Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

in_need_of_direction said:

I’d be thankful for someone passing a slice of homemade lemon cake 

Passes cake. (Where are our old emojis where you could actually see the cake?)
Mind the crumbs.

Cherryfudge

Today I'm thankful for getting paperwork done at work and DH getting bargains from BeeandEm (£12.60). Also a brief sighting of J and L after my work as they had been using our garden to work in.

This evening I'm so sleepy! Work was moderately active compared to recently and my shift hours were moved to a bit later, with a meeting thrown in at the end and we rejoiced because we had residents booked for a few days. I was also given a couple more uniform tops which will ease the thinking about work wear. However, after dinner this evening I was dozing off when my phone went and it was work to say plans had changed and I'm to be working at a care home in the next town tomorrow. I don't like this moving staff between places as it spreads the virus, but our own place has to run on skeleton staffing unless we get more referrals. The choice for us as staff is to work elsewhere, take annual leave or take unpaid leave. Some staff are getting short of paid leave to take already. I haven't actually booked any but need to look at my options as I've had a few days off when work has been closed. On the positive side I know a few people who have already transferred over there (on the minus side one is someone I really don't like!).

I also had a phone call from a friend who has heard of a care home (not run by our employer) where staff don't routinely wear masks when assisting residents. I'm appalled. Masks don't solve everything but they must reduce transmission.

I think that's all for tonight...

Cherryfudge

Today I'm thankful for rain overnight last night and again this evening, and that our trees didn't blow down despite the best efforts (53mph) of the wind! I'm also thankful for the weekend off, J donating a sourdough starter to us and for DH buying crumpets for supper!

I'm trying to get my head around what I want to say about working at the other care home this morning. On some levels it wasn't too bad at all: I had a good conversation with a lady who was telling me about her life on the farm which must have been around wartime. Her boys are in their seventies! However there wasn't much we could do that the usual staff team weren't already doing and I feel strongly that the risk of corona virus in a care home is far too high to permit excess staffing. I shall have to Write An Email. I'm thinking about it as it's hard to find alternative employment for us and I feel it would be constructive if I could come up with some suggestions.

This leads me to think that ethically I need to look at how to balance taking leave when there's no work for me to do. How many days of leave to I have this year? How many days could I afford to take unpaid leave? I'm due back in on Monday, but the resident who was due in to our place today is now not coming so unless anyone is discharged to us over the weekend, I may be stood down on Monday, or possibly asked to work at the other care home.

Other than that, I used up loads of veg in a curry tonight so there's a spare portion in the freezer and it freed up some space for today's shopping. DH managed to get most things that were on the list and spent £30.47. He's been a domestic hero today: while I was at work he washed all the bedding and got it dried (though the wind was tremendous so he's lucky it didn't blow away!) and back on the bed. He also washed the sofa covers and has them dried and replaced. When I got in I did my uniform and some towels so there is ironing to do tomorrow.

J asked if she could borrow a steamer insert as she's into Japanese cookery right now and wanted to make dumplings. I had three so I've donated one permanently - a little more space in the cupboard. She then shared some sour dough starter with us and A (combining the drop offs with a bike ride).

I was quite tired yet again so I dozed on the sofa after tea. I think a pattern is emerging! However I have the weekend off to recover and if the weather allows, go for a run. The forecast is for very strong winds again tomorrow. I might do some more in the garden but at present I'm wary as we've had a slate down recently and a branch could break off in winds as strong as today's. I could always resort to doing the ironing.

Cherryfudge

After two months, I've been to the shops! Not a massive spend but there were a few oddments from various places. It was strange seeing half the shops shut down. It reminded me of closing time on a Sunday, apart from occasional straggly queues outside those shops that were open.

I got an item for my neighbour and it's to be set against the bread flour she got for me, so the housekeeping spending is yet to be determined. I've bought goldfish food to share between my fish and the ones at work, and some wild bird food. Total £6.75. I popped into the health food shop where they sell rock salt deodorant (£4.99, and is likely to last me at least eighteen months) but everything else was in W!lkos. So total toiletries was £10.49, household spending was £5.25, medical was £4.00 and an e-book was £0.99.

I'm too tired to stay up any longer, but before I go - my thankfulness list. I'm thankful for the trees holding out another day against the wind, which has now dropped. I'm thankful for fish and chips for lunch and a quiet day with no sirens heard. I'm thankful for some online chat with colleagues who are now working elsewhere or isolating. And I'm thankful the weather's not been such as would encourage too many people out of doors.

Cherryfudge

Today I'm thankful that the wind has dropped and I've had a great run (as in, I feel great, rather than I was awesome ) with DH as running companion. C210K week 2 - three bursts of 15 minutes, amounting to about 5K actually run.

There was online church this morning and for some inexplicable reason I was up and dressed in time for it. Don't know how that happened but it's quite a feeling of achievement and I can recommend it.

We had a Z-oom chat with DS2 (a relief as I thought he had disappeared), H and A. All looking positive, particularly A's carpentry skills. He has turned an old bench into three smart planters over recent weeks, between settling into a changed role at work. Even better, though we can't see this, is DS2's news that his Covid ward has a few fewer people in and those who are left are waiting for a clear swab to allow them to be discharged, rather than struggling with the virus.

Money-wise, I had a text from my manager to say there's no one due to be discharged to us tomorrow morning and would I like him to see if I can work elsewhere. This was the perfect opportunity to explain why I don't want to do that unless it's necessary, and ask if I could take it as leave. I've decided to take at least one of this month's unexpected days off as unpaid leave, so as to save my paid leave in case I need it later in the year. Living costs are much lower for us at present so I think that should work.

I also checked the bank account that DH's wages went into. There is still a small amount of activity there, including a £505 refund from our previous energy supplier, which is going into savings. There's enough buffer to allow the remaining standing orders to run a while longer but really we ought to move them to the account I pay into.

By the way, it was funny to see both my lads have beards now. A often grows one for a while but DS2 never has. There's also a fair amount of hair gel being employed which works on A but not on DS2 whose hair was longer to start with. Us girls all have long hair which is much easier in the absence of hairdressers, and J cuts L's which works well but doesn't look at all his usual self.

Cherryfudge

It's a gorgeous day here with sunshine and a light breeze, and it's going to be around 20C all afternoon according to the forecast.

As I can't be in work, I want to do something MS with the day: so far I've made a batch of sourdough crumpets for breakfast and put the spares in the freezer. Thus begins the fabled wastefulness of sourdough - apparently lots of the mixture ends up being discarded. I can't live entirely off bread and crumpets.

I don't have any of the proper rings to cook crumpets in (I gave some away because I never used them!) so I am going to save a few tuna tins and take both ends off which should be perfect if I can avoid any sharp bits. The current crumpets are highly irregular.

I realised I'd forgotten my friend's birthday yesterday so I'm going to take her some flowers later, and I also need to take some goldfish food into work and ensure someone is feeding the poor fishies. I think there's likely to be a solitary manager and a team leader in this morning and they aren't great at feeding fish! I will probably drop the tub of fish food off tomorrow as I'm not due back in till Thursday. The other trip out will probably be to try to get a copy of Gardener's World. If I don't get enough exercise gardening there's a track across the fields that I spotted while running and which I might explore. The field-edge and hill that I did a lot of running on a couple of months ago is often too busy now.

DH is fixing some disintegrating plaster in the kitchen and papering over a small area so I'm staying safely out of the way. I did manage to save a few pennies on new craft knife blades by sharpening one with the knife sharpener. DH is back to cycling for exercise as he's having tendon problems and his foot hurts. He needs new running shoes so we ought to look into that. We're also looking into a new sun lounger as both arms have cracked on our old one. Our local tip has just reopened (it was late to the party because the location doesn't allow for more than a couple of cars to queue) but I doubt we'll take the old one till we have a replacement.

Right, time I did something.

Cherryfudge

I didn't get any gardening done, for which I feel a bit guilty but I spent longer than anticipated trying to sort out what hours I've worked this month. We got sent home early a few times which DH, with his manager's head on, tells me we aren't penalised for so I don't need to take leave for those hours. I've worked a few extra hours what with meetings and accommodating another person's hours around working at the other care home, and I won't claim for those so it will sort of help balance itself out. There are only two full days 'missing', as far as I can tell. I will have to check against records at work as I've got slack about diarising. I think I'll take one of these as annual leave and one as unpaid leave. It's certainly been a strange feeling today knowing that neither of us is getting paid for the day, but it's also occurred to me (looking back at this diary and seeing a comment by INOD about losing bank staff), that while I don't want to be overworked and I certainly don't want my friends on the bank staff to go away, it could mean more hours for me later in the year. A number of us have gone from being second earner to being only breadwinner recently, though, so it will be a matter of sharing out what comes. I'm probably better placed to weather changes than some colleagues who have younger children and housing to pay for.

I have been to the shops again, but still avoided the biggest supermarket. I bought a plant for my friend which I delivered later (£5), my Gardener's World magazine (I got the last one in Sains's! £6.99 from the garden budget, such as it is), and various groceries including plain flour, baking powder and discounted mushrooms and asparagus. Total for groceries A$da £1.61, Mand S about £3 - will have to wait for it to show up online as the till roll stopped working, Sainsbugs £6.73. The shopping at the other end of town then walking to my friend's house has given me 13,000 steps today. DH, on the other hand (foot) is limping and his ankle is rather pink and puffy so he's elevating it with ice and I don't see him coming on a run for a while. He's still decorating in the kitchen so I'm still giving him a bit of space.

I couldn't find who was working today so the goldfish haven't taken delivery of their food yet, but I should be able to do that tomorrow.

Dinner tonight was an adaptation of a Good Housekeeping recipe; chicken and asparagus pie with onion, peas, parsley and lemon zest in. I didn't follow it to the letter and it was quite an interesting taste but not amazing. Tomatoes and carrots topped up the five a day, as did all the dried fruit in a wedge of spiced bread pudding afterwards.

Tomorrow there's an online funeral for someone I used to work with. I'm hoping to be able to 'attend' but I need to check details.

This evening I'm thankful for my bargain mushrooms, managing to get my friend's gift to her and the magazine with free seeds and 241 entries. Dreaming of future visits once lockdown is over! It's nice to see them edging towards non-essential shops opening again, too.

ETA: DH spent £12.76 on groceries.

in_need_of_direction

I think with days rolling into each other, it’s easy to lose track of where we spent time.  I know that I frequently have to resort to phone records to identify where I was and when

Cherryfudge

DH and A have been out for a bike ride this morning, and I went for a run. My second fastest time apparently. DH is okay with cycling but the ankle is quite puffy and not good for weight bearing. I got back in time for most of the funeral (don't know what happened there, I had it timed to get home 10minutes before).

I need to get my head round this afternoon as there are a few things to get done and DS2 has said he'll be around this afternoon and would anyone like a socially distanced walk. Of course I want to take him up on it but not if several people are going. I've also got prep to do for this evening's study, the garden to water, the fish food to drop off at work and possibly some more of an online course to work on. I finished part one of three last night. Meanwhile I'm putting the washing on the line.

This is the advantage of going for a decent run - I'm awake and alert so I still feel I could fit most of this in. Let's see.

Sun_Addict

You’re doing really well with the runs. I always feel livelier after mine, I don’t always feel like doing them and the first 5 minutes seems the hardest, but I always feel better for them.