Cherry takes the reins

Honeysucklelou2

Sorry to read about your friend’s husband. 

Glad that you were able to see  your sister and family.

Cherryfudge

Thank you @Sun_Addict and @Honeysucklelou2. 

Yesterday was very rainy which of course was needed though it's not been as dry up here as it has further south. It put paid to car boot sales for the day. DH and I did the hoovering at church which I'd not been able to fit in on Friday. I watered the church plants too, but they didn't need much.

In the afternoon we had a mooch round a neighbouring town, visiting charity shops as I've missed my car boot fix all this month. In the very first one we went into, I found two old books priced for the vintage market. When we'd gone round every other shop, I still wanted them so I went back and bought them, along with a 1954 magazine about sewing which has some lovely jumpers in. Shame their patterns are too small for a lot of women nowadays, me included!

Elsewhere on our wanderings I found a nice pair of trousers for £4.50, again this wasn't a necessary but I liked the pattern a lot and can see myself getting wear out of them - despite having three bids in for trousers on 3bay! Two of the bids are for summer-weight trousers (potentially making three new pairs of summer-weight ones) and one is for cords to save on the fuel bills in winter. Last buy was a little tin of sewing machine feet. I think I've identified two out of three and as a bonus they should fit my machine. Cost was £2.50 to me but to buy new, the two I identified are around £23.

DH bought a couple of greetings cards but I don't know what they cost.

I went into the supermarket at the end of our trip, as it's bigger than ours and has a few lines I can't get locally. Peanut butter has gone up again for the second time in recent weeks: now £1.09 for the cheap version instead of 85p (or possibly 89p, can't remember). It's a line where they track Ald! prices and presumably Ald! has given in and increased theirs. I had another supermarket trip later to get flowers to give to the host at a house warming party that evening. We had a lovely time and got to know some new people, so an evening well spent. I also ended up entertaining the youngest guest who was playing Duolingo on my phone! Hopefully she will benefit.

Today I woke up quite early and had a muzzy head and headache till mid afternoon when I went back to sleep for around an hour and a half and woke feeling better. I helped out with the coffees after the service at church and I've been to the supermarket for some bits... other than that we tried a new recipe for dinner and enjoyed it a lot (thank you @Sun_Addict!)

Spending:
Books £19
Hobbies £3.50
Clothing £4.50
Housekeeping £21.86
Gifts 2x cards £? flowers £5.

Things to be thankful for: someone on the coffee rota who knew what she was doing (not me!), new recipe with plenty of veg as well as plenty of taste, making friends yesterday, spotting nice books at the charity shop, time with DH.

Sun_Addict

Glad you enjoyed it. 

in_need_of_direction

I love how you balance things out.

Cherryfudge

An extra shift at work yesterday and a team meeting today so nine and three quarter hours extra on my timesheet.

DH and I both had a day off today (that was before I knew about the meeting: it isn't compulsory but was useful and I don't like not being in the know) but there was nothing I felt like doing so we decided to tackle the garden. DH had trimmed a tree back the other day but there's so much to do still. As it was, having woken up after a good night's sleep, full of energy and feeling well, after two hours I felt I could have gone back to bed. I didn't: it wasn't that bad really but I didn't have impetus for anything. I've made myself an appointment with the doctor.

In the afternoon, after the meeting, I decided I'd like to go out for coffee (about £15 for the two of us including cakes: perhaps not the best use of the money though it was nice to have time together). We meandered back via shops so there's £5.98 sent on a couple of items for our grand daughter and some grocery shopping too. I then remembered there was a magazine I had my eye on (knitting pattern) but the only one left in the supermarket was already opened so any freebies might be missing. Cue detour in which I bought not only the magazine but also a small gift for someone else. Oh yes, and we took advantage of the evening discounts at L!dl later, but not massively.

So quite a lot got in the way of doing the garden but in the end I spent about an hour and a half in the evening chopping back the old raspberry canes, quite a few brambles (not the fruiting ones) and some odd twigs. We haven't cut the grass for a while and it's starting to grow back green. In the meantime the greengages are sending suckers up through the lawn! I trimmed a few of these off so they don't snarl up the lawnmower. I was delighted to find a few damsons ripening too.

Spending:
Housekeeping £11.03
toiletries £2.75
Stationery 50p
Gifts £8.98
Hobbies £6.99
Entertainment £14.50 approx.

Things I'm thankful for tonight: leisure and the wherewithal to enjoy it. A colleague making an effort to find a rota change to ease my hours. A manager who injects positivity into the team. And of course the NHS.

Cherryfudge

Today was a bit chaotic, my health is under par and my mood was low so I didn't get much done. I had the morning all to myself as DH can work from the office and much prefers it as he likes to work alongside colleagues. Did I do anything much with the quiet time? No - but it was so nice to have my own space just for half a day. More than that and I feel I've wasted too much time.

I'd promised to post a parcel for DH so I went down over lunchtime and was shown how to use the new self-service machines. I had a couple of dizzy spells while I was out: they're happening a couple of times a day at the moment so it's as well I get to speak to the doctor next week.

Oops, computer is playing up. I've had to close down and start again and the message came out partly-typed. I hope this attempt works better!

I'd asked H and the baby over after lunch but we met up en route and went for a walk before going back to mine. I stopped at the shops for some yogurt and granola in attempt to counteract my earlier snack of a doughnut. We had a good time playing with the baby and taking huge amounts of photos: she's 'commando-crawling' and can make her way towards me, and she's eating more solids (baby-led: everything is interesting, from new tastes to the sun through the leaves outside my window).

I also heard that my friend's husband's funeral will be a day when we are away. I'd intended to go to the service but tickets and a hotel are booked in London. I also heard that another friend from the same group is having a medical procedure that day so she can't go either.

Spending:
Housekeeping £5.59
Postage £4.45

Things to be thankful for: time with H and baby N, finding a healthy lunch when I needed one, down time this morning.

Cherryfudge

A couple of successful bids on ebay are now paid for £5.30 and £6 (both clothing). One outbid, but never mind.

badmemory

What's that Meatloaf record - 2 out of 3 ain't bad!  (A personal favourite!)

Cherryfudge

badmemory said:

What's that Meatloaf record - 2 out of 3 ain't bad!  (A personal favourite!)

True - and it saves me a few £££.  

I had a full day today but less dizzy this morning than recently. The old cure (make a doctor's appointment some time in the future) could be working.  

My friend and I had coffee this morning, then went to choose flowers for the friend who lost her husband last week. We had a bit of a wait for the flowers to be made up, so had another coffee, then delivered the flowers and were invited in (yes, we were offered coffee but I stuck with a glass of water) and spent some time catching up with our friend. I bought bread and milk on the way home then had to hurry to get lunch and be at work on time.

Good news this evening as the Team Leader has managed to rejig my rota so I don't have a five-day stretch any more. I'm hoping I've made the best choice asking for that. It distributes my hours more evenly. Hopefully I'll feel more energetic and also make better use of days off now I don't have five of them together.

Spending:
Entertainment (coffee for two twice - my friend has next shout!) £11.
Gift £10
Housekeeping £1.81

Things I'm thankful for: meeting up with friends, a straightforward shift, a better rota.

Cherryfudge

CC paid off for the month but another £112 added on to pay for accommodation on the way back from our September break.

I've also had various bits of grocery shopping, both on the way back from church cleaning and before work yesterday, and after work today. Yesterday's shift was positive but complicated and full-on so three of us never got round to eating our teas. We just have to learn from that and plan differently in future. One of my colleagues agreed with my description of the trip to get a takeaway as 'surreal' but while that was a big success, immediately we got back to base a piece of equipment failed at the same time as several other things happened... I didn't get home till after 10.30 and my colleague who had swapped to the shift to help me out and was supposed to leave at 8.30 was only just before me.

It was all rather much except... my energy came back! It's wonderful. It's been similar today too.

Late at night I briefly saw DS2 who came to attend a friend's funeral and was away again when I got back this afternoon.

This morning was an early shift and I applied one of my lessons learned from yesterday: sit new staff down with a  folder each and tell them to do write-ups. The previous evening I ended up with three to do so this was a lot quicker. I did hear, though, that there's been an incident reminiscent of something that happened a few years ago and which has given me a few grey hairs. Ah well. I'm hoping and praying some work is done higher up to change things there.

Spending (yesterday)
Pets £1.50
Gift (for DGD, a keyboard) £14.99
Housekeeping £8.62
(Today) Housekeeping £9.95 + chip shop chips and grocery shopping by DH.

Things to be thankful for: feeling well again, discovering a particularly good ready meal, finding a child's keyboard that's relatively in tune.