Paid off the £31,000! BUT - still scrimping!

milann

Hope hope you’re ok and enjoyed the end of your holidays.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Your cruise sounds amazing and I'm very jealous . 

I hope you're back home safely.

Seasidegal58

Thank for dropping in all!  And apologies for my AWOLness!

I enjoyed the holiday sooo much……..  I've fallen in love with Norway – it's so beautiful and clean.  DD went on the horse trek – I think the ideal trip is supposed to be a moonlight ride on the beach with the Northern Lights flickering away in the background.  Unfortunately they went out in a blizzard – she said she's never felt so cold!  The Icelandic horses apparently took it in their stride…………..

Unfortunately, on the last day I came down with a really bad cold and cough, missed my last tour and spent most of the day in bed!  The next day we came home – which was quite a long trip as we didn't dock till mid-afternoon then had a couple of hours to kill at the airport.  I felt quite rough and didn't eat anything all day (must have been bad!).  That was on the Tuesday and I wasn’t due in work until the Thursday.  I rang work and was told to have the rest of the week off and also call the NHS 111 Coronavirus hotline to clear myself before I came back to work.  I did and all was ok so came back on the Monday to 631 emails and a pile of work!  We have all been told at work now that as from Monday, 50% of the workforce will be working from home.  So of course, that means the top of the hierarchy as assistants like myself are very paper/systems based and cannot really work from home even with a laptop!  All very storm in a teacup!

It has also taken me three days to have my monthly online shop delivered by Ocado – luckily I managed to get some toilet rolls!

SCRIMPY THINGS

Budgeted things include £211.33 spent onboard ship for coffees/drinks etc, cost of car home from the airport, nails, M&S gift voucher/card for DD's stepson's new baby; and rail tickets for trip to DD's next month, 

SCRIMPY WEEK 2 ended yesterday – I've spent the £20 ad hoc spends money on entry to our firm's yearly Cheltenham Festival contest where you try and pick out winners/runners up with the longest odds.  It started abysmally for me yesterday with nil points!  Hopefully I'll do better today!

The bright spot today was that our new Veggie Pret opened!  You could have a drink, sandwich/salad and fruit cocktail for free today, plus I got a cloth shopping bad and a voucher for a free coffee!

SCRIMPY WEEK 3 – nothing especially on the agenda for this week - £20 in the pot for Ad Hoc spends – I think I will treat myself to the new Hilary Mantel on kindle……………

milann

Your holiday sounded fantastic. I’m glad you’ve got rid of the cold and it’s nothing more serious - think you’ve passed it my way....I’ve had a stinker of a cold the last couple of days...just a head cold. 

Well done on the pret freebies and pleased you got loo rolls.

beanielou

Glad that you had  a good time.
Glad that your cold is gone.

Verbatim

Welcome home and hooray you haven't got corona virus! Perhaps this will be a wake up call for work about allowing remote working for all staff! Glad you had an amazing holiday. 

Seasidegal58

Thanks for your wishes guys!  @milann - Hope you are on the mend.  Ocado delivered my pack of toilet rolls - but I didn't get my baked beans!  Must have been a run on these!

Good news in work was that I received my annual bonus - and was very pleased with it! I'm also in line for a little bit more later in the year due to completing a project at the end of last year.  

I booked my yearly BUPA health assessment for a couple of weeks time, plus our works Benefits window opened today - have opted for the yearly health assessment again, plus medical insurance - although all has increased this year - the cost comes from our yearly 'Flexi' allowance - anything left over will go into your pension.  However, owing to the fact that the cost of my medical insurance is quite high because of my age, I only had £7.45 left for the pension!

Work steady but we are writing to all our clients today with a 'comfort' letter because of the virus and slump in markets so that will take up all of my afternoon!

Sun_Addict

Great news about the bonus and the promise of more to come  

Seasidegal58

Thank you SA!

So the latest at work is that we've had a directive today that all staff over the age of 60 will have to work from home as from next Monday at the very latest – although I'm staying on till the end of the week as I have things on and I still have to wait for my laptop form IT.  The way it's going I think we'll all be out soon though – thankfully I don't have to work out the logistics of it all!

It was quieter on the train today, although a colleague remarked the tube was still very busy.  The sandwich places and shops seemed half empty at lunchtime as well.

I went to Aldi yesterday about half an hour before it closed just to try and pick up a couple of things I'd forgotten on my online shop.  I wanted some kitchen cleaning spray but the shelves were bare, although there was plenty of laundry tablets, powder, fabric conditioner etc.  No dried pasta when I arrived although one of the staff brought some spaghetti out – she said that was the lot until tomorrow when there would be a new delivery.  I didn't even look at the toilet roll situation as I have all I need for now!  Plenty of fresh fruit and veg and meat there, together with frozen food.  Some of the tinned food shelves were empty though.

It was nice walking to and fro to Aldi through the park.  Although a bit overcast the daffs, hyacinths, crocuses and blossom were out so it felt like spring is on the way finally.  Made me feel more lighthearted after all this doom and gloom.  I've made a decision just to listen to the news on the radio in the morning and on the TV once in the evening – and I read my Times on the train going in – that's it for me.  I think too many people are glued to social media with regard to the crisis and it can't be good for mental health. 

My friend whom I normally have Sunday brunch and visit the cinema with is over 70 so she ihas decided to take it easy and we've decided to cancel our outings for now.

SCRIMPY NEWS

Not much to report really – before I went on holiday I had signed up for some pilates lessons on the reformer machines.  I didn't get on with the mat based pilates some months ago, but I tried a taster of some new classes on the machines and was quite impressed.  I was due to start the Saturday I got back from my holiday but was still suffering from the cold and cough.  As I still have the cough lingering it was decided that I would also miss last Saturday and hopefully begin this weekend coming.  So far I haven't paid for the course – the idea is that I'll have a course of one on one then joint a small group going forward which will be cheaper.

I haven't spent on anything else, apart from Aldi yesterday – I have all I need for the moment and my freezer, fridge and larders are full.

Hope everyone is having a good stressfree day.
x

HairyHandofDartmoor

I agree that too much news watching or reading can lead to stress. Nature is definitely uplifting. On Saturday we saw some beautiful spring flowers at a NT garden and I found it really calming .

How do you feel about working from home? Are you pleased or will you get stir crazy?

I hope you manage to find the bits you couldn't get hold of. Visiting several shops seems to be the only way to get what you want at the moment!

I've never tried reformer machines. I've only done mat based pilates, although I've been too busy and tired to go for months.

Have a relaxing evening .