Caz counts it down

Knit_Witch

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

Another emergency transcription job done, hopefully a happy new client The downside of five hours straight of typing is that after too much time in headphones I can hear my heartbeat inside my left ear, think it's called pulsatile tinnitus. It'll go away after a bit (though usually comes back when I get into bed and change from vertical to horizontal), but it's annoying. I've had it for years and years, but it seems to have got a little worse recently - think I'll olive oil my ears for a week and then go and get them syringed and ask them about it at the surgery (I have ridiculously narrow ear canals and wax blocks them very easily).

Yay to the potential new client, but to the ear problems (and what were you doing up at Midnight young Caz?!)

cazmanian_minx

Knit_Witch wrote: »

Yay to the potential new client, but to the ear problems (and what were you doing up at Midnight young Caz?!)

Well, it was a quick turnaround job - I didn't get the audio until just before 5, I was running a little bit late with my proofreading, so didn't get started until about 6, and the client had requested full verbatim, where all the ums and ers and stutters are recorded which takes longer than normal intelligent verbatim, so I typed solidly from 6pm until 11pm, then made myself some supper and wound down a bit and before I knew it I'd turned into a pumpkin

DebtFree2012

:rotfl::T
Love it

cazmanian_minx

Unbelievable, Jeff, Tuesday night's emergency client has paid her invoice the same day she received it - straight to the top of the 'Nice people to work for' list Now have a whole £10 in my savings pots

It's 150 days until my big birthday. To get it all paid back, I have to manage £62 a day, or £50 a day if I use the money stashed in the tax bill fund. So next month I'm planning to draw out as little money as possible from the bead shop and to hammer the remaining £890 of overdraft - I want that gone by the end of April. £62 and pennies a day is £435 a week, so to stay on target, I actually need to get it busted significantly earlier than that. Would £890 gone in a fortnight be possible, I wonder?

Okay, I challenge myself to eliminate the remaining £890 overdraft by scores on the doors time on Friday 10th April, which would have been my father's 82nd birthday. Game on!

helena124

Hi Caz - de-lurking as I am a loiterer who sporadically catches up with diaries and popped in to say that as well as being impressed with your debt busting I am uber-interested to see your photos of Merlin's (I think) progress with Manuka honey. We have a mare who isn't ridden as she suffers from arthritis and very bad feet/cracked heels and I wonder if this would help her too?

Thanks for sharing the photos and I now plan to do some research on the benefits of Manuka, Helena

cazmanian_minx

Hi Helena Yes, it's Merlin with the honeyed feet! It's definitely worth a try - I pick feet out, wash the heels and frogs, getting as much mud out of the central sulcus as possible, and then use a gun-cleaning swab with a glob of honey on it pushed into the CS with a hoofpick - a bit of gauze or cotton wool would work as well. If you've not come across it, have a look at Nic Barker's blog, she co-authored a wonderful book called Feet First, all about barefoot rehabilitation, and pretty much everything I've learned about barefoot horses has come via that blog and book. http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/

DebtFree2012

Oooh another blog - fabulous

cazmanian_minx

Somewhat rubbish scores on the doors:

Business
Overdraft: -£-950.00 / -£890.00 +£60.00
Barclaycard: £3,500.00 / -£3,500.00 no change

Business total: -£-4,450.00 / -£4,390.00 +£60.00

Personal
Halifax card: -£4,930.00 / -£4,930.00 no change

Personal total: -£4,930.00 / -£4,930.00 no change

Grand total: -£9,380.00 / -£9,320.00 +£60.00

:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o

At the moment, funds are being diverted to (a) the quarterly internet bill, (b) the VAT bill and (c) the eBay bill, which are all going to fall within a few days of each other. Internet and eBay are covered, but I still need another £668.21 before 9th April for the VAT bill and I banked a grand total of £26.78 from PayPal this morning. Time to start working through this pile of stock...once I get through the pile of proofreading!

helena124

Thanks ever so much for the link to the barehoof blog - I shall pop onto that and have a good read tonight. :j

I'll let you know if I have any success but meantime, keep up the good work with your debtbusting, your diary makes very interesting reading.

Thanks again, Helena

cazmanian_minx

What helped Merlin really kickstart the changes he's been making was this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRO-HOOF-1-8KG-HIGH-CONCENTRATED-EQUINE-HOOF-SUPPLEMENT-FORAGE-BALANCER-/281391848447

- he was on Pro Hoof for two months and then dropped down to their cheaper-but-still-very-good Pro Balance +, which I have both of them on.

I've totted up all my proofreading, transcription and virtual assistant work for the month so far and am at just over £800 :j:j:j Hoping to get to £900 by the end of the month.

Mr Minx came home from work all excited about a Toyota Hilux a colleague is selling because it's registered as a farm vehicle and therefore is on red diesel - he thought we could take it over like that because we had a croft. One quick Google later and I had to burst his bubble (the rules about how/where you can drive it are very restrictive and picking up hay for horses breaks two of them!), so we're off to look at an L200 tomorrow. It normally lives in Aberdeenshire, but by happy coincidence, its owners were coming up to Thurso for the weekend, so they're driving it up instead of their other car and we're meeting them there to see it. It was top of the range in its day - sat nav as well as a PlayStation 2 fitted for the back seat passengers(!) - and has a fair few miles on it, but it looks in really good nick and the fact that they're happy to bring it 5 hours north bodes well for its roadworthiness.

Fingers crossed, because (I don't think I mentioned this, forgive me if I did) the bolts holding one side of the trailer ramp to the hinge exploded the other day, Mr Minx's and my combined weights aren't enough to stretch the spring down far enough to bolt it back on and if we unhook the spring at the other end we won't be able to re-tension it, so it's going to need to go off to the dealership to be fixed (and probably get the other side done as well) and I only have 13 bales of hay left before I need to do my final pick-up of the winter!