The Big Adventure

Goldiegirl

Hi Bookworm, good to see you

Hi Karma, we really enjoyed our little breaks, and there is such a range of properties available, something for all tastes.  I was sorry to hear that you caught Covid.  It's been quite a problem on the cruise ships. However hard people tried to avoid it, they still caught it. Not really sure what that the answer is and whether the enjoyment of the cruise outweighs the potential risks.  Although I understand life on board is  now more or less like it was pre-2020, and although people are still supposed to quarantine if they catch it, a lot don't bother any more.  Its a conundrum!

I thought of a couple of other points for 2022

For the last few years, I've been paying voluntary National insurance, to increase my projected state pension to the amount of the full amount of the new state pension.  I've now achieved this, so all I need to do is wait until I'm 66, to get the full amount paid to me.  Although this is another 3 years!

I still did some eBaying, mostly for my friend, and my clear profit for the year was £195. It's difficult to believe eBay was once a major hobby of mine, as I now find it quite tedious, and hate the listing process.  I would like to give it up, but I do like the small amount of extra funds.

I managed to get to the £50 pay out on You Gov. It took about 3 years!  I was going to give it up completely, but they kept showering me with surveys, so I go sucked into it again. I'm now on about 1600 points, so it'll probably be another 3 years before I get to £50 again, as they've stopped giving me surveys!

I've carried on with Prolific surveys. I only do short, simple surveys, but still manage to average a pay out of £15 each month. If I was willing to spend more time on it, it could be quite lucrative. 

Goldiegirl

A review of last year's micro-plan 

Finance

Get Sainsbury's delivery pass. I'm definitely sticking with them and their saver delivery slots have trebled in price for the slot I like.

Done. This turned out to be really useful, as we could pick the slots that were most convenient, rather than work around the cheapest slots. Will carry on with this

Home

Get some more planters and plants for garden to build on what I started last year

Sort of done.  The garden looked really nice in June, but then somewhat wilted in July, and some plants died off.  Then there was a general revival, and it looked good again in September/October.  Then the cold snap in mid December looks like a few more plants have been killed off.  I think this will be a work in progress for the next few years

Memories

Cruises - 2 carried forward to May 2022 and March 2023, but have to be paid for by late January and November.
I need to decide what to do with them.  I wasn't feeling keen before Omicron, but even less keen now - There's lots more pre cruise admin and lots of testing,  Even so, there are now outbreaks on ships and reports that people who test positive are being offloaded in various ports.  I'm getting very fed up of having to make the same decisions over and over again, so I may just draw a line under it, and cancel completely and lose the deposit money.  

Hopefully go away for a few days at short notice if infections dip to a level I'm comfortable with

As mentioned earlier, the May 2022 cruise was cancelled.  I was disappointed at the time, maybe it was for the best. We cancelled the cruise due in March 2023, and have not regretted this. We lost the £200 deposit, but felt the cruise wasn't right for us anymore. Just don't fancy living with 5000 other passengers for 2 weeks! 

Also, as previously mentioned, the short breaks were a great success. I would like to think that our future includes more of these.

Health

Get new glasses - I definitely need a new prescription especially for reading.

Done, and what a difference it made. I could barely see to read with my old glasses. I ended up with two pairs. Varifocals for general use and a reading only prescription for the laptop and my Kindle. It's worked very well.

I'll return in a day or so with my little plan for 2023

 

Sayschezza

Hi Goldie. Like you we had cruises cancelled but we did manage a med cruise on Aurora in October. Life on board was back to normal and if there were any outbreaks of Covid we didn't hear of them and stayed clear of it ourselves. Didn't see any mask wearing among passengers although all the crew wore them. I have booked to go on Britannia in May 23 but just for a 7 day to Norway so fingers crossed we are ok on that one also. At 79yo (by the time I sail) I feel can't waste anymore time although my 2024 cruise to the med will definitely be my swan song.

Goldiegirl

Enjoy your cruise this year, Chezza! 

Goldiegirl

OK, here's my small plan for 2023

Home

General decluttering. I didn't let my clutter build up again after the Great Declutter a few years ago and have got into the habit of doing a small declutter each year. But I'm aware that I've kept some things that I know that I have no use for anymore, so I intend doing a slightly larger declutter this year, and also storing what I have more efficiently - My cupboards need an overhaul!

Garden. Carry on with the work in progress and buy some more plants to fill gaps and replace deceased plants 

Memories

We have a cruise booked in August, just round the British Isles, and a Warner Hotels 'road trip' in May, going to the Isle of Wight and then on to Somerset. It'll be the first time we'll be living amongst other people since 2019!  I think I want to see if that sort of holiday is right for us in the Covid era.

Health

Walking.  I used to do the 1000 miles a year challenge.  The last time I achieved this was in 2018!  Since then the figure has got lower and lower. In 2022 I walked 740 miles.  My target for 2023 is 'more than 740 miles'

Remain Covid free.  I know this is generally off people's radar now, but I intend to carry on trying to avoid Covid, and if I do catch it, try to avoid catching it again.  My gut feeling is that repeated infections are not a good thing.  I've given up trying to predict what will happen in the pandemic, but my other gut feeling is that, if things are not significantly better by the end of 2023, it will be a bad thing!

Anyway, that's what I hope to achieve, so I'll wish you all a very happy new year, and hope life treats you kindly in 2023 

Karmacat

I'm sure you're right to try to continue to be covid-free - between the risks of repeated infections, long covid and actual death, it's definitely vey high on my radar.  The "twindemic" we're hearing about right now has struck at my own family - a niece-in-law of mine managed to get a GP appointment, and they called for an ambulance and got her put straight into hospital and she's only in her 40s.  

Enjoy the road trip!  I've never been to the Isle of Wight, but I'd love to go, I've scanned it on Trip Advisor, there's some lovely things there.  

As far as cruises are concerned - the Iceland/Greenland one that I went on was by Fred Olsen - they kept the same number of staff, 1400, and only had 700 passengers (60 of whom got covid during the cruise itself, as well as unknown numbers like me that came down with it afterwards).  I'm glad to have gone, partly because I do feel things are getting more and more difficult to plan ahead, but I just don't know what to do for the best next year.

Watty1

Good luck with this year's plans x