A Ditherer's Diary (again)

lucielle

gorgeous pooches.
L

EssexHebridean

Oh my word - I've just caught up and THERE ARE CAVVYDOG PHOTOS!! 😍 We've had two cavs - one from when I was small through until my mid/late teens, then the second was a few years later - first was a Blenheim, second was a Tri - and indeed there is NOTHING like an accusing stare from a tricolour cavvy! 😂 Sadly we lost her when she was just 5 - she had a health issue that her parents should have been screened for and presumably weren't, had to have an op for it and her heart gave out on the operating table. It tells you a lot about her that the vet who rang to tell us what had happened was in tears on the phone. It's SO hard to lose them - my eyes are filling thinking about her even now and that was so long ago she'd have been well past the end of her normal natural life by now anyway.   My parents now have a Cavachon who is a complete bundle of cute - MrEH and I aren't in a position to have one at this stage, much as we'd love to. 

Thanks to the folk who mentioned how to get emojis on a pc by the way - I knew there was a way but couldn't remember what it was. (And was waaaay too lazy to find out for myself, clearly!) 

Hope the teenage heartache eases itself soon - and yes, social media really can be an absolute nightmare can't it - I'm with you on being SO glad we didn't have that to navigate on top of everything else! 

Naomim

Aww glad you like the pics @EssexHebridean there is definitely something about their eyebrows! Growing up we had two cocker spaniels - completely mad and a Corgi who was a viscous little b*gger. I'd never have one of them.  Can't wait until we get another dog.  It will happen.

I've come into the office today.  It's very quiet.  No-one in on my side so I have to keep moving to keep the lights on! There are a few people on the other side. I have managed to get quite a bit done and am working my way through something quite fiddly that needed my full attention.

16yo lost his phone in a park last night.  Luckily it's linked to my phone so I could find it by location and send a noise to it. With MrM co-ordinating and me sending noise, they managed to find it.  Flipping kids 🤬

Will update ynab later but not a great day as travel will be £12.80 and I wasn't organised enough to make lunch this morning so have been to the Co-Op for a meal deal.

Oh, I've also decided I need to sort out a new car.  My heating didn't work so I took it to be fixed. The garage repaired it but said something had eroded.  Now it's gone again. With the frost last night, my car didn't really warm up, there was ice on the inside! Alongside the flipping seatbelt problem that's also worse in cold weather, I'm going to have to think about replacing it.

moving_forward

Oh dear sounds like your hard work is about to be unraveled! Cars are blooming expensive hence us coping with one but it involves me having twice the commute as we go to Mr M_F's work before mine and in reverse if problems with train. Trouble is we just can't afford two cars and being able to pay off debt without the two shows what helped build it up.
Hopefully he can find a new job closer to home (or my work) which will help. If his travel cost as much as yours id have to make him quit 😂

EssexHebridean

Oh that's grim news about the car - do you think you can grit your teeth and put up with it until the weather warms up then giving yourself the whole summer to find something to replace it?  We have car woes at the moment too so I sympathise! 

Going to the co-op for a meal deal is infinitely better than going to Pret...there's your bright side, right there! 

Naomim

It's due it's MOT and I can't see it passing or wasting the money trying. Good old bank of Mum and Dad have offered to help (again) but I have to have an automatic due to arthritis in my left foot and they are like gold dust!  My best friends husband is a mechanic for the London Paramedic service and has previously worked wonders on my car but there's only so much money I can throw at it.  He also lost his father just before Christmas so don't want to be bothering him.  I will ask him to keep his eyes open for a new one though. He likes a project! lol

Unfortunately M_F we both work in central London.The salaries are much higher so make up for the cost of commuting. Before I got this job I was working part time and looking for local jobs. The money being offered for FT work was the same as my part time salary and I didn't fancy working FT for essentially less money.  When we were working in the office FT (before covid) we both had annual season tickets so they came out of our wages monthly. You don't really notice it when you don't actually receive it in the first place! A bit like our pension payments.  

I just found the Co-Op as we are at new premises. Always prefer a meal deal to Pret anyway. 

moving_forward

That makes sense with the travel then! 
Boo hiss to the car 👻🐍

Naomim

I didn't manage to update ynab yesterday so I've been on this morning and done it. If I leave it too long I'm tempted to let it slide and I really want to keep on top of things this year.  

£79 Amazon payment has come out of the account.  I didn't have a pot for this (slapped wrists) so I used some of the money that was in the professional fees pot that was going on the overdraft to cover this cost. I have also added a pot to my Monzo and amended my standing order for my pots by upping it by £7.

I'm also going to have a rant about biometrics on my banking app. When trying to amend my standing order with online banking I then had to go the app to approve the transaction.  You have to line your face up and blink.  I was blinking like a rabbit caught in the headlights and looking like I'd developed an unfortunate twitch but it wasn't having any of it. Gave up in the end, went into setting and turned off biometrics.  I managed to amed the standing order the old fashioned way with the card reader.

Today I am going to take MrM's car over to Halfords and get some oil and coolant for my car and see if it helps. I was looking at 2nd hand cars last night. It's such a minefield. 

moving_forward

Cars are silly prices at the minute. We have a few garages right by us and I can't believe the prices of second hand cars. Hopefully you will find something wonderful that's a bargain soon 🤞

EssexHebridean

We got stung with the higher prices when we had to replace MrEH’s car last year - I think diesels are even worse than petrol, or were then, with so many diesel owners round here having to replace because of the London ULEZ.