Mrs McB's countdown to adventures with chooks (and Rock Gods)

Pippilongstocking

Hey up lovely - hope mr EH recovers fully!

Its certainly 'interesting' weather today.

DS likes to grow his hair between Dad visits (hence it looking rather unkept at wellyfest) even an occasion such as a wedding won't get it chopped - he likes to turn up at the farm and annoy his dad by having 'longer than a crew cut' hair which instantly gets his farmer-father twitching and seeking out the shears. Its tradition now

OK so dear readers I have a confession.

Today I bought a bag of logs. £4.50 from the supermarket (£6.99 from the local shops so you'll forgive me for not shopping local in this instance)

Its cold and miserable and the manny upstairs is on shifts and just got home a few hours ago, so I'm sure the noise of my saw won't be welcome, I'll some later to make sure they last. ts my own fault for not doing more earlier in the week and actually letting our baskets run dry. Silly mare that I am. Stick chopping is one of my most favourite jobs. What was I thinking.

I also bit the bullet and bought the 'smallest' type of loaf as bread with DS gone is now going off too quickly and when i remember I freeze in wee portions, even those are going over too quickly. 90p on a miniloaf of bread. What is the world coming too.

I'm out for a meeting in a wee while if the snow stops enough for me to be brave. My jobs changed quite a bit recently and I'll be dropping 1/2 a day (not worried too much about this as have plenty college work to do before I go) but the change of projects has me a bit unsettled. I'm sure it will sort itself out.

Must do the banks (wages banked yesterday) and update my expenses sheet as more spends today (paper/polypockets). Yesterday was stamps/envelopes and other stationary.

Must get a bit of motivation somehow - any going spare anywhere?

Hot choc brewing (well hot chocolate milkshake mix to be precise) best find those marshmallows too.

Excuse the moaning, we're happy, healthy and well fed, so I should button it

Karmacat

You're a bit lurgified, aren't you, Pippi, right now? I'd carry on "moaning", if I were you. And deffo buying logs when its this cold and windy for you, got to take care of yourself xxx

mum2one

hope all goes ok with the weather, u take care.

We've just had some rough winds, found DDs tramploine trying to escape through the fence to school! x

Pippilongstocking

M21 - eek I hope you told it off for trying to escape! And by all accounts the west of Scotland had it worst with winds of 143mph - we've been over 70 but not over 100. Friends from the west have really suffered but whilst buildings damaged, no people hurt, and that's such a blessing. So many floods/wind damage and some folk lost their lives, which is so hard to hear and many suffering. Its course, but we're safe and very lucky, luckier than some. Thoughts with them.

KC - the logs did me no favours - so windy the smoke filled the room constantly - had to dull the fire eventually. And, yup I'm a bit under weather but onlly the sniffles.

So - tomorrow is a team meeting in the sooth lands of Inverness. IF the plane goes - it didn't go today but the later flights got in.

We had a sneaky tea out (courtesy of mr rg) and had a nice chinese whilst dd waited for the performance of royal ballet (filmed show) at the local cinema. Concession ticket. RG did the driving, after my slippery afternoon (blizzards and gales are so awesome to drive in) my nerve had gone. I know not everyone has a p/t rock god, but I do appreciate my one very much.

In exciting news the wages are 'showing' but not cleared - gotta love cheques.

In more exciting news, we've made it through the month with 'money' in the bank and not had to really shuffle things before the wages landed.

Once they're clear I can pay a wadge off the cards.

Well that's the theory. You never know I might go crazy when I hit the 'heady metropolis and shops' tomorrow. But we all know, aside cheese, I'm not much of a shopper.



Sleep well - up early doors and oot the hoose before my eyelids will be open. Have a good un and enjoy your weekends!

I'm off - hooray!

What you guys upto?

Karmacat

Hope your flight *does* go, Pippi - some of the film of planes trying to land at Birmingham was fairly horrendous, but this storm seems to be really quick passing through, even though its apparently so big.

Hurray to the Royal Ballet! What did you see? I did ballet for hours and hours as a teenager, and all during my 20s I went at least once a month - managed to see Nureyev and Fontaine before she retired

Erm, nothing so exciting at the moment more a case of "if the winds and the floods made it to me (20 foot deep floods round near me ten years ago) what would I do?" Answer: hibernate upstairs :eek:

Pippilongstocking

Yawns - early doors here. Washings away, another load on, dogs fed (about to be walked) and I'm almost ready to rock.

What a difference a day makes. Still but snowy - we'll see what happens.

Everyone else in these lands are snoring.

KC - the Nutcracker a filmed performance of the Royal Ballet - was DD not me we were just the taxi.

Best get a wriggle on. Plenty cars a moving out there so life must be slowly coming back to normality.

A chilly day by the looks of it!

Have a good un!

Pippilongstocking

So not the day I expected.

Home again, fire started and I'm now parked for the day. After an early start I ended up not getting anywhere (indeed the flight is still delayed) and ended up on the recycling van instead, so my muscles have had a work out.

Needing to thaw out.

Pippilongstocking

Now - one of my bestest pals in the universe took out an IVA 5 years this month and they'll be free of the final payment in January.

I mind on fine that at the same time I added up my debts and scared myself to death, looked at the options and took advice on here and took lodgers etc and have also tackled my debts but in a different way. We both took the route that suited our personal situation.

I'm so proud of their efforts. Which made me think long and hard of what we had/hadn't acheived too.

And whilst we're far from perfect, I'm so proud of how far we've come in this relatively short (5 years is short right) space of time.

We both now have jobs for which we're grateful for
We both opted to do a bit more study some good, some (mine) not so good but we've learnt lots
We both have awesome families who often have gone without or less, but are well loved.
We both absolutely have each other.
We've both made some amazing friends on here and learn how to live within our means.

There's a lesson. Sometimes you have to look back to find out how far forward you've come. And sometimes a conversation with a friend who's just honest, helps more than all the advice in the universe.

I'm so proud of my friend and of our journey.

With that in mind I'm off to do banks and see what payments I can make, if any.

Karmacat

:kisses3:Aww, Pippi. How lovely. Tho sorry you've been delayed and got frozen - still, it sounds like you're counting your blessings

Pippilongstocking

OK so

I paid the WHOLE of my first expenses to the card.

Sit down.

£350.27

Dont forget the 27p



And now off to find out what I can pay to the other card from the other expenses and how much wages I can carve off.

Its good to have a focus - and see where the card tots up (work expenses) and why its not normally paid due to cash flow - which we've hopefully sorted out in my brain. I get paid well, but I'm always struggling with cash flow.

Meal plan needs adjusting due to eating out last night - more of a shoogle than a scream.



Off to check other bank.

And mind on, this month I've not used the CC's at all - so the expenses were all cash - making real headway with the card. But, we've had a 'not off island month' which always makes life a bit less squeaky.