22 Foxhole East

f0xh0les

I wish they would send the letter, and then give you the money, but this money appearing, and then having to wait for weeks for the letter to catch up so you know what they are doing, is soooo frustrating.

Bobarella

Wow sounds a nightmare Foxy.

f0xh0les

Morning!
Four days later, still no renewal letter, so I am having to log on to the yougov site weekly to see what I will get in order to budget.

I had a rather large amount in the bank account this week, just haven't really spent very much, all the meal planning and shopping have been done, the car filled with petrol and still there was more in there than I had expected, so I just threw £300 at the mortgage, which means..... the first of June should bring me down to the magic £110 I was aiming for. Which means I have knocked a year's interest and payments off the mortgage and the daily interest is down to £5.90.

Went to a funeral on Thursday. One of my uni friends died. Very sad, the first of the gang to die. Makes you think don't it.

Got very frustrated by the whole not losing weight thing. Upped my workout to burn 400 calories, from 300. Going every day after dropping the kids at school. One day gym, next day swim. Looked at what I am eating. Even though I cut out all the sweets/crisps/chocolate/biscuits there was still no change, but my weight was no longer going up, but suddenly this morning I am down 3lbs. Maybe my body is finally recognising I am not giving up and it needs to get with the programme. First weight loss is always impressive, after the first stone it takes a bit more effort and slows down, so hoping to be 5lbs lighter by 1st June so that I drop down a stone bracket.

I have decided to educate the kids into the wonderful world of Alfred Hitchcock. Suspense is something that really affects them. I have noticed on kids programmes everything is spelled out, there is no 'what is going on?' 'why did he do that?' 'What is that man up to?' It is completely 'no thinking necessary'. So yesterday Alfred came up in conversation, and lo! serendipity! North by Northwest is on this afternoon on BBC2, and so we are having filmclub afternoon. - DS1 is still holding out for Aliens - he liked Alien but the silent bits were quite uncomfortable for him, that was what made us realise about the lack of thinking required, and the lack of suspense in modern kid based programming. Will see how it goes before letting them watch The Birds. It has aged badly, so obviously fake, it wouldn't scare a 5 year old. Won't try it just yet though. Mind you, my 12 yr old got very animated watching a Midsomer Murder last year. The not knowing who did it really wound him up. He was accusing everybody as the murderer. It was more amusing watching him trying to figure it out, than the programme.

Please feel free to criticise my parenting! My kids need to learn to .....wait..... and...... see! All will be revealed, or possibly not... life is not like that.

Pearla*Merle

Oh, it's been rather quiet down here. Hope everything is ok, Foxy?

Missing your entertaining exploits x

Kittenkirst

Me too Foxholes! Come back Come back- we miss you!

tjp70

Hi Foxy.

You are very quiet. I hope everything is okay.

tjp

f0xh0les

Hiya!
Yeah all is well here, I had a catastrophic laptop meltdown, it would only work for about 5 minutes before overheating and shutting itself down. So annoying, darling boy bought me a new one for my birthday last weekend so I have been trying to remember passwords for EVERYTHING that I need in my life and failing most rubbishly. Back on track now though.

So I have upped my calorie burning in the gym to 500 cals and am going 6 days a week, and swimming a kilometer 3 or 4 times a week so slowly it would probably be embarrassing if I gave a tinker's cuss, and the weight is going away. I have lost 10lbs so far and 4 of that is in the last 10 days. I think I might have just found my motivation.

I was quite skint at the start of the month after paying out the rest to the mortgage. Somehow a load of stuff needed paying for, plus the best part of £200 on stupid tyres and balancing and stuff, then suddenly it has all come out ok again and I am flush! Can't make any overpayments though as I can't find the password. So I am saved.

Had a quote for the shower - was do-able
Had a quote for double glazing - also do-able
So I have decided to get quotes for the roof, and I might just do the roof and the shower over the summer holidays and do the windows before xmas. So lots of planning, lots of salesmen, lots of wiping my tongue to try to get rid of the taste of aftershave the salesmen left trails of all over my house (took a full 72 hours to get rid of it, even with the windows open, and when three aftershaves were fighting each other for dominance- urgh) Why do they do it?? Estate Agents and Double Glazing salesmen should be done for air pollution crimes.

Oh yeah, and two sportsdays in 32 degree heat, shoe shopping for the kids on a weekly basis - why can't they all need shoes in the same week? and everything in the entire universe being my fault (apparently). So life as normal!!

Thanks for missing me. I missed you too.

kerri_gt

Glad you're ok f0xholes, in order to reply about the aftershave...I think it's to cover up the amount of time they spend getting hot and sweaty driving about all day. I'm not sure if the aftershave or au naturale is worse!

f0xh0les

One roofer out of three has turned up to quote. They must be water soluble. Would have thought rainy days were good days to quote, but I suppose if they have kids they will want to be away over the summer holidays. If they don't have school age kids I am in luck.

Took kids to see Boss Baby at the cinema - smaller kids like it, big ones refused to come along. Good cheap trip out. Birthday party this afternoon though.

YHA Flash Sale has finally come, but most of the sites listed are remote from me. Booked 4 days at Cheddar Gorge, less than £100. Bought English Heritage with part cl0bcard points so only £51 for all 6 of us. Thought we might do Stonehenge as we are down that way, just have to book it in advance as I know the queues in Summer can be ridiculous.

The summer holidays .are broken up into dentists and orthodontist appointments and weekends when DH is away so far. Will have to get some fun stuff on the calendar.

I am getting it in the neck for saying I will be going over to Northern Ireland for only a week. I know my step-relative is in her 70's and housebound but I have been over there twice already this year, and I am trying to get the roof and double glazing and shower done before the end of summer so I can keep an eye on them. Workmen turn up late and leave early if you are not watching them, they are worse than kids.

Feeling very got at and guilty.

f0xh0les

Still no roof quote. the one guy that turned up to look just sent me an email to say he had got a big job on that he quoted for a while ago and he is going to be tied up for the rest of his life. I think he decided it was too much faff. Got a quote from the other mob who did not turn up to quote and it is not what I asked for anyway. So more phone calls and a promise to requote, but I don't think it is fashionable to strip the tiles and re-lay them with new nails and using the old tiles. I can't believe it costs less to buy an entire roof of tiles and pay for a skip than it would cost for two men for two extra days. Just think of how much I would save from going to landfill!! But they don't seem to want to do it.

So, I can afford double glazing, I might have to bite the bullet and just pay out for two sets of scaffolding just so I can tell y'all that I have actually got something done. My list is growing again and I am not getting anything ticked off it!!