The Big Adventure

Goldiegirl

My dad used to tell stories about the war, but he'd only ones that were funny or absurd. He never spoke about the other side of it, and from reading that book, it seemed like a desperate situation. Then trying to get home in territory that was controlled by the enemy, it must have been awful. He was only 22 at the time.

I think anything that happened before we were born seems distant, yet these events were happening just 20 years before I was born.

These days, 1995 seems like yesterday, so it's not long at all really.

The records will take months to come through, assuming they can be found. But I hope they can find them, as I'd like to try to find out more.

Goldiegirl

Had a really lovely day today.

We went to Margate on the train, looked in the Turner Contemporary gallery and walked along to Cliftonville, scene of childhood holidays nearly 50 years ago :eek:. There were changes, but I was able to recognise things, and I could pick out where our rented beach hut used to be situated. We had a packed lunch which we ate sitting on various benches during the day. Also had a coffee at the gallery.

It was fantastic warm sunny weather, just like high summer.

This is the sort of day I've been waiting to have since we stopped work, hopefully there'll be some more to follow.

After a small kerfuffle and emails, I managed to activate Meerkat Movies:j So we now have a year of 2 for 1 films.

We've been quite busy in the garden for the last few days, getting the fences painted. We've got our man calling on Friday to have a look at the fence at the top of the garden, to give an estimate for replacing this.

We have ordered some mortar so we can tidy all the gaps that have appeared on the patio between the slabs.

We seems to have quite a few small jobs to do - I think we've probably put them off over the last few years, but now is the perfect time to get things sorted.

I've bought the John Lewis home and contents insurance that I got quoted for last week, saving over £200 on the renewal from the current insurer. The level of cover is exactly the same, so I haven't had to cut any corners.

eBay going well, 4 more things sold last night, and posted this morning.

All in all, generally jogging along nicely:)

Karmacat

How lovely!

John Lewis insurance too - that won't be cutting any corners, thats great.

Goldiegirl

Although I like to look for better deals, it has to be a provider I'm comfortable with, and I'm very comfortable with JL.


6 eBay sales today, mostly the nautical collectables I'm offloading.

I've slowed down with the rate of decluttering, but I expect it'll pick up again when I'm in the mood.

We've applied for a Tesco current account each, for the interest rate. They don't tell you if you've been accepted immediately, so we are waiting for hear. I never used to worry about being accepted for any financial product, but now my income has dropped, I'm not so confident. We shall see.

We have friends coming for lunch tomorrow. The female half of the couple doesn't eat meat. I usually do some sort of salmon meal for them, but this time I've invested in M&S mushroom en croute. Slightly more salt than I'd like, but a one off shouldn't do too much harm.

Karmacat

I'm sure they'll accept you Goldie - M&S just accepted me for a credit card!

Have a lovely time with your friends.

CathT

Great decluttering and eBay sales Goldie.

Goldiegirl

Karmacat wrote: »

I'm sure they'll accept you Goldie - M&S just accepted me for a credit card!

Have a lovely time with your friends.

I'm encouraged - M&S are in my sights for a current account later this year so I can so a switch and get the reward, plus access to the high interest monthly saver

Had a nice day with our friends, and the mushroom en croute was lovely. I'm now drinking copious amounts of water to mitigate the additional salt I've consumed!

Goldiegirl

Bluefire wrote: »

I've not long been accepted for a Tesco current account & my income is under £500 most months, so fingers crossed for you!

The fingers crossed worked, I had a text this morning from Tesco saying that they are sending the offer documents, so it looks like I've been accepted! :j


That's my good news, but I'm generally in a bit of a funny mood at the moment.


I'm feeling very bogged down by 'stuff'. All the things that I'm tried to get sorted out seem to take sooo long to resolve. For example, two weeks ago today I sent off all our R85's for gross interest. So far, only Santander and TSB have confirmed that they've actioned our request.


We've had a couple of letters from Halifax, confirming two accounts have been done, but we have several other Halifax accounts which I'm still waiting to hear about.


From Nationwide and Sainsbury's Bank I've heard nothing.


So I'll have to start chasing soon to find out if everything has been sorted.


I've been waiting for Mr Goldie's P60 from his pension provider, so I can check his tax for last year, as I'm sure he'll get a refund. I'm sure they don't usually leave it this late, so I can't crack on with this task.


Mr Goldie's pension has been paid today. As the tax allowance has gone up this month, he should no longer pay any tax on his pension.... but the amount is the same as last month, so I don't think HMRC have told them his new code.


It's just all niggly stuff like this - I'm a bit fed up that I'm allowing myself to feel so bogged down, when this should be a carefree time.:(


The trouble with me is that I'm a perfectionist, control freak, who's worked in finance all her life, and know too much about how things can go wrong.


I wish I wasn't like this, but I can't help who I am, and I know I won't rest properly until everything is sorted out to my liking!


Also, I notice they've rolled out the new forum, which hasn't improved my mood! At least I got the old forum back when I logged in. Sometimes, I have a browse without logging in, that will have to stop, as I loathe the new look!


Anyway, sorry to moan, but felt the need to have a vent!


I'm going to sit in the garden for a while, hopefully that will perk me up

Karmacat

I've got the old forum back too, goldie - heaven only knows for how long!

As for feeling bogged down - thats a shame! I wonder if you can say, I'm only going to do 90 minutes *ever*, each day, on finance admin, anything else gets rolled over to the next day, something like that? Because it could go on endlessly and you *know* you're not the one who calls the tune on timing!

I'm glad Tesco saw sense and accepted you

Goldiegirl

That's better - it's very restorative having a read in the garden.

As for stuff - it all gets done in the end.