Breaking Through, Travelling On

Karmacat

Thanks CBC! Excellent image of your OH squirming in and out of the cat flap, sorry The weather here is just finishing off the stormy stuff - we'll be able to sleep, and I really hope you can too.

The only lottery I do is the freepostcodelottery I still don't fancy my chances at it, but at least I don't lose anything. My sister does a lottery syndicate at work, I think ... hope is all! Congratulations on your win, thats a nice size.

The shoes thing is so interesting :j I was on ebay checking out the selling situation, and the adverts kept offering me Schuh shoes - white leather with a 3" heel, beautiful, and a strap, total £9 finishing in three and a half hours - and its my size too! I don't need to rush the shoes though ... dresses are one thing, but shoes, I can afford to wait, especially as I want self coloured, not the beauteous other types that greent showed us

Just done a yougov survey - 10% of the way to the next one, I might as well keep it up now - and a bit of pruning of sedge, grass, heather and strawberries around my lovely creeping oregano, which I'm determined to harvest next year.

Plus I finished that blog post, not posted yet, but I will :j

Even more cleaning done - a lot for me, but not much for anybody else I wish I'd made time to make some sweetie things to eat, but I didn't, and part of me thinks the sugar wouldn't help my immune system either ... really hope these stress snuffles don't let the virus get me ...

Goldiegirl

Talk about retirement as much as you want. It's a bit like a holiday, as the anticipation is all part of the fun. But it's so much better than a holiday as it goes on for a lot longer!

Karmacat

Oh that sounds blissful! Thanks Goldie!

We've already decided, mostly because of the weddings, that we're not going to do our Norfolk thing until September next year, and skip July altogether. Then I'll probably return to Merseyside with my mum, I owe her a *lot* of visits, she's been so good about me not being able to travel. I'll be freshly retired then!

beanielou

I have just taken off duvet cover & am now cream crackered!!!
It is your dairy & your retirement

Karmacat

Aww, thank you beanie! I'm not wishing my life away, as the saying goes, but I *am* trying to do things now so that I can move into retirement gear straight away plus in stressful times like this morning, the thought of retirement is a lifesaver.

Karmacat

Morning! And by the way, this is week 39 in the retirement countdown :j

Yesterday wasn't bad at all - I dropped off the webuybooks parcel at the local MyHermes, which is very close thank heavens, did the banking and managed to do about 45 mins gardening, clearing ground still for garlic planting which I aim to do this weekend. I was supposed to have an hour's work yesterday, but after all the preparation for it (which takes 30 mins) found out it had been cancelled, which took another half hour to clear up - hopefully there'll be no arguing about payment ... am definitely getting a bit ill with the stress of it all ramping up - I can't do this job *and* live in the UK in winter. Getting out into the garden to do the weeding helps, so I plan to do a lot of that.

It's my long day today so the countdown is extra important. And I faffed about in my diary, made a list of 30 items that need to be done before the New Year. Some are little, a single phone call; some are bigger, like Christmas cards, or scrubbing the mould from the gloryhole by the back door that I've been working on. Thirty is a nice round number, and there are quite a few that should be able to be combined in one day.

Ten minutes off around the diaries :j:j:j

Karmacat

My day has gone spectacularly well :j:j:j I put a lot of hours into working on the problem I was having, and it's paid off in spades. Am very happy

I only got ten minutes gardening done, before it was too dark to see what I was digging up but I did manage to check online banking, see that all was well after I put the cheques in yesterday, and it was, hurray. That's 1/30 on my list, but I put another one on the end, a Natwest Regular Saver, since two compatriots on here have both mentioned it today :money::money::money: so now 31 on my list

Some of my JL parcels were delivered (I'm getting really used to them being dropped over the side gate to sit by the back door :eek: I used to kick up such a fuss about it!).

All's Well That Ends Well. Billy boy really knew his stuff

Cheery_Daff

Glad your day went well :j :j Quite excited to watch your progress through your list

earthgirl

Glad you are making progress, great feeling to tick things off your list!

Karmacat

Thank you both! Since the banking check was on my list too, and I've also just collected my 3rd optional wedding-guest dress plus sent some links to someone, I'm up to 3/31 on the list :j

Countdown to retirement has gone slightly squiffy - I'm going to work on Monday 21st, which hasn't previously been counted in the countdown, but I don't work 5 days a week anyway, so I'm going to squeeze it into the prior week, which is week 37 there's 3 hours of full-rate work there, too much to leave on the table, and as I'm not going to my mum's, I might as well do that one extra day before I pack up for the holibobs.

D/w and w/m have both been on, I'm preparing for a piece of work at 1.30, and later on I'll post a combined ta-da and to-do list to keep myself up to date Gardening and a letter to be written are favourites at the moment from the to do list.

Laters!