Caz counts it down

cazmanian_minx

I am knackered after doing an overnight turnaround file. It was for a journalist in America who I've not worked for before (the job was arranged through Journalist #2's commissioning editor!) and was well worth it, because she's asked if I'd be happy to work for her directly and if she could pass my details on to other journalists Getting emails that say, "That's wonderful news that you'd be up for more transcribing in future - you were so thorough and efficient, it would be a joy to work with you again," really make my day

So that's an invoice for £48.67 winging its way over to them and I'm now bashing through a 63-minute file that I want to finish tonight so I can invoice for it on NEL's monthly invoice tomorrow 36 minutes done, 27 to go, so it should be okay as long as I can stay awake.

Tomorrow, along with all the invoicing, I need to go and get my COMPLETED decrofting application signed by SGRPID as representatives of the Scottish Ministers (i.e. my croft tenancy landlords) to say they've had visibility of it and will comment within 14 days if they wish to, then all I need to do is post it off and cross my fingers that the maps are acceptable.

cazmanian_minx

Invoicing done - £1,082.17 sent out and I'm waiting on one more file to come in before I can invoice the market research people for a project that's been going on since early December. That'll be another £300 or thereabouts and they pay on 2-week terms, so should hit my bank account before the end of the month as well.

Couldn't get the form signed today as the person who needs to do it is never in the office on Wednesdays (which would have been nice to know when I rang them yesterday to check whether I needed an appointment...), but they've given me a receipt for it and have said they'll post the signed page back to me so I can attach it to the copy going to the Crofting Commission.

EssexHebridean

It's all moving on then - notwithstanding annoying people not telling you that folk aren't going to be in! Good invoicing there, too! Great news that you've got a new journalist on board too - especially such an enthusiastic one!

Did you come across any particularly good resources on the subject of trying to cut back/cut out sugar? I'm finding a lot of information but not all of it that helpful. Current bee in bonnet is labels that helpfully tell you that a thing contains sugar but not what proportion of it is naturally occurring and what is added - refined - sugars! :mad:

cazmanian_minx

Over half the invoices paid already

The book that started me thinking about sugar in the first place was Zoe Harcombe's The Harcombe Diet and from there I went on to read John Yudkin - Pure, White and Deadly (which was first published in 1972!), and then Robert Lustig's Fat Chance and Gary Taubes' The Case Against Sugar, but those three are more about the science behind why sugar isn't great for us rather than anything practical. Try Harcombe though, and also Mark Sisson - The Primal Blueprint. You don't necessarily have to go full Paleo, but most Paleo recipes should be natural/no sugar.

cazmanian_minx

A nice start to the day - I turned a free £10 to use in a website's live casino into £55.50

cazmanian_minx

New line in the signature - after managing a sugar-free January and 31 consecutive days of yoga, I'm challenging myself to eat sugar on no more than 26 days this year and do some yoga every day.

The decrofting application has been posted off recorded delivery today and, even better, there's no fee for them to process it. (There would have been if the croft hadn't already been registered, as it would have had to be registered first before the application would have been considered). Fingers crossed it all goes through smoothly.

Other than that, not much happening. We dosed the sheep for fluke at the weekend and I found out that the vet will dispense just the amount I need, so rather than having to buy the smallest size of Flukiver available (2.5l) which would have expired before I could use it all, I came home with a little cannister with 250ml in it. As Mr Minx's brother was visiting, we thought penning them with three of us would be easy, particularly since they'll follow me in with a bucket when I need to catch a limping one, but they took one look at the race system Mr Minx and brother had set up with a couple of gates and went, 'You're flipping joking.'


We'd left Jack behind because he'd only had 5 short sessions on sheep and was prone to scattering them in all directions by going straight through them rather than around them, however 45 minutes and three knackered humans later, plus my neighbour being out and not able to come over with one of his dogs, I went and fetched Jack as a last resort, thinking that he could drive them and hold them fairly reliably and so could act as a blocker while we ran round the back of them if need be.

Well, that six-month-old puppy trotted into the field, lay down immediately when asked, stalked down to the corner where the sheep were and calmly moved them up along the line of the fence straight into the pen - all done in five minutes! He's definitely starting to earn his keep and it makes me a bit more forgiving when I come back from a quick trip to the post office and find the contents of the kitchen shelves scattered around the living room!

gallygirl

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: well done puppy :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

EssexHebridean

Excellent work Jack! (And I LOVE the galloping sheep!)

That's a good challenge on the sugar - it'll really make you think before you buy something as well - whether it's "worth" using one of your days on!

Verbatim

Amazing work by Jack. Is it instinct or had your training been a bit more detailed than you'd realised?

cazmanian_minx

Verbatim wrote: »

Amazing work by Jack. Is it instinct or had your training been a bit more detailed than you'd realised?

Both, really. He is bred from outstanding working lines, so that innate desire to herd things helps an awful lot, but without the guidance from me directing him when to put pressure on the sheep and when to back off, he'd just be moving them randomly around the field. Now his confidence is increasing, I'm getting him to stay on the opposite side of the sheep to me, so he's bringing them to me - previously he'd not wanted to be more than about 10 feet away from me, but on Tuesday I left him lying in the middle of the field, walked around and behind the sheep to the far corner and then asked him to come up slowly, and we ended up with 13 out of 14 standing around my legs (Number 14 had split away from the others and was watching suspiciously from the next field!) His inexperience really shows when he tries to move them by going up behind them and splits them instead - he stands in the middle, head whipping from side to side, trying to work out which lot to go after and then he looks at me with a sort of quizzical 'Help??' expression :rotfl: We'll get there

First card payment of the month made, £690 left to pay off now.