The Big Adventure

Goldiegirl

Hi Daisy:wave:

After you've worked full time for so long, its brilliant to have some extra time, especially when you can have time off together mid week - that felt like luxury!

There's been quite a lot of water under the bridge since I wrote that, so hopefully it'll be interesting for you! One of these days I'll re-read it all myself

newgirly

His goldiegirl, welcome back it's lovely to hear how you are doing

Sorry you have been suffering with anxiety this year, having a friend who you can talk to about it must be a big help.

Best wishes for 2018, have you any plans for any more travel?

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Hello, it was good to hear from you again. I hope that you have lots of great plans for 2018. I do hope that your anxiety doesn't stop you from making the most of your retirement as you have really earned a happy and relaxed time. X

Goldiegirl

Hi NG and Squirrel :wave: Good to hear from you both

Squirrel, you've hit the nail on the head there, I've become aware that this anxiety is having an adverse affect on my life. This is the time where I should be carefree, yet I'm weighing myself down needlessly. I need to break this cycle, Not easy, but at least I've faced up to it.

A very pleasant morning. We walked over to the local shopping centre. It's a 5 mile round walk, and we like to do this at least once a week. We used a couple of M&S premium club vouchers for coffee, then I bought a scarf in the M&S sale for a holiday in March. I also bought another sale scarf, just because I liked it! Then got some half price Christmas cards in Clintons. It was a beautiful day, amazing how the frost on the pavements was glittering in the sunlight.

This afternoon, we've completed our financial activity of the day - renewing Mr Goldie's Over 60 Railcard. That should be quite simple, but like so many things these days, there's always a bit of aggravation, and this was no exception. Mr Goldie paid for it with his M&S Mastercard, and the transaction was refused! In order to finish the transaction, I told him to use his Halifax Visa debitcard, which went through fine. So then he had to phone M&S Bank (took ages) who said it wasn't them with the problem, so they put him through to Mastercard, (took even longer). It turns out it was just a 'security check' probably because he rarely uses the card online.

This is the sort of small event which kicks off my anxiety, which then grows and grows. However, I'm doing my very best to be mindful, so I'm remaining calm. It's working for the time being!

In my next post, I'll give my plans for 2018, and in answer to NG, yes, there is some travel!

Goldiegirl

Plans for 2018

Basically, carry on with what I'm doing as it seems to work.

However, a few areas I intend to work on.

Financial. My budget is fairly 'loose', but this year I intend to reduce the amount I spend on food and household items like loo rolls and toiletries. Last year I averaged £228pm. I'm not giving myself a target, just 'less'. We now have a very conveniently placed Aldi store, so this should be very achievable.

Home. This year we'll be revamping the lounge and dining room. More than revamping really, almost starting from scratch. Our sofa, carpet and curtains are now 17 years old, and apart from the TV and DVD, everything else dates back to 1990, shortly after we moved here. I still like the furniture, but it's become tired and a bit dated, so we want something more contemporary. We've worked out a budget for this, and know how much we expect to spend. I'll be keeping records of expenditure as we go along and we'll be shopping mindfully to get the best value for our money.

Making Memories (Stole this idea from Greent) We have two cruises booked for 2018. One in March, to Norway 'In Search of the Northern Lights' and in September sailing to the USA and Canada (including New York, Boston and Quebec) Both cruises are long wished for on our bucket list, so really looking forward to them. We've also got a short hotel break booked in July, as we felt it was time to see more of the UK. We'll probably be busy in the spring and early summer with our decorating plans, but plan to have days out and a few coach trips in the summer

Health

This is a big priority for me in 2018. I've already spoken about my mental health, but my physical health will also be receiving attention too.

I mentioned that I'm gradually putting on weight each year. I will put it on record here that on 23rd December I weighed 11stone 8 and seven eights pounds - so call it 11 stone 9 lbs. As I'm 5ft 4ins tall, this is not good. I have no target weight loss - just to be less than this by this time next year.

My solution to both areas - walking!

When I walk I find it both calming and relaxing. When I go on cruises I normally lose weight as I walk much more every day, and I lost weight in October to November as I was being really good with the distances I was walking each day. I put on a pound and a half in December, as I hadn't walked nearly so much as the weather had been poor.

Therefore I'm going to do the Walk 1000 Miles in 2018 Challenge. Based on averages since July (when I got my new phone) my total for 2017 is approx 845 miles, so there's room for improvement. I hope to do more than the 1000, so I'll be really putting effort in to this.

So that's what I hope to achieve next year

Karmacat

Hi Goldie.

That sounds some good planning - both in spending less and travelling the same

I definitely agree about walking more - I'm not going to do any exercise classes, but from the New Year, if I'm at home for the day, I'm going to walk to my local little village, the long way round. I'm using the hospice shop as my goal - it's very big, and it has furniture in, and I'm strongly considering a more comfortable/better looking armchair and sofa.

Karmacat

With the cruises, it sounds like there's often a lot of extras to pay for - my sister noticed at least one where you could pay a daily amount to have any drinks on board, and it was £23 per day! Is that something you're familiar with? Not only is that way too much for me, but I don't want to be on show for every single drink I have - especially morning and evening, I'd want to be in the cabin. Is the tap water okay to drink? And are there tea making facilities, like in a hotel room?

We reckon we wouldn't always be going on the company's trips when calling at ports - we're both pretty good at finding ways and means of doing things, but there may be places where it's better to do that, if something is way out of the city, something like that. It's a whole new way of travel! I went on a school cruise when I was 14, and I'm sure things are a bit different

Goldiegirl

With the cruises, all the add ons are completely optional, and you don't have to spend much onboard at all to have a good time.

The drinks package you mention sounds like it might be with someone like Celebrity or Royal Caribbean. I've always had the impression that their drinks are quite expensive. Normally, we might have a cola from time to time at lunch, a glass of wine with dinner on some evenings, and sometimes a cocktail in the evening. We are not big drinkers, and at £23pppn we'd never get our money's worth! P&O don't do drinks packages at present, so we've always just paid for drinks when we buy them - the prices are comparable to UK pub prices, maybe a bit less.

In September on CMV, there was a drinks package at £17pppn, but we still felt that was too much for the amount we drink. However, in March we are with Fred Ilsen, and when we booked, the drinks package was a £10pppn, so we have booked it. We may have an extra glass or two, and we were comfortable that the price was ok for us.

The excursions are another thing which are entirely optional. Sometimes the ship docks in the centre of town, so only have to walk off the ship to be in the middle of everything. If the ship docks out of town, then there's often a shuttle bus into the town centre. It's often possible to take local buses or trains if you want to go further afield. Other times, due to distances and available time, a ships excursion works better. We normally do some ports ourselves and others as a coach trip from the ship. Ship excursions are expensive, so we are quite choosy about what we do. One advantage is that the ship waits if a cruise line excursion is late back - they might not wait for individuals who've been delayed!

We are currently looking at excursions for our cruise to Norway in March. They are terribly expensive, but Norway is an expensive country. I haven't yet totaled up the 'possibles' that we have selected, but we will almost certainly cut a few. Otherwise, I'm sure it would be over £1000, and that is a ludicrous amount of money!

Goldiegirl

BTW, was your first cruise on Uganda by any chance? <any people speak very fondly of Uganda.

I forgot to mention, tap water is perfectly fine. P&O provide a couple of free small bottles of mineral water in each cabin, Once we have drunk them, we fill them up with tap water and take them ashore for when we are walking round the town.

If you sail from a UK port, nearly all ships have a kettle in the cabin, as British passengers insist on it. Its just like a hotel, with tea bags and coffee sachets, and small milk cartons. You can also go to the buffet to make yourself a tea or coffee at any time of the day or night. If you want sometime like a latte from the bar, that would be chargeable.

atypicalblonde

Hi GG, we are going on our first cruise in the summer holidays and I am really looking forward to it. Prior to this, our holidays with the kiddies have all been self-catered (which is basically not a holiday for me!) so I am looking forward to having no work to do on holiday and for there being a kids club!

We sail from Southampton, so am hoping there is a kettle in the room. I have a feeling we may be cruise converts after this trip! x