Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

I've got two, SA. I use Drops for French, which is working very well for me though it's mostly vocabulary not grammar. I did French for years at school and can read it quite well, speak it a little, understand spoken French or write it...  virtually not at all! So pronunciation, spelling and listening skills are important, and it's giving me those in abundance.

I had thought of doing some Portuguese and for that I'm trying Duolingo but I'm finding I must have missed something as I keep making mistakes. I lose all the hearts and can't go on unless I do a practice session. I'm very confused by the format so I might try another app - though any suggestions about how to work it would be gratefully received!

Sun_Addict

If you pay for Duolingo you get unlimited hearts. I’m happy with the free version though. I just keep going until I lose my hearts, I’ve usually had enough by then. I never do more than 30 minutes a day. I did French and German at school for years. I do enjoy languages. I thought as we go to Spain 3 times a year (in normal times) I should at least be able to speak a bit of the language. 

Cherryfudge

I expect I'm making more mistakes than you, SA! My understanding of French is quite good, if ungrammatical so adding vocabulary and working on listening skills and pronunciation - which is what Drops does - is building on a good foundation. I think I'm lacking much structure in Portuguese though, so I'm floundering a bit.

As I understand it so far - after a bit of googling as the app does seem to have a 'help' section - hearts should gradually refill, and are then depleted as I make mistakes. I can do practice session to get some more but I suppose the long term solution is to get better at it! I haven't worked out where XP points are recorded, how I use them or even how to get them... it was probably explained at the beginning . 

Anyway it's another cold, grey day and I frittered the morning away on YouTube so I will head into town in a little while as we need fruit and veg and Dh is working till 3.

Sun_Addict

You can refill your hearts if you have enough XP points and you earn XP points for every lesson you complete. I have noticed if you do quite a few lessons back to back you gain a couple of extra hearts randomly. Everyday you get a fresh batch of hearts too. I just use it for fun but have surprised myself how much I’ve learned. 

It was fine this morning here but pouring with rain now.

Cherryfudge

Sun_Addict said:

You can refill your hearts if you have enough XP points and you earn XP points for every lesson you complete. I have noticed if you do quite a few lessons back to back you gain a couple of extra hearts randomly. Everyday you get a fresh batch of hearts too. I just use it for fun but have surprised myself how much I’ve learned. 

It was fine this morning here but pouring with rain now.

Thanks SA, it's beginning to come together for me now. I managed to complete a lesson and the XPs started rolling in... and I didn't run out of hearts!

What my language teachers at school would have made of it, I've no idea!

Cherryfudge

I went to the shops this afternoon: a heavy bag of stuff from the greengrocer's, some dehumidifying sachets for various wardrobes, a notebook (ready for some future study) and a ball of yarn with which I'm restarting the 'string bag' I attempted some months ago. I began it with a part-ball of ribbon yarn which felt lovely to knit with but was only about half long enough so that's been turned back into a ball and I've gone for a plain cream-coloured cotton reduced to £2.50.

Since getting home, I've made banana muffins and started the knitting. As usual I seem to have bought too much fruit and veg, but at least I didn't get more bananas! I did get a bag of lemons that were cheap: they were partly intentional as there's lemon in the topping for carrot cake, but I think I might need to make lemonade some time soon.

Spending
Housekeeping £9.45
Household £4.00
Stationery £3.99
Hobbies (yarn) £2.50

This evening I'm thankful for a knitting project to give me something constructive to do, time spent baking and a warm house on a cold evening.

Sun_Addict

When I have too many lemons I zest them then cut the remains into slices. I freeze both, the zest comes in handy for recipes and the slices useful in water or G+T.

Honeysucklelou2

That’s a useful tip, thank you SA!

Cherryfudge

That's a great idea thanks, SA. Pass the gin!

I spent £13.49 yesterday as there was a special offer for a year's membership on one of the language apps. Of course now that I have it I'm realising that getting intense practice in 15 minute chunks rather than 5 minutes is going to stretch me and did I really need the extra? However it's there if I need it and it does mean I can spend time on checking things I'm not certain of as well as making progress.

The latest vocabulary topic is exotic fruits which is a bit odd - gooseberry is not exotic to me, and I'm very proud of holding a conversation with a helpful man on a market stall in France once where I learned that greengages are 'Reine Claude' or something very like that, but what on earth is a snake fruit? Or a mangosteen? Thank goodness for Wikipedia!

I'm not sleeping well at the moment so have been getting up half way through the morning, but today I had a two hour walk with a friend. It was trying to snow when we set out and the wind was icy as well as gusty but we kept at it and blew a few cobwebs away. Hopefully that will fulfil two of the NHS mental health suggestions (connect and be active) and also help me sleep. The language apps provide the learning and the knitting helps me be present in the moment, which just leaves giving still to do. (Sorry, digression there: I've just been reading up on the five steps).

Things I'm thankful for tonight: my friend taking the initiative to go for walks with various of her friends several times a week (she's right, it's a good thing to do), a visit from A and H yesterday as they returned a coupe of containers, and a message from DS2 to say his parcel ahs arrived and 'Love the candycanes haha'  

Cherryfudge

I ordered some snow boots for DH yesterday (£19.99): we went for a walk so I could show him the route my friend showed me two days ago, and he soon found his feet were freezing, though I was toasty warm apart from my face. His circulation seems to be letting him down: his Dad, sister and niece are all similar, but we decided his trainers were possibly part of the problem, hence the order for boots.

I also made granary bread in the bread maker: to think a few months ago I decided I rarely used it and should get rid! This was the second time I've used it since I last went to the shops: the plan this lockdown is to buy filtered milk as it keeps longer and buy a loaf from the shop about once a week, but keep plenty of bread flour/bread mixes to hand so we can space out our supermarket trips more effectively.

Today has been our third snow day in a run: I'm back to work tomorrow so I did my flow test today which will cover me till Sunday) (I'm still negative ) then popped in to work for the other version which is apparently more accurate but takes a few days to give results. I really don't like doing the nasal swabs but I realise I'm lucky in a way to have them.

Work at 7.30 tomorrow: the sun will be up five minutes later but the temperature will be below zero! It's very nearby though so I'm not exactly trudging for miles.

This afternoon I cleared out the tins cupboard and listed what we have: we are doing very nicely for baked beans, kidney beans, tikka sauce, sardines, pesto and jars of peppers. Oh, and chickpeas... plenty of chickpeas. I eat them in curries and casseroles so I just need to remember not to buy more for a while. I also have some tins of coconut milk that are out of date. I used one a while ago but it had separated badly which rather put me off... to use or not to use?

No exercise today: I planned a walk but when I got out of work it was snowing heavily. I also worked out how to reconfigure the language app I paid for the other day so I'm not having to do intensive 15 minute sessions. Five minutes at a time suits me so much better that I did several lots of five.

Tonight's things I'm thankful for: lots of sun in between the snow showers, my sister getting through via Internet (she lives abroad and internet has been restricted recently), being able to put off supermarket shopping till tomorrow and rediscovering some excellent old threads on here.

Thriftlady's wartime experiment - Page 6 — MoneySavingExpert Forum and 
Old Style vs the USDA head-to-head challenge... - Page 2 — MoneySavingExpert Forum in case you want reading matter.