The Ultimate Incentive part 10. The only thing holding you back is you.

wendz86

Afternoon,
Had a nightmare trying to get a train this morning so have ended up not going in as manager said i could take day off for half a day holiday if i wanted and i didn't fancy having a nightmare getting back again as trains are still disrupted.
Yay for getting mcbusted tickets Birdie! That is rubbish about your bonus .
Shrimpy - hope you are feeling better today.
Cinny - love the jumper!

shrimpy_80

Morning all, am feeling better today thanks ladies but still a bit weird. I think I just need to man up!

Cinny, that jumper is outstanding! I have a similar one featuring cats in pink glasses. I do love a good animal based jumper!

Great work on the tickets Birdie! I've totally lost track of time, when is munchkin due? I'm thinking February but am I confused?

Hope you enjoyed your half day in the end Wendz, I think the public transport system in London is great compared to the rest of the country but so overloaded, when something goes wrong its a nightmare! What was the problem yesterday?

Dinah93

What on earth is a McBusted? Work blocked the link so I can't see through but it sounds like the new super XXL McDonald's meal.

Potentially an expensive day today - both cars are in for an MOT and service. My truck which I expected to go through no issues was up first and already failed, a bulb, a filter (no problems really, less than £30 combined) but then the shock absorber is leaking so that's another £98 but it can't be done today. NIM is calling other garages see if he can get a better price.

NIMs car is up this afternoon, since it's only worth about £650 now it's a knife edge how much is worth doing. It already cost us £59 yesterday as the oil filter had a hole in it so we had to replace that and all the oil. The gear box on that car is shocking, and it's not overly economical, so if it does fail it'll be for the scrap man, and then we'll need to rouse a few hundred to buy him an economical but old diesel.

Now he's got the new job we can't get away with one car, a train ticket to his new job costs £38 a day, and takes two and a half hours. while I get the train to work most of the time I do need the car for site visits one day a week, plus picking up Grace from mum and dads after work on an evening.

On the plus side I did get a groupon to the garage I usually use for the MOts with a half price service and free valet (£20 for each MOt and valet, another £79 for my service and £59 for his) so at least I saved a little on it all.

Lara44 wrote: »

Aww super congrats to NIM!!! :j :j :j

Hugs for the hard times, Dinah. It's a horrible feeling when you have worked hard and just get knackered and want to give up. Still, look at all the things you have achieved since we've been nattering away together on this thread. From the initial NIM romance to having a beautiful wedding and honeymoon, buying a lovely house and redoing it, to heading off to New York, to Grace being born. So much good

You have really had a tough few years and I really hope you can end the financial uncertainty soon. It is definitely tough waiting to hear about redundancy and I wish they weren't dragging it out for you all. Chin up though, you and NIM can manage if the worst happens, now he's got his new job. As tempting as it is to tell them to shove it, you'd be forfeiting redundancy money that you deserve. Don't give them the satisfaction! It's not good to be in a bad workplace for too long, but it's just a few weeks to Christmas, so be great to hang in there.

You should deffo jettison the housework, who needs a clean house when you've got a happy home. There'll always be a few days to tidy up during the Christmas break. Sometimes we need to let it all go and find pleasure in the small stuff, like nice dinners at home together even if they are interspersed with ebaying. You have come so close with the debt. Would an SOA help?

Thanks for this post Lara, it made me smile, you're so sweet. I can keep perspective most of the time, worse things happen all the time and we should o!!!! our blessings, heck, worse things have happened to us within the last 18 months, but somedays you just want to scream that this isn't what you signed up for.

Birdie85 wrote: »

We're only seeing them in the morning though as it's the year for the 'other' families to have us for lunch, I never seem to get quite so excited about the odd numbered years as I do the evens!

Birdie, just think, next year is an even year and the first one with the baby - you timed it well and you can be super excited for that one.

Really excited for Christmas, have gotten far too many presents for Grace so some have been put away for her birthday. She actually has very few toys really, and she's at the stage where she's outgrown most of the ones she has as all we've got her since she turned one is a bag of playfood (£1.20 on ebay for a huge ammount) and a second hand swing set (which she loves but its not really an all day thing in this weather. Another ebay bargain at £20), so I don't think we've gone mad. I have done a book advent calendar though as she LOVES reading, both us reading to her and her sitting leafing through books, so cute.

Finally heard back from my phone (did I mention it? Had it 5 weeks, the screen stopped working, EE said it was my fault as it had hundreds of hairline cracks on the screen behind the glass? I kicked off because I hadn't dropped it so as far as I'm concerned it was a manufacturing fault/phone not fit for purpose). Anyway, I got a text to say it's gone to the repair centre. As I didn't authorise a repair or pay £128 I have to assume they've decided it's covered by the warranty now having realised there are no signs I dropped it.

NIM starts work Tuesday, so excited to have 2 full wages coming in again (even if it will only be for 4 months). Should find out about my redundancy on the 6th January now.

Birdie85

How can you not know what 'a' McBusted is?! McFly and Busted (minus old Charlie Eyebrows who's way too cool for all that) are going on tour together. Super exciteamondo! :j

Munchkin is due on February 10th Shrimpy. Got my maternity leave confirmation through the other day so I'm officially starting leave on the 3rd Feb but taking 2 weeks holiday before so my last day is 17th January! So excited!

Hope the MOTs don't bring any more unpleasant surprises! I hate MOT day!

Book advent calendar for Gracie sounds lovely! I want to do that with our little dude, just hope he loves books as much as we do!

Very frustrating about the phone but good that they seem to have accepted responsibility and are fixing it! Just hope it works after this!

Hope NIM gets on well at the new job. Will be lovely having another proper wage once more, just in time for Christmas too!

wendz86

You must be looking forward to NIM starting the new job Dinah! Hope the MOT's aren't too expensive.

Love the book idea. I still need to make Poppy advent calander. Was going to do it with felt but they only have small bits in hobbycraft so trying to find some online. They have been having quite a few bargain kids books on Amazon if you haven't got them already.

So exciting about maternity leave Birdie, won't be long after christmas. Will fly by!

Shrimpy - a line fell down on an early train and hit the window (some of OH's colleagues were on the train and had to walk down the track). They cancelled half the trains and some were making additional stops but they kept driving past my station as platform was too short! Ended up doing some cleaning and chilling watching tv which was nice!

archersluck

I got tickets too Birdie, very excited! Where are you seeing them? I'm heading down to Newcastle for it but I don't think that's on the Friday. I've got the friend I'm going with for secret santa so wondering if there's anything related I can buy, wonder if Busted did tshirts back in the day

Fingers crossed for MOTs Dinah x

shrimpy_80

Archers if you look on eBay I bet you'll find tons of cool retro Busted stuff!

Ah Birdie that is so soon! Exciting times.

Hope the MOTs aren't too bad Dinah. My car failed too, cost £250 to fix and the car only cost £350 to buy so I was a bit put out, but couldn't afford to scrap it and buy anything better so figured I may as well. Stupid cars. Great news on NIM starting work soon too, will he get any pay in November or will it all come in December? OH had an interview this afternoon, really hoping it went well as he's getting a bit disheartened now.

Cinny91

Dinah93 wrote: »

What on earth is a McBusted? Work blocked the link so I can't see through but it sounds like the new super XXL McDonald's meal.

I wish! How awesome does that sound? They could put freakin' nachos on it and they could make special McBusted glasses and you have to collect them all like Pokemon. And when you have them all you can send off little tokens to McDonalds, and they'll send you a stress ball with the face of Charlie on it, and you can throw it at the wall yelling "TOO GOOD FOR BUSTED EHY." Or, something like that.

Hope the MOTs were okay! I get the feeling with the MOT costs v what the car is worth. My little Freddie is only worth about £450, but his MOT was £180 ish :eek: I just try and think, maybe next year they won't be so bad

Did anyone see Dont Tell the Bride this week? The Bride's dream place was Ripley Castle and I kept whispering to OH "i've been there" everytime it was mentioned :cool:

Anyone have any nice plans for the weekend? We're just doing work on the new house Have two rooms painted and ready for the carpet, but the moving in date has been pushed into January as we've decided to turn the old coal shed into a proper utility room with a little radiator rather than just cleaning and white washing the bricks so still so much to do!

Birdie85

Mmmm I'm so hungry for a McBusted meal! I'm on board with the Charlie stress ball too! OH keeps asking WHY is it happening and I'm getting bored of explaining the emotional link between both the bands themselves and the fans with the bands. I loved a bit of Busted and McFly filled the space in my heart when they split. It's the same for loads of people I'm sure, and there's the whole friendship between them anyway and it'll be super awesome fun for them. OH just thinks in £££ though and says that 'Surely McFly aren't so desperate to be lowering themselves to Busted's level', he can't understand that it'll be a bit of fun and that they're doing it because they can afford to take some time off to tour with them! I'm seeing them in Manchester Archers.

I've seen that DTTB before Cinny and got all excited about them going to Ripley!

So much going on with the house move, hope it's all finished and lovely in time for you to move in!

Cinny91

You're right, McFly came along perfectly afterwards and made everything nice again I heard they actually bought Charlie out of his part of Busted, or something? I guess he has spent years trying to carve a name for himself after Busted so going back wouldn't make sense.. Didn't like him anyway McFly are just straight up lovely and that's all you can say about them :cool:

I hope it is too! Will have to do an updated house picture tour doodah I keep taking Ryder with me in the afternoon when I go to do some work there, and yesterday he kept on circling my ladder making whimpering noises like he was worried for me. It was cute but I was so nervous he was going to knock my ladder and send me plus the paint flying