Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

DH and I had a good run at lunchtime: 4km on roads out of town.

Things are progressing slowly with the house sale. The estate agent hasn't sent us the final proofs to read: I hope they come through tomorrow because we've only got till  Friday to have it officially on the market! If we don't, we become liable for the mortgage. I'm at work tomorrow till mid afternoon but I'll be keeping an eye on my inbox.

We also received the list of the building society's conditions for transferring a small corner of the garden to the neighbours. Why it's taken them so long I have no idea - it must have been August or before when we wrote to them. I texted the neighbour with up to date details - not exactly what they are hoping for but a good compromise. (They had requested my parents to buy a small access strip years ago. It fell through for various reasons at that point but hopefully we can achieve it now).

I had another walk this evening so I'm pretty tired but I've at last tracked down a source for wholemeal SR flour! I don't know why it's become so scarce and I could only get a premium brand at hefty £1.50 a bag (considering plain white SR flour starts at about 45p a bag that's horrendous) but at least I've got it. I also got a refill for my coffee and some sticky buns.  

Spending
Housekeeping £5.65

I'm thankful for finding wholemeal flour, progress on the house sale (not all we need but steps towards it) and great running weather.

Cherryfudge

All quiet at work. I saw quite  few of my colleagues for once as it was flu jab day. With a senior colleague's permission I checked my home emails a few times and the house brochure is now finalised and hopefully going live on the internet too.

DH's interview went 'okay', though he says he should have given more examples.

After work I walked into town and bought some elastic and tape, which count as clothes budget only because that's where they're going. It doesn't count towards 'Fashion on the Ration' as things to mend clothes weren't on coupons. 

Spending
Clothing £1.07

And this evening I'm thankful for the day warming up and getting sunny and for the brochure being okayed for publication.

Sun_Addict

I hope the house goes on the market before you become liable for the mortgage. What a faff 😩

Glad you got a good run under your belt, it’s getting harder with the weather and darker mornings/evenings. It was lovely in the summer for me being able to leave the house for a run at 6.00am, sadly pitch black now.

Fingers crossed DH’s interview went better than he thought 🤞

Cherryfudge

Woo! It's on the market and the mortgage lender has given us a period of grace till April. One difficulty is the neighbours had another look at the plan of the land we're hoping to transfer to them and reckon it's already marked as theirs! Their plan from the Land Registry shows a gap between the back of their house and the boundary wall which doesn't exist in real life so from that they've deduced it's shown as theirs. However, in real life if that were theirs, the boundary of the back of the building would be changed and a transfer of a few feet of land unofficially would then show up as a different boundary. We rang our solicitor who says she'll have a further look at the deeds but that the Land Registry is more concerned with land boundaries than with the precise measurements of buildings, so it's possible their house is misrepresented.

*Sigh*

No news from DH's interview yet.

Work has (again) been quiet: I've been updating a file and cleaning. One more early start tomorrow then I have Sunday off.

This evening we were invited over to friends for a drink. It's the first time I've done that since early this year or late last year! They are such fun and really interesting to talk to so it was a real treat for us, and they had everything very carefully thought out so we could all be distanced but it still felt natural. 

Then when I got home I dropped my phone and it looks as though I've damaged it. It keeps restarting. It did it once before when I'd installed an app so I deleted a new app and it was fine afterwards, but I've deleted new apps this time and it makes no difference. Other possible causes are water damage and a problem with the battery, but there's been no previous battery problem and I'd just wiped it with an antibac wipe which has never been a problem before. It's less than a year old so I may be able to get something done under guarantee: I'll need to look into that, I think.

I'm off to buy an e-book now which will be £4 but I greatly enjoyed the free sample and the library hasn't got it so I'm going to spend some more of a voucher I was given.

Spending
e-book £4

And tonight I'm thankful for our friends and having a good old fashioned catch up.

Cherryfudge

Today was accidentally quite money-saving: a colleague was checking the kitchen cupboards at work and getting rid of out of date things. I'd already thrown fresh things that were beyond use but being a catering kitchen we have to have everything in date as well as common-sense edible, so I ended up with a part bag of brown sugar and nearly full jars of cinnamon and turmeric. Then we took out the recycling and found the community apple tree had dropped a lot of apples so I also got a couple of apples and six hazelnuts, and rounded off the shift by asking for a garden chair that was destined for the tip but which happens to go with the set we have (and which was short of a chair).
So all in all I think I've benefitted and so has landfill. (My colleagues also got various spices as they must have been batch-bought just in time for lots to go off in September/October).

When I got home I was wondering whether to get straight into pyjamas. That's before I realised it was only 2.30! 

My poor phone is still switching off after a couple of minutes but at least it's still working a bit. Where on earth did I put the paperwork?

There are now five outstanding viewings for the house.

Onebrokelady

Wow you have been busy,I hope the house sells soon 😊

Sun_Addict

The house is proving popular then, great news 👍

Cherryfudge

I checked the warranty on the phone and accidental damage is definitely not covered, so as I'd paid for it by CC I tried the CC site despite feeling that won't cover damage done by me. However the site is down for maintenance till Monday. The other 'hope' is that the house insurance will cover it but that can wait till tomorrow. It's managing to charge a bit but it took two hours to add eight percent which isn't sustainable.

I have the day off on Monday so I think I'll be hunting out a phone repair (or several as it has a nasty crack under the screen protector and if it's mendable I might as well get everything done at once). Why do I have the feeling this could be expensive? Just when I'd looked at heaps of shifts that need cover at work and picked up only one, on the grounds that I prefer to be at home. Perhaps I need to get my 'takes all shifts' mojo back if I want a decent phone.

And while on the subject of dying technology, having got our replacement laptop recently, DH had to replace our Firestick today as it finally became unusable. We don't have any subscription channels but we use the Firestick a lot so it's very value-for-money, but why do things break at the same time?

Work definitely has a strange feel to it at the moment. It was my last shift with another colleague today: work has had a long time with certain 'issues' in addition to the massive universal upheaval that 2020 has been, and it's starting to tell. So many have been off sick, and in a year there's been something like a twenty percent changeover of staff. This will really kick in just as we are supposed to be getting back to normal. On the other hand, it was great to see our relief staff, who are some of the best, while we had our flu jabs done.

So today I'm thankful for getting a room finished and the goldfish cleaned out at work (!), for freebie food, and that I can still use my phone for emergencies and have enough in the bank to replace it if I have to (though I'd rather not).

Honeysucklelou2

Baked apples with mincemeat...mmm...not had that for years. My grandmother used to do baked apples, I had quite forgotten but that will go on our menu plan for this week- thank you!

Hope the viewings result in a sale.

Cherryfudge

It's winter duvet time. (When I first typed that it came out as 'winter duet' but don't worry, I'm not going to sing).

Ours is out of the loft and onto the bed and it will be wonderful for months to come.

We had online church this morning then attended the online chat. Sometimes the screen is fairly full but this time there were only five households, possibly as more people are venturing to the 'real life' service and there isn't time to get home and online again for the chat. We had an interesting discussion on reducing isolation and the future look of the church... so many people attend via the web wo don't go through church doors that possibly online services are here to stay. I like them, anyway.

I chose today's dinner from a recipe book I bought ages ago and never used, full of 'heart-healthy' meals. This one was a vegan casserole: it was quite tasty and to my surprise kept me full all afternoon despite being under 500 calories. There are spare portions in the freezer for another day.

I went for a short run, taking plastic bags with me so I could forage sloes and crab apples on my way home. It's getting dusk so soon! That meant I had a dramatic view of the Dales, as a sharply-defined blue/charcoal grey mass with a ragged gold line above them. Lucky me, it was beautiful. I did have to cut the foraging a bit short in order not to worry DH by coming home in the dark, though.

I think my course runs out of time tomorrow but I haven't done any for ages. First I had a bad cold then I was hurrying to finish another course, then it was simply too big to go back to! I might save the link and try again when it reopens as it was quite interesting. Time to find a new one, but just do one at once this time.

Today I'm thankful for all sorts of things: sloes, crab apples and a winter duvet; people to chat to (who liked an idea I had about using chat rooms to facilitate friendship groups and support ), three people booked to view the house tomorrow and managing to get out for a run while the weather holds.