Caz counts it down

cazmanian_minx

Thanks chaps, I shall grit my teeth and raid the savings account

A typing day today. I did about 20 minutes for Mr RPC, a 35-minute summary for the agency and finished off NEL's file. Not many orders to go, so only £26 into the bank account - I need another £180 by the time I go away, plus probably £35 to be on the safe side, as the BT bill may come out before I'm back.

Tomorrow I've got a one-hour file coming in by 1pm for the agency's business-related team and I should have a 90-minute file coming in from the other agency I occasionally work for, though they were expecting it to arrive this afternoon and it hasn't turned up yet. Both of those are due for midday on Sunday.

I've got Google Adsense set up on my blog this evening as well as adding a header and profile pic to my Twitter account and starting to follow some relevant people. I have two followers already and neither seem to be either spam accounts or trying to sell me something - amazing!

cazmanian_minx

Humph. Only £10 banked this morning, the focus group still hasn't arrived, my Dorothy Perkins order appears to have been delivered to the wrong delivery driver and has to go back to Inverness to be given to the right one and it's still raining.

On the plus side, I've already done £10-worth of work for Mr RPC this morning.

Feeling a bit broke because I haven't billed as much work as I should have over the past month, I'm taking 10 days off work this month (for only five days away, but the day before I travel is a write-off because I've got to take the dog to her holiday home, I'm in transit for two days each way to and from Vienna and then the day after I'm back - or probably the same day, given my flight doesn't reach Inverness until gone 10pm, so I won't be home until the small hours - I've got to pick the dog up and the farrier is coming) and I've got to find over £200 to have the animals looked after while I'm away.

I may have to swallow my pride and ask Mr Minx for a bit of financial assistance this month I'll see what I can get done over the next few days while he's away.

No scores on the doors this week because there's no change.

DebtFree2012

Chin up and ask Mr Minx - it happens!

cazmanian_minx

DebtFree2012 wrote: »

Chin up and ask Mr Minx - it happens!

I did and he's fine about it, but I still feel a bit of a failure. Ah well, I'll get over it I guess. All I've done is give him a heads-up that I might need some help if we're to make our regular £550 payment into the offset account, everything else is covered.

He's made it safely to Vienna anyway, just had a text saying he's found the hotel okay and ordered himself ein bier, bitte. I'm feeding myself out of the freezer for the next few days, so yesterday's shopping bill was under £17 and £3.50 of that was the weekend Financial Times (they had a jewellery special and the regular 'How To Spend It' magazine; I wanted to indulge in a little fantasy living ).

It's been a quiet weekend, the agency file was sent back on time, the second agency file never arrived with them so the job was cancelled. Now trying to clear down enough space on the Sky box to record everything it normally records while we're away - so far I've watched 2 x Posh Pawn, the last two episodes of The Following (which shows you how far behind I am!), The Scandalous Lady W and 2 out of 14 episodes of Person of Interest. Think it'll be back-to-back PoI for the rest of the evening, I'll try and get that completely watched before I go.

Other things I have to do before going away:

• Laundry
• Ironing
• Clean house
• Pull ragwort in next door's bottom field (nearly did this today, but the rain started lashing down)
• Write out instructions for lady looking after horses
• Move electric fencing
• Take car in to have loose heat shield sorted
• Double check what time the dog is due at her holiday home
• Chase up missing parcel of clothes (spoke to the couriers again yesterday morning who said it would probably be with me yesterday, as they'd spoken to the driver's wife and he was out on his rounds again - nope...)

I'm sure there's more, but that'll do to start with.

cazmanian_minx

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

Other things I have to do before going away:

• [strike]Laundry[/strike]
• Ironing
• Clean house
• [strike]Pull ragwort in next door's bottom field (nearly did this today, but the rain started lashing down)[/strike]
• [strike]Write out instructions for lady looking after horses[/strike]
• Move electric fencing
• Take car in to have loose heat shield sorted
• [strike]Double check what time the dog is due at her holiday home[/strike]
• [strike]Chase up missing parcel of clothes (spoke to the couriers again yesterday morning who said it would probably be with me yesterday, as they'd spoken to the driver's wife and he was out on his rounds again - nope...)[/strike]

I'm sure there's more, but that'll do to start with.

Clothes aren't going to make it :(:(:( The couriers, bless them, have been pursuing every avenue open to them to try and track this parcel down and they've discovered that it never even reached Inverness. It's gone to one of the other two places in Scotland with the same name as my village and the local driver there has just marked it delivered instead of sending it back to the central hub. So I rang Dorothy Perkins and spoke to a very nice lady who said their delivery team will try and track it down for me - however, since they only attempt delivery three times before returning it to DP for a refund and I'm going to be away, we agreed that the best thing for them to do, if they locate it, is get it sent back, as I won't be here to accept it and the place drivers normally leave parcels for me will be locked up. Although I'll get a full refund to my card, annoyingly they can't re-place the order for me to collect when I'm in London or give me a code that will give me the same amount of discount I got (offers which have now ended), so I'm back to square one for something to wear out for cocktails on Thursday night! Guess my first stop once I've checked into the hotel will be Oxford Street...

Last day of work before holiday today Tomorrow goes something like:

• Get up early
• Sort horses out
• Pack up all eBay orders
• Get large amount of cash out to pay for animal sitters
• Ask James to hold our post for a week
• Take dog to holiday accommodation
• Drop car at garage
• Walk up to station and use Virgin vouchers to buy all the train tickets I'm going to need getting to and from various London airports
• Drop into solicitor to see if there's any progress on croft purchase
• Meet mother-in-law, brother-in-law and brother-in-law's wife for lunch
• Collect car
• Move electric fencing
• Bring up all horsey stuff horse sitter might need while I'm away from shed to annexe
• Tape horse sitter's contact details to top gate
• Feed horses, muck out all fields
• Print off vet authority letter and leave with horse sitter instructions
• Make sure Kindle and camera battery are both charged
• Check netbook still works okay
• Throw some clothes into suitcase
• Check whether Mr Minx needs me to bring out clean shirts
• Set alarm for 6am otherwise I'll miss my flight!

cazmanian_minx

OMG! Won't have to ask Mr Minx for money this month after all! Checked the Just Flutes website this morning, thinking I'd pick up my Lebret on the way back from holiday (they've had it since just before we moved here, seven years ago, and sent me a letter earlier this year asking if I still wanted them to keep it on sale) and it wasn't listed on their site. Rang them up and they've sold it! Cheque for £680 on the way Very chuffed, because from memory I only paid £400 for it and the bottom's dropped out of the vintage French flute market in the intervening period. Think they sold it for £750. Whoever's bought it, thank you very much and I wish you joy in restoring it - or if you choose not to restore it, enjoy the headjoint, it's a fabulous sound

gallygirl

Great stuff :T

Knit_Witch

Grumping re Couriers but YAY to the cheque!

cazmanian_minx

Right, how am I getting on?

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

Last day of work before holiday today Tomorrow goes something like:

• [strike]Get up early[/strike]
• [strike]Sort horses out[/strike]
• [strike]Pack up all eBay orders[/strike]
• [strike]Get large amount of cash out to pay for animal sitters[/strike]
• [strike]Ask James to hold our post for a week[/strike]
• [strike]Take dog to holiday accommodation[/strike]
• [strike]Drop car at garage[/strike]
• [strike]Walk up to station and use Virgin vouchers to buy all the train tickets I'm going to need getting to and from various London airports[/strike]
• [strike]Drop into solicitor to see if there's any progress on croft purchase[/strike] - didn't have time, rang them instead, solicitor in a meeting, will email me tomorrow.
• [strike]Meet mother-in-law, brother-in-law and brother-in-law's wife for lunch[/strike]
• [strike]Collect car[/strike] - and they didn't charge me!! Again!!
• Move electric fencing
• Bring up all horsey stuff horse sitter might need while I'm away from shed to annexe
• Tape horse sitter's contact details to top gate
• Feed horses, muck out all fields
• [strike]Print off vet authority letter and leave with horse sitter instructions[/strike]
• [strike]Make sure Kindle and camera battery are both charged[/strike]
• Check netbook still works okay
• Throw some clothes into suitcase
• Check whether Mr Minx needs me to bring out clean shirts
• Set alarm for 6am otherwise I'll miss my flight!

Getting through it, I think - off outside to do all the horsey bits. Missing my little black shadow, I have to say As Mick's been away, she's been sleeping on the bed with me every night, so it's very strange for her not to be here. That said, she greeted Sarah like a long-lost member of the family and was too busy investigating all the new sniffs to even say goodbye, so I'm sure she'll be fine for the week

cazmanian_minx

Hello from London! Got here yesterday afternoon, dumped my bags at the hotel and walked down to Oxford Street to try and find something to wear out last night. Thought it would be easy - go to Dorothy Perkins, find the three dresses I'd ordered online which didn't turn up in time, buy the one I liked most. Nope. They didn't have any of the dresses in the store and the four I tried on I didn't like enough to buy. I also failed to notice that my sock was rubbing on the way over until I had a large blister, so went to Boots for Germolene and plasters and then grabbed three random dresses in Primark so I could go and sit down in a changing room and apply first aid to my foot! Total shopping spend, £5-something in Boots and £4 on a scarf in Primark.

Fortunately I'd packed a skirt and top just in case (I know what I'm like about shopping!), so put my new scarf on over the top and headed out to The Piano Works where I had a fab evening with some friends. It's a great idea, it's a warehouse basement in Farringdon, there's a stage in the middle with two grand pianos on it and from 7pm there's live music, but the drinkers choose the music You write your request on a napkin, give it to the waitress and if the band knows it, they'll play it for you. There is some dodgy video footage on a friend's mobile of us all belting out Mustang Sally together, but thankfully the bribe was big enough and she says it came out too dark to go online Veggie burger and two enormous lemonade and limes (it's a cocktail bar, but I don't drink alcohol) - £14.50 plus a £3 tip.

I'm having a lazy morning watching Homes Under The Hammer and browsing the net (£3), so I'll stay here until they chuck me out at 12, then mosey on down to Gatwick and do a bit of shopping at South Terminal, as they have Fat Face and Joules there, which is a bit more me, though based on yesterday's spending, it may not be as expensive an exercise as it sounds!

No change to scores on the doors this week - will pay my Halifax card when I'm back next week.