Building The Burrow!

Pearla*Merle

Fabulous day yesterday - went into London Town to meet a moneysaving chum and see another GILT show (£20 for amazing seats at the ballet! Chuffed). Once again remembered to take munchies for the interval. :money:

Padded out the day by doing a tour of the National Gallery (free! And not too busy, plus I got to see some classic Van Goghs/Turners/Holbeins etc at last! Loved it). Also wandered the West End checking out Lumiere (also free! Really worth going if you can, it's on tonight as well). The huge goldfish at Piccadilly Circus were amazing and Garden of Light in Leicester Square was jawdropping stuff. Again, not nearly as busy as I thought it would be (especially for a Saturday night). Love free art.

One thing I really, really need to get better at is leaving the house earlier. If I plan any other London days then I need to get up sharpish and just head in (& worry about the where to go/what to do while I'm on the train - there's always something free and interesting to go to, I shoudnt have any trouble once I'm actually on the move).

Must implement this in other areas of life too i.e. get off sofa and just get started on To Do list.

Anyway, in a nutshell: doing really well at creating cheap & cheerful days out. Hoping to really up my game as the weather improves eg. lots of walking around the city, free museums, taking packed lunches etc.

Might be a while though... snowing here today / depending on your perspective. :rotfl:

Pearla*Merle

Very productive day thus far! (Am planning to curl up on the sofa and do much reading of a book for the rest of the afternoon though ).

Scoped out some more theatre I want to see, booking opens tomorrow so I'm primed and ready to nab a few cheap seats. :T

Laundry done; some presents for various birthdays bought; remembered to renew library books so I don't need to rush to return them the day after we get back; remembered to top up my travel card for the bus (instead of last 24 hour will-it-actually-be-on-card-I-have-no-cash-on-me panic).

:www: MFW Wonderment: £20 amazon voucher claimed from BetterPoints (have about £70 in vouchers now which will be used for presents this year :j).

Tried to sort out a CC but online banking down, grr. Actually maybe for the best as I've just read up some more on reducing CC limits and keeping it higher might be better in the long run. :think: Cancelled a different, unused, CC.

Applied for a nifty sounding job (don't know how I managed it as their website was so useless and almost cried trying to organise and upload CV but won out in the end :T).

:coffee: Simple Pleasures: saw a grey wagtail! It's the first time I've seen one down here. And he was really close as well, lovely.

:heartsmil Burrow Building: Hoping some of the actions I've taken today means some major things have been sorted and I can start to really get going on sorting out the remaining things that need dealing with in the house.

Am feeling much better in myself generally now I've a) got a plan of action for moving forward with job and b) health-matters have improved - loose ends are starting to be properly tied up for once and life is moving forwards in a much more normal way again. Ultimately that makes for a much more happy home. :T

Pearla*Merle

Found my transition specs AND my sunglasses - both had been carelessly lost in the abyss of clutter and I was at Major Panic Stations. :eek: Got passport, got sandals. Think I'm set?

Another Amazon voucher arrived, this time from TCB - £2.80 :T

Reading book didn't happen, kept finding things to do.

apple_muncher

You are set to go! (unless your destination is Alaska...)

Have a supremely wonderful time together x

Pearla*Merle

:rotfl: Decided against Alaska this time

Just two sleeps to go! :T And I've finally ticked off all the major tasks that needed doing before going. :j Serious sit down and cup of tea (and MSE meander) time now.

Tax return done. First time I've done it online, hope it's all ok...!

Popped into a Charity Shop, found a work jacket for only £4.49, chuffed as it's a practically new swish-looking Next one. Plus it's petite (so hard to find petite stuff and I really need to have petite jackets etc as am tiny). Love the fact that I can use it as a general jacket, not just work one (obviously don't want to invest in work clothes if work is about to change).

Might have bought some more theatre tickets. Though paid for with Christmas gift money. :j

Have remembered last minute that I wanted to get fancy noise-cancelling headphones for the flight, thankfully Mr M has Amzn Prime so I can get them by tomorrow. Bit of an investment (£40!) but if they save me from feeling shocking (I tend to react badly to noise/vibrations of plane and it's a long flight), it'll be worth it. We're only away for a week so don't want to loose time feeling queasy from travelling. Plus a few more long journeys are on the horizon so they'll pay for themselves in no time.


:www: MFW Wonderment: decided on new plan of action to make next years tax form filling in much easier! Plus need to keep on top of it if I want to earn extra by upping my game self-employed wise (i.e. don't want to be frightened off making loads of extra cash by complicated tax affairs!).

:coffee: Simple Pleasures: went the most gorgeous 4 mile, frosty walk today! Thought I'd left the house at 12.30pm, so took a large detour back as it was only 1pm when I turned to walk back home but when I got in I realised I'd actually left at 11.30am. :rotfl: Really didn't mean to walk that far. (It was the charity shop stops that got me confused ).

Home to hot tea, yummy spinach tortillas for lunch and then finally watched Gypsy which has been taped since Christmas. (Nice soundtrack to Tax Return too ).

:heartsmil Burrow Building: quite excited that the living room is looking quite clear again. Might try and get started on my yoga again later. And maybe a bit of dancing about with my dumbbells! Feeling quite motived after hitting my 10k step target so early in the day :rotfl:

misscousinitt

Hope you have a happy holiday PM!

MCI x

greent

Hope you've been having a fab time away


xx

Pearla*Merle

Hello!

Had an utterly fab holiday, got back at the weekend and have just about recovered from the jet lag - but not the severe lack of sunshine and palm trees (or whatever bug this is I picked up on the flight back waaahh).

Big news here is that a certain someone finally popped the question! :T :happylove :j

It was a complete shock, despite the fact we've lived together for five years. :rotfl:

So now to hit pinterest and plan the ultimate DIY/RocknRoll Bride-esque wedding. :dance: All hints, tips and ideas gratefully received - we're going to have more of a simple, fun party than a full-blown traditional affair and I'm going nowhere near those vaguely soul-destroying/debt-triggering mad magazines/websites etc you see around, so I need all the cute, quirky and cheap ideas I can get.

So not much moneysaving news to report: Managed to refill a water bottle rather than buy drinks while we were away which saved a few bob and that's about it! Oh actually - £7.8something from TCB came through.

In other happy news, finally hit over 100k steps in a week! Sadly all my good work has been undone due to my new virus-related status of Sofa Barnacle. Hey ho! At least I can occupy myself with pinterest... :rotfl:

apple_muncher

:j:j:j CONGRATULATIONS!!!! :j:j:j

Soooooooooooo pleased for you both xx

greent

:heartpuls :heart2::heartsmil:happylove:smileyhea:heart::beer::j:T
Yeay!!! Congratulations on the fantastic news!!!!




xxx