually do his work, but would pick anything he needed doing up in the evening, so the plan was to have a nice, quiet morning packing orders and bagging up the big pile of clothes to be donated to charity before driving into town for my dentist appointment.

Best laid plans and all that....

The agency didn't realise that I was off shift and started assigning me work. I let them know I wasn't there and asked when it was due back to the client - 9.30 tomorrow morning, so I told them to leave it with me and I'd get it done before then, but probably not by their 4pm deadline. Then Mr RPC pinged me on Skype to ask if I could possibly do him a quick couple of things before I vanished, which I did. So at midday I stuffed down some lunch, threw the clothes into bin-bags, brushed my teeth, flossed, drove to town, dropped off the bin-bags, filled up the car, checked the tyre pressures and then went to the dentist.

I was expecting a telling-off for not having had my teeth looked at for nearly two years (I left the dentist in Inverness on the grounds that it was a bit daft to drive for six hours for a 20 minute appointment now I'd finished the teeth straightening, but never got round to re-registering up here), but instead he pulled a face, told me I had dreadfully healthy teeth and told me to go away and eat Haribo for a year so he had something to do next time I went :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: He gave me a scale and polish and sent me on my way - just £15.24

Came home, did the proofreading and then tackled the ironing pile for an hour and a half in front of a couple of recorded episodes of Judge Rinder. I got nearly all of it done, just 8 tops left to do. The post brought the bill for the heating oil, 43.45p per litre, so not quite as low as my brother is getting in Hitchin (36.8p, but he buys about 2000 litres a time as opposed to my measly 500), but still considerably better than December 2013's 62.something!

Also very chuffed to see that someone a few years below me at school has an Oscar nomination. She was a lovely kid at school (I was in the lower sixth when she was in the second year, so I had to supervise her form for prep occasionally and because we were both musical our paths crossed slightly more often than would normally be the case with that age gap) and I shall be crossing my fingers for her