Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

I've updated my signature to show progress on decluttering toiletries: now 12 gone from 176! The little hotel ones go down reasonably quickly and I'm making myself use them up rather than keeping them because the smell takes me back to wherever.

Today's 'use up' was hair conditioner from the Swiss Hotel in Singapore. It smelt rather like pine trees and the blurb on the back says it was 'infused with a unique blend of Swiss essential oils to vitalise'. The oils I recognise from the ingredients list are chamomile, geranium, yucca, lavender quercus alba, arnica montana and sage. However, far above them on the list come limonene and 'parfum'!

That little beauty was obtained in Singapore, with Swiss ingredients, written in English and made in Malaysia. It's going in Yorkshire recycling.

Well, I had a significant lack of sleep last night: I sat up to work on the baby blanket then made a mistake so I'm afraid to go back to it. When I went to bed I couldn't sleep, got up, had a snack, played on my phone... decided for future reference I need to get a hot water bottle out but ditch the fleecy PJ top I'd been wearing as it's slightly itchy. Got to sleep about 4.

I had to get up about 9.30 as DH was going to the dentist and needed his phone which I'd put away. He spent £41.50 and had three fillings and a crown repair! I am astounded. I'm on the waiting list for the same dentist but won't get an NHS appointment for quite a while.

This afternoon is the funeral of my friend and colleague... I initially planned to go but don't know any of her family and decided they could do without a stranger in their midst. I'm planning a card/letter for them which can go via an old friend of hers. I don't even know her home address, but I do miss her. She was the sort of person I could trust, she was generous and easy to get on with, we had so many years of working ahead of us... so we thought. I still have something from the old house in our shed waiting for her to collect, I will find a way to ask the family if they want it because it was something she loved.

On a lighter note, I gave DH a hair cut this morning and accidentally nearly scalped him by forgetting to put the attachment on the trimmer! He's never had such short hair but at least it's neat - and it will grow. Saved a tenner or whatever hair cuts for men cost nowadays, and he won't need it done for a while!

Still to do today:
Make a list of Christmas food/pudding ingredients
get my weekly PCR test done
Dig out the books for my church group tonight
go to said group.

Sun_Addict

I’m like you and have loads of toiletries to use up. Lots of small items that I used to keep for holidays pre-Covid. 

Sad about your colleague/friend. Taken too soon. 

CRANKY40

My House Troll had a planned due date but arrived on a date of his own choosing two and a half weeks early. I was allowed to choose the original date so negotiated around all the November family birthdays. He arrived at three minutes to midnight on his older cousin's birthday. He quite often tells me that if I'd walked more slowly to the operating theatre then he wouldn't have had to share 😂 I'm glad that the Little One is cooking nicely. 

Cherryfudge

There is now a Moses basket in place so the baby will have somewhere to sleep!  

Such a strange thing at work today: I was checking my shifts over the next few weeks and found one where I'd been down to work alongside the lady who's passed away. Things have been swapped round on many shifts and for various reasons but that one was still in my diary as it used to be.

Yesterday I went to the shops twice including on my way back from my church group, so quite late on. I ended up with lots of yellow-stickered items, many at a quarter of the price of the originals. DH was rather horrified at the veg standing round in the kitchen after my second trip, so today I made soup with half of it. I also got some discounted flowers which haven't suffered at all from being end of the day, and are a real bright spot - greens, blues, dark pink and bright orange!

The group meeting was really good: we seem to be gelling naturally though we didn't know each other before. We're planning a Christmas do in a couple of weeks which I'm looking forward to. I hope this new variant doesn't cause too many problems, but we all flow test before meeting to minimise the chances of transmission.

My sleep pattern is all over the place again, which usually means there's something I'm trying to avoid. Probably Christmas, as I feel I should be spending it with family and the new baby but will have to be in work instead - and I still haven't done half the shopping.

Today was an extra shift and went smoothly. Tomorrow I'm in on an early then leaving at lunchtime so I can come back to cover a couple of hours in the afternoon.

Spending (yesterday):
Housekeeping £25.70
Gifts £3.74

Things to be thankful for tonight: a quiet shift but not too quiet, veg soup that worked out okay!, ginger biscuits.

Cherryfudge

Nothing much to report: no spending over the past two days and I've only been out to work.

A kind colleague has agreed to cover part of my shift tomorrow as I want to support a family situation for a couple of hours. I'm owed the time at work as I did extra the other day.

This evening I'm thankful for the thoughtfulness and flexibility of colleagues, for the enjoyment of a client when we went for an early evening walk to look at the first of the Christmas lights, and for coming across a garden choc-a-bloc with Christmas inflatables and twinkling lights to make up to local children for a disappointing town Santa yesterday.

Cherryfudge

All quiet on the Western front.

I just couldn't get to sleep last night: I'm fairly sure I saw 3am, maybe later. DH woke me just about in time to do online church this morning and I watched while I had breakfast and dried my hair. Not ideal.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was able to accompany some of the family to something while DH went to his auntie's for the pre-Christmas visit. He's agreed to have Power of Attorney for her should she need it which I can see is a sensible thing to do but I feel sorry that he will have that hanging over him. Dealing with his Dad's and helping me deal with my Mum's estate has given him a lot of experience but at such a distance it could be a lot to take on (or not. She doesn't show any signs of needing it!)

Work has been quiet and quite productive though we have reached an impasse over staffing a few days in the near future. I've said I'll do one shift but it's my weekend off and I've promised the other day to DD so I really don't want to go back on that. We aren't just one or two covers needed, we are seriously short and I think we are going to have to cancel one or two clients. Not all the permutations have yet been worked through, but we are on the brink of the complex and inventive ones.

Tonight I'm thankful for being able to attend this afternoon's event and meeting someone from way back while there. I'm thankful for DH arriving safely and for a quiet house where it doesn't matter if I can't sleep because I don't need to be up first thing.

badmemory

Whilst I can see what you mean about the POA.  Just think how much worse it would be without one if you feel at all reponsible for someone.  How much harder to try to sort something out without the power to do it properly.  Your DH sounds like the type of person who couldn't just walk away & would want to do the job properly, which is of course why she's asked him.  Hopefully she will never need that help.

Cherryfudge

badmemory said:

Whilst I can see what you mean about the POA.  Just think how much worse it would be without one if you feel at all reponsible for someone.  How much harder to try to sort something out without the power to do it properly.  Your DH sounds like the type of person who couldn't just walk away & would want to do the job properly, which is of course why she's asked him.  Hopefully she will never need that help.

So true, @badmemory: an elderly relative in another part of the family developed dementia quite suddenly early in lockdown and her family didn't have POA so the Council is now in charge of her affairs. It isn't that her family don't care, it's that they aren't allowed to step in because she had nothing in place.

Having POA for my Mum was a gamechanger: before it kicked in I'd amassed hundreds of pounds of bills that I'd settled on her behalf but thankfully was able to pay myself back once it came through. She just lost the capacity to keep on top of financial things but once I could handle her money I could get her the treats that added to her quality of life in her care home - staff told me that those whose affairs were handled by a solicitor tended not to get treats because solicitors don't have time of personal knowledge to do things like that.

I just remember how huge a burden someone's affairs can be, and I wish DH didn't have the prospect of that again, but as you say, its a bigger burden if the documents aren't in place.

Cherryfudge

Dh has had a nice day visiting his niece while at Auntie's: I've been at home half the day being domesticated. I made bread and loads more veg soup (so I have an alternative to my usual overnight oats for work and so that DH comes home to fewer veggies in jugs of water on the kitchen counter). Some laundry is done and a bit of cleaning.

Work went okay and I looked ahead to New Year where I discovered there's a New Year's Day shift and sleep in needing to be covered. Our manager has just told us of a bonus payment for some of the imminent Bank Holidays if we take on shifts that aren't part of our rota, and yes, that swayed me and I've taken one of the shifts going. After all, if a certain trend comes to fruition, I could be looking to work elsewhere soon, so I may as well have a little extra cash in the bank as well as doing the service a favour. Dh and I never do NY in any big way, so I might as well be working.

Nothing spent today: there was nothing urgent on the shopping list and after work it was really a bit late to go bargain hunting.

Good news is there are lots of things to be thankful for: Duolingo tells me I'm in the top 1% of students! Never happened to me before but I have the triple advantage of enjoyment, time and prior knowledge. Lots of cooking done which helps use up ingredients (even if the bread is rather solid!). Opportunity to earn a bit more over New Year without taking too much time away from the baby who should be well and truly arrived by then.

Sun_Addict

Duolingo has also told me I’m in the top 1% of students 🥳 I love how the app is so encouraging.

I need to do a PoA for Mr SA. I went to a work presentation on them a few months ago and realised how important it was. Worthwhile for anyone to do even it if won’t be needed for a while.