Breaking Through, Travelling On

Karmacat

Good evening lovely people! It was amazing to finish work yesterday and think, "thats the last Christmas I'll do that" :j It was very intense, so I did nothing at all the rest of the day except finish my Buffy Season 3 DVD set

This morning, I did the banking, very necessary, lots of cheques to go in, once they're cleared I'll put some of them into the savings account :j I got a bit blown about and soaked as well into the bargain - but my timing was brilliant for avoiding the crowds, as I'd planned, and the storm helped that too :rotfl:

A bit of Christmas treating has been going on - I dehydrated some grapes when I first bought the dehydrator, and they've been sitting in the fridge very happily. In a spirit of decluttering, I decluttered the last third of a miniature bottle of whisky over them, to rehydrate them, and had a very pleasant dessert tonight :j it was yummy!

A bag of stuff has gone to the charity shop, some of which can act as stocking filler gifts, I hope it goes quickly, and a bit of frozen food shopping done. I may actually do some cooking tomorrow! It's been a very relaxed day today, after finishing work and then the early trip to the shops, I needed it quiet. Its been lovely. Off for a trip around the boards now.

Karmacat

1 – 3: Carrying On

In the house: decluttering, tidying, cleaning, selling.

Outside space: pruning, weeding, soil improvement, planting.

Blogging: four a month, between cats and the other one.


4 - 9: ADDING

Fitness and beauty routine, in time for family wedding in May.

Outside repairs: fences, fence painting, patio repair, cut back cherry laurel.

Finances.
1 transfer from stocks to cash.
2 best rates on existing cash.
3 tax free declaration.
4 new sources such as matched betting, P2P lending.

Cat designs

Freebies to give away on the blogs: one on garlic, one on the ten plants that cats like. Use them to encourage signup to email list.

Kitchen: simple recipes, dehydrator, foraging and garden produce.


10 - 15: BIG NEW PROJECTS

RETIRE

Writing the novel

Writing for hire (elance and wotnot)

Local groups to socialise: walking, writing, genealogy, library groups, open houses.

September: declutter work stuff straight away, Norfolk holiday, then back to Merseyside with mum.

Upgrading house for me/selling/renting: replaster, paint, rest of double glazing, new radiators.

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, a cracking list there! :j and I hadn't thought about it being the last Christmas you'd have this flurry of work ending but of course! What fun, and what adventures you have planned. Can't wait to hear about your fitness and beauty regime (and other things too of course) - can you divulge your plans?

Karmacat

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Ooh, a cracking list there! :j and I hadn't thought about it being the last Christmas you'd have this flurry of work ending but of course!

Thanks Cheery! My sister is retiring in July, and she keeps saying "last carol service", "last autumn half term", all sorts of things, so I've caught the bug from her and it was very present in my mind as I waved off the last client on Monday :j

What fun, and what adventures you have planned.

Absolutely! A lot of my in-person life is put on hold at the moment, because of energy issues anyway, and also because of what even an ordinary lurgy would let me in for if I got one, let alone the flu :eek: so there's a lot of catching up to be done - my business partner, his wife, a couple of friends in London, one in Devon, a few others who are new, and rellies all over the country, interests that just need time and patience like the genealogy, getting *properly* fit again, all sorts of things.

Can't wait to hear about your fitness and beauty regime (and other things too of course) - can you divulge your plans?

I thought my plans weren't very detailed yet, but it turns out they are I need to go a hairdresser for a restyle, for the first time in about 3 years (since the last family wedding, in fact :eek:), no need to just tie it back any more, and I'll dye my hair after that too - need to buck my ideas up to wear that dress properly! Toning a few muscles will help too - the core, as they say on Strictly, to help me fit in the dress properly (my waist!!!) and avoid back pain problems, which are the normal and which have the normal solution - more activity, stronger muscles.

My skin needs help as well - using all my Liz Earle very gentle exfoliator might help, and I've got a lot of little skin blemishes that can be lasered - I used to get it done once a year when I had money

The year after - cat sitting :j:j:j

Goldiegirl

Brilliant plan, and great to build on what you do already. Loving 'retirement' as a big new project - the biggest project of all

Watty1

Love it - 2016 will be here soon.

Karmacat

It really will, won't it - I can't wait. Well, I can - I have to, temporal issues being what they are

I filled a whole bin bag with weeds yesterday (mostly long grass!) which was a bit shocking :rotfl: and even popped into town to check out the half price Xmas cards in BHF, but it was too busy to mooch about, so I came back and vegged out instead :j

Today, hmm:
- online banking.
- cook beans that I soaked overnight.
- officially clean the kitchen windowsill by moving the aloe vera plants, its **disgusting** - I'm not even going to say *how* its disgusting, because it really is, but I don't like to look at that one more day :eek:

I feel like I want to do something productive today, but I'm really not sure what. I might even fill another *little* bag of garden waste, that would be really helpful in the greater scheme of things.

But I may have to break into my gluten free Christmas cake instead

elantan

I'm really loving this planning going on KC ... it's giving me much food for thought tbh


Thank you xxxx

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Lovely to read all your plans

Very best wishes Tilly x x x

[Deleted User]

I do so love your retirement planning, KC:T. I really wish I'd done more of it myself and not sort of sleep walked into mine:o

Your mention of hair dying has reminded me of a never-ending quandary about my hair:eek:. It grows lightning fast and I need to touch up the roots at least every 4 weeks. Not only is it a constant expense which I really can't justify but I worry about the years of chemicals that have been applied to my hair:eek:

I now have a grey/white tidemark at the roots of about an inch and a half and it looks ghastly:o. So, do I bite the bullet and stop the dye, have my hair cut really short (it is in desperate need of a cut anyway) so losing a lot of the dark hair? If I maintain the new short style by having a trim every 6 weeks or so the dyed bits will have disappeared completely by this time next year:j

I have a problem in that I don't like having short hair, I haven't had it like that for over 20 years. It's going to look bad for a long time before it starts looking good (if ever) but anything will be better than it looks at this moment. Just looked in the mirror and gave myself a shock:eek:

The other problem is that I don't want to be grey:o. Well, I am of course, underneath but until recently I've managed to get away with people not knowing. I'm reasonably youthful-looking otherwise and dread looking in the mirror and seeing a little old lady:o. This thought embarrasses me as I know lots of people of my age with grey hair and they look fine and obviously aren't obsessing about it like I am.

I mentioned it to a hairdresser once and her suggestion to the tidemark effect would be to keep it trimmed short and have silver highlights/lowlights put in every few weeks to lessen the blow as the darker hair grows out. Problem is, I can't afford that:eek:. I'm not vain in any other way, just the opposite in fact, so I'm ashamed of myself going on about my hair:o:o:o


Wishing you, KC, and all your followers a really memorable Christmas doing whatever makes you happy. Thanks for all the fun and chat this year:T. Sending big hugs to anyone who needs a bit of comfort at a time which can be difficult for many.

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