Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

A lovely sunny day again: I got the washing on the line early on as there won't be much opportunity over the next couple of days. Unfortunately a bird or two has targeted it so a small wash will have to go through again tomorrow.

We actually made it to church on foot this morning. First day of refreshments being served in a couple of years, but I didn't want to risk it: the area around the serving hatches gets too busy for my liking. I think some others may have thought similarly as it took a while for coffees to appear in people's hands.

We've been eating out of supplies today so there is actual room in the freezer. It's surprising how much lurks in there! While checking, I noticed cooked chicken (or turkey?) and gammon as well as various veg, so pie may well be on the menu soon.

In the afternoon we went round to H and A's. They had been to see round J and L's wedding venue and brought us our wedding invitation! It's getting closer so I need to get a move on with shifting some weight and choosing an outfit. I've been looking at rented dresses as I don't usually do dresses and don't want to spend a lot if I never wear it again. The dress I bought for H and A's wedding has been worn once even though it's gorgeous.

The baby has grown! She's also miraculously become generally peaceful and smiley. She seemed content to let me hold her, possibly because I faced her away from me so she could watch everything going on. A and H had to grab a late lunch but after that we all went for a walk and the baby fell asleep in her sling. I'm over 17,000 steps today which is an added bonus.

Other than that I bought flowers and biscuits as a thank you to them for feeding the goldfish, and a loaf of bread for us as we'd forgotten to go to the shops when we got home yesterday. We've also filled in a survey to see whether what sort of impact our household is having on the environment: you can score none, bronze, silver or gold depending how you answer. Ashamed to say we got zilch for community and global engagement. Bronze for worship and prayer (it's a church survey) and for home, and silver for garden, travel, food and possessions. I can see there are plenty of areas I'd never really gone into, though I'm glad my thrifty tendencies have stood us in good stead. 

Spending:
Housekeeping 85p
Gift £5

This evening I'm thankful for time with family, a sunny day, the baby sleeping better and new ideas to help the environment.

Honeysucklelou2

Exciting times with a wedding on the horizon! 

Cherryfudge

Honeysucklelou2 said:

Exciting times with a wedding on the horizon! 

It is indeed! I've been thinking about hiring an outfit as it's easy to spend a lot on something one never wears again. DH is trying to work out what he's going to wear: we were going to shop for it today but realised he already has trousers which may or may not fit the bill so he's sent a picture to the groom-to-be. (There's a very stylish 'look' for the men to interpret as they will: just as well interpretation is allowed as Ralph Lauren is mentioned!)

I did some cleaning and clearing in our room this morning ready for the new mattress, which was delivered about eleven. It was amazingly compressed so the chaps took away the old one and left this one to recover its shape. Over the last few hours it's been getting deeper and deeper!

I'd been dumping bits and pieces in our room since goodness knows when and it's been too overwhelming to tackle. Most of it is now sorted into piles on the spare bed and our room is looking better. It's not solved yet, of course, but it's largely 'derandomised' and I'll get the polish out before anything goes back.

H brought the baby round this morning as their printer isn't working and she needed some documents copied. We had a nice hour or so! The baby is getting weighed again this afternoon and after her slow initial weight gain, H is worried what will be said, but I don't think there'll be any cause for concern this time.

I've been trying to sort my annual leave: I know there are only a few days left to use it up though I can carry a week over till the end of May. Booking it has been stymied for today because my manager has been on leave and hasn't yet processed changes I sent in a couple of weeks ago. Until those are processed I can't rebook according to our new rota. All this catching up on leave business is hard work! I've now mapped out exactly what I need to have this week, down to an odd half hour, then once I am in work again I have seven and a half hours still to find from the last week of the month.

Coming up to the end of the financial year, I was going to ring Pensions today and see if a lump sum can go out of this month's pay and straight into my pension - but I'm having qualms about whether that's the best thing to do. Seems daft just to leave it in my account as there's enough there to cover expenses and savings accounts are okay, while my pension isn't.

Today, washing is on the line again and DH is giving the grass its first mow of the year. The garden needs work but, like the house, it's a case of where to start.

It's just occurred to me I probably need to contact payroll not pensions... I wish I had a maths brain.

Cherryfudge

I spent a lot of this afternoon pouring over pensions info and getting a headache, but I now have lots of notes and some questions to ask. DH has been through a lot of phone calls with his pension as he left a final salary job and is now working for less, but he still hadn't come across the questions I need answered. I find I can only cope with a certain amount of these things that are made for a different kind of brain!

It seems I can pay additional contributions or Additional Voluntary Contributions, but any additional payments of either are voluntary... but one needs a medical and the other one may, or may not. I can pay in up to £40,000 a year... but there's something on my employer's website that says I can buy up to £7,3176 p.a. Possibly that's to do with a limit of salary sacrifice? It's not clear.

Our grass looks a lot better for DH's hard work this afternoon, and a flock - a 'murder', I believe! - of crows has come to the tree above the washing line. Not good for the washing but otherwise interesting.

I popped into town for my prescription and some groceries, and we used up some freezer bits to make a pie for tea. I will admit to quite a lot of afternoon chocolate too, to help me get through the pensions bumf. 

Spending:
Housekeeping £9.78
Donation 54p

This evening I'm thankful for our new mattress to sleep on, for time with H and the baby and for my tidy dressing table.

Cherryfudge

A mixed bag of a day so far! The new mattress is very comfortable, so it got off to a good start.

DH and I have both put in for tax relief for working from home - a double win. Mine covers a few meetings and at least one training session, his is entirely from home. Odd that it comes to the same thing, but at least we get some of our electricity costs back. Not sure how far into the gas bill it will extend but it's all helpful.

I had a call from work where covid absences have made a dent in staffing, so its been agreed that I can cover in the morning and still get paid for annual leave in the afternoon. I would rather have had a day off but I still get the afternoon and evening.

We went for our first run in ages and I only lasted 10 minutes! I'm still feeling some benefit though.

Sun_Addict

You’ll soon build up the running again, it’s surprising how quickly it comes back. I haven’t been for a run for ages. Good news on the comfy mattress and WFH tax relief.

Honeysucklelou2

Well done on the run. Must dust off my trainers and start C25K again!

Cherryfudge

Rather a lot of plant buying has been going on. Yesterday we decided to make the most of the last of the days off and headed down to the garden centre to spend some of my garden centre vouchers on a bird bath. Long story short, we decided a 'proper' bird bath wouldn't work in our garden and bought a (much cheaper) very large plant saucer to sink in the ground for the birds. I can put a stone in to enable small creatures to climb out, and won't have to worry about it overbalancing. I also bought some herbs and seeds.

Today - a good earnings day as I've had a seven hour shift followed by seven hours of annual leave! I was still short of one day of leave which will now probably be put 'officially' onto a day next week, which I will then work because we haven't enough staff, but I will take the Friday in lieu as there are more than enough of us then. The Friday is in April and I've already carried over my maximum leave so I can't just take it. These things are never simple.

An added complication for the already-stressed staffing levels is the rise in Covid levels. Three or my usual colleagues and two staff from the service where I have been helping out are now positive, and none of them is asymptomatic. Two other people are off with similar symptoms that aren't Covid. I'm certainly rethinking about leaving off the mask! I suppose the booster jabs are wearing thin as everyone from the team who's infected is feeling really unwell, and we were all 'done' quite early in the booster regime.

I went back to first-lockdown work practices when I got home. All clothes in the wash and a shower and shampoo for me. I may not have come into contact with any virus but I don't want to risk taking any out of the building even though we are all testing negative. We are on daily flow tests and twice-weekly PCRs again while this lasts.

I had a late afternoon trip to L!dl for a few groceries and came back with a tray of strawberry plants, some Swiss Chard seedlings, a blackcurrant bush and a red gooseberry bush as well as the edibles. I won't get time for the garden till Friday so I'm enjoying them in the hall.

I'm glad I bought them in the supermarket not the garden centre as I know enough to see they were in good condition but I paid a fraction of the garden centre prices. The garden centre did look fab yesterday, though: full of beautiful flowers and sounds of running water.

This evening was an important meeting at church which went on far longer than usual over some important business - but I also managed to have a quick catch-up with someone from the catering team who showed me where to find the coffee machine cleaner before we tried to work out where to start on getting the kitchens back into operation!

Tomorrow I'm seeing H and the baby in the morning, then back home for lunch followed by a video meeting with a couple of senior people about the issues I raised (no idea how they will play this but I intend to be helpful and constructive). Then I'm on the late shift and sleep in so I may not be back on here till Friday.

Spending:
Garden (via voucher) £24.51
Garden £9.26
Housekeeping £4.06

This evening I'm thankful for a constructive meeting, for lovely warm weather and for the prospect of things to grow!

Cherryfudge

My 'big meeting' with two managers was interesting and quite useful. I had an hour of both their time and an additional half hour of my manager's time - pretty amazing! I'm cautiously satisfied with the result, though only time will tell if they've made the right call. The shift was straightforward and I got a good night's sleep, waking in time to read in bed before I needed to get up and leave work.

This morning - gorgeous sunny morning, more like June than March - was quite busy as it was my turn on the cleaning team at church. I enjoy this: you get to do something practical, largely on your own terms, and have some nice chats along the way. They are also dismantling the church library so I came home with a new-to-me book. This is a victory as I could have had an armful!

The afternoon was our first real-life team meeting at work in about three months and it overran, which is okay as I was on annual leave this morning, making the meeting into overtime. An interesting development was that, with a shortage of team leaders, they have now officially opened up the possibility of people becoming relief team leaders. I've often thought I'd like to try it - I was one many years ago and don't think I did very well, but I've learnt a lot since then. I have the necessary paperwork as a previous job required it - but do I want to do it? It's not a full team leader role with all the admin, more a shift leader role. My friend has already expressed an interest, which makes sense as she is regularly acting up to it already, and has been for years. I think I'm going to wait and see how it looks in practice before I offer, and even if I did offer, I don't know if I'd be accepted.

Talking of being accepted, I had an email from the lady who interviewed me a few weeks ago, but it was only to say she'd been off and would ring me when she has time.

After the meeting, when DH had finished a frustrating day's work (IT not doing what it should) we went out in the sunshine and borrowed my friend's dog for a walk, calling in at the supermarket on the way home for what turned out to be a bargain salmon dinner. I've done over 21,000 steps now so I'm fairly tired.

It's so nice when March turns out to be warm and sunny.

Spending:
Housekeeping £8.83

This evening I'm thankful for some positives at work, bumping into a former colleague while out on our walk, good health so we can get out and about and the prospect of a weekend when we'll see some of the family.

Cherryfudge

It's been a lovely day, though I'm tired now due to taking a hay fever tablet this morning. Washing went out on the line and the new plants are hardening off in the garden. I've even had to get the hose out for the plant pots.

We went to the car boot sale this morning and once again came away with some delightful bargains. No multi cookers today but DH spent £20 on a framed signature which works well with his love of collecting historical things. Everything I bought was 50p apart from a scarf at £1. The scarf was new with tags and Christmassy so I've put it away for now. Apart from that I bought a book by the early C20th girls' author, Angela Brasil. I have one other of hers. 50p is great for that though the spine is missing so I doubt a commercially-minded collector would be interested. Then I was looking at a couple of balls of yarn when the stall holder offered me a bundle of it, again for 50p. I was only interested in two part-balls but I said yes because, well, it was being offered, wasn't it? Some was a colour I'd never used so I've dropped that off for a friend (I pretend this is me not cluttering the place up, though of course it's me cluttering the place up as always, just not so much as I could have cluttered it). The rest of the wool smelled a bit musty once it was indoors so I've washed it and it's drying overnight. If the smell remains, apparently vinegar will cure it, and presumably more washing to get rid of the smell of vinegar, which I can always smell after I've used it for cleaning.

What else? Scarf, book, yarn... ah yes, a pair of shorts which I've yet to try on. If they don't fit, they can be donated. So £22.50 spent this morning between us.

DS2 texted to ask if he could stay over tonight. Long story short, we went for a forest walk with A, H and the baby, and DS2 met us there. He's out with friends this evening, spending the night here and going with us to a BBQ at J and L's tomorrow. We are bringing doughnuts and grapes so we went to the supermarket for those and some bread on the way home.

The forest walk, by the way, was a trail between pine trees, going uphill to a point where the landscape opened out and we could see for miles over the moors. It's very empty at this point in the year, apart from a glinting mass of cars parked to go on the popular walk around the reservoir! They look incongruous, to say the least. We could hear grouse and a pheasant, but didn't meet anyone and the baby slept in her sling throughout the walk. We found plenty of frogspawn in the tiny stream beside the path, and a couple of toads too.

It's been gorgeous weather: shorts for some of us, certainly light clothing all day. I think we might have caught the sun a bit. Next week is forecast to go back down to about nine degrees but this last week of March is one I've known before to be more like May. The daffodils don't like it, they are starting to go over which is always a shame but on the other hand there are plenty of lambs out in the fields.

Both DSes have given me Mother's Day gifts early and the cakes from DS2 are half eaten already, on his advice. Can't have them going stale!
Spending:
Hobbies £20.50
Book 50p
Clothing £1.50
Housekeeping £3.50 + £7 approx (fish and chips though we saved on the mushy peas by buying them from L!dl ).
Gift £3.80

This evening I'm thankful for such a good day, good company and a number of treats large and small - and the freedom to enjoy it all.