Caz counts it down

cazmanian_minx

Hm, what was I doing last night that I didn't update?? I honestly can't remember! Oh yes I can, I was sorting out a hotel for us in Vienna and one for me for my night in London on the way out. Mr Minx said we might as well splash out a little bit on the Vienna one as (a) it was only for three nights and (b) it's the first time we've been away together in two years. So after a lot of research, we've got a top-floor suite with a balcony(!) in a four-star boutique hotel in central Vienna for less than you'd pay for a bog-standard Holiday Inn in London I then went to sort out mine and wanted somewhere near a Thameslink station so I didn't have to mess around with luggage on the Tube (flying into Luton, flying out of Gatwick). My brother-in-law has been staying at the Travelodge at Farringdon for work recently and says it's fine, so I looked there, but they wanted £109 a night room only on the Travelodge website. Went to Trivago looking for hotels in the same area and found the Farringdon Travelodge for £84 including breakfast. Booked!

What else? Quite a lot going on with Mr RPC at the moment, I've clocked up a few hours for him over the past two days. Journalist #1 sent me two quick celebrity interviews and asked me if I'd like to do two more next week (yes please!). I was due an agency file today but it got cancelled (can't remember if I mentioned it here or not, but I'm now part of a special sub-team of typists that does files for one particular company that need to be super-accurate. They're all business-related, usually interesting topics and the rate is slightly higher), though I did do a 75-minute summary for them yesterday.

Oh, and our solicitor should have submitted the formal offer this morning

cazmanian_minx

50 minute file from the agency - interesting one about mortgages

Bit of work for Mr RPC, also interesting

£100+ eBay order, thought those days had long gone

Oh, and our offer has been accepted in principle and the seller's solicitors are drafting a formal acceptance

So, subject to a bit of haggling about clauses, I will be buying this plus just under 10 acres:


Time to learn about sheep!!

Brightspark87

Hi Caz wow what a place you have there! Amazing place - I hope it all goes through ok. Interesting work - what are the celeb interviews like to type up? Interesting? Glad you are getting regular work through everyone again. x

Eager_Elephant

Ooh Caz - I :heartsmil it!!!


What will you do with the extra house you have acquired?


I'm thinking I could come and live there and help with the sheep:rotfl:

cazmanian_minx

Brightspark87 wrote: »

Hi Caz wow what a place you have there! Amazing place - I hope it all goes through ok. Interesting work - what are the celeb interviews like to type up? Interesting? Glad you are getting regular work through everyone again. x

Thanks

I absolutely love doing the celeb interviews, they're fascinating and quite often surprising. One I did was with a female news anchor who I've never warmed to, but she was absolutely lovely to the journalist, completely unlike how she can sometimes come over on screen. One male celeb who has a reputation for being completely lovely anyway proved it in the first few minutes by saying to the journalist right at the start that he was worried about her getting cold because she didn't have a coat and would she prefer it if they went into the cafe down the road from where he was taking a break from filming and did the interview over a mug of tea instead. It's interesting though, some of them have obviously got sets of stock answers that they adapt for interviews as necessary and others really do genuinely seem to open up about what's going on in their lives.

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

Ooh Caz - I :heartsmil it!!!

What will you do with the extra house you have acquired?

I'm thinking I could come and live there and help with the sheep:rotfl:

Thanks, we do too To start with, rewire it, replace the windows (including enlarging the one in the 3rd bedroom because it's only the size of that tiny little Velux you can see on the front), repair the kitchen ceiling, fit a new kitchen, check and mend all the fencing, possibly put a utility room into the first byre (depends on cost), fit two woodburning stoves, get the boiler serviced (hopefully not replaced!), paint it white outside and then decorate the inside and possibly furnish it, depending on whether we're going to have it as a normal rental house or a holiday cottage. My former neighbour inherited her aunt's cottage a few doors away from this one and before they moved away, she used to do it as a holiday let. It only slept 4, but she did it to a high standard and got £750 a week for it in high season, so I think that's probably the route we'll go down.

cazmanian_minx

Right at the beginning of this diary I wrote:

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

I'll be 37 in eight and a half weeks and I live on the north coast of Scotland with Mr Minx, one horse and one pony, one of which only arrived a fortnight ago (yes, I know...he was a gift and they're kept at home, which makes them far cheaper to run than children!). I'd like to get this sorted out by the time I'm 40 which gives me 1,149 days to Do Something.

Well, I didn't quite make it, but if you look at today's scores on the doors, I am now absolutely, definitely, positively on the final countdown!


Business
Barclaycard: £780.00 / -£340.00 +£440.00

Personal
Halifax card: -£4,650.00 / -£4,650.00 no change

Grand total: -£5,430.00 / -£4,990.00 +£440.00

And yes, that does deserve a few of these:



On my birthday two years ago I wrote myself some two-year, four-year, six-year, eight-year and ten-year goals. The two-year ones were to have paid off all the debt and grown the bead shop to £150k turnover. Well, I haven't done either, but I can't say I'm unhappy about where my life is right now either. 40 tomorrow and about to embark on two whole new careers in crofting and property alongside the transcribing and VA work. My 20s weren't great, if I'm honest. My 30s have been about recovering from my 20s and finding out who I am. My 40s are already shaping up to be absolutely fantastic. Bring on tomorrow, I can't wait!

lionheartedgirl

Caz what a lovely post. Wishing you a very happy 40th birthday! A former boss of mine assured me when i turned 30 that my 30s would be brilliant, but my 40s would be even better. I hope yours are too!

What you wrote really resonated - I'm nearer 40 than 30 now but my 30s have very much been about mopping up after my 20s and I'm coming out of the other side at last.

Hope you have a brilliant celebration, and I'm sending lots of love and best wishes for whatever is next!

And I'll be in the queue for a holiday rental please! X

brizzledfw

lionheartedgirl wrote: »

Caz what a lovely post. Wishing you a very happy 40th birthday! A former boss of mine assured me when i turned 30 that my 30s would be brilliant, but my 40s would be even better. I hope yours are too!

What you wrote really resonated - I'm nearer 40 than 30 now but my 30s have very much been about mopping up after my 20s and I'm coming out of the other side at last.

Hope you have a brilliant celebration, and I'm sending lots of love and best wishes for whatever is next!

And I'll be in the queue for a holiday rental please! X

Completely echoed. Have a wonderful day..you should be so very proud of all your achievements..

I also agree re 40's..FAB decade so far

cazmanian_minx

Hello! Having an epic birthday weekend - we went down to neighbours for a curry night on Friday and Mr Minx had smuggled a birthday cake down. Not just any old birthday cake, mind you...



(The Sands is the name of the hotel we honeymooned in ) We got back home at about quarter to one, amazingly in one piece though quite how I managed to keep Mr Minx out of the drainage ditches when I'd forgotten to take a torch with us, I'm not quite sure! My actual birthday was spent doing the normal Tesco run, but we asked my mother-in-law and two of her friends to join us for lunch, then came home and had a lazy afternoon with cake I am the proud owner of not one but TWO new jackets for mucking out in (top tip: Regatta has an eBay outlet store. Over £100-worth of jackets for under £35), a Hotel Chocolat sleekster, there's a lovely 40th birthday necklace of 4 interlocking rings on order for me (out of stock until September) and my mother completely surprised me by giving me a picture of hers I've always loved that I thought she was leaving to her goddaughter. It's a small coloured pencil drawing of Hotwells at dawn, done by a local Bristol artist, and it used to hang in our living room. The colours have faded a bit 26 years on, so I'm under strict instructions to hang it in as dark a corner as possible, but I'm so touched that she's given it to me.

Today's been tidy up the fields, two hours of housework and I'm about to go and hang out my third load of laundry and load up the fourth and final one before collapsing on the sofa for the rest of the day with Homebuying and Renovating magazine

brizzledfw

Sounds like a perfect birthday. Happy Birthday Caz!!!

Love the nod to Hotwells. If you're ever back that way, (and appreciate its a way from Thurso!;)) the Rose of Denmark does the most wonderful Sunday lunch

Have to say that that is v sweet of Mr Minx... Love the cake design!