Cherry takes the reins

Seasidegal58

Cherryfudge said:

Personally, I thought I'd been getting older every day, but it seems that doesn't count. Instead, I will fall (kicking and screaming) into the slipstream on my 60th birthday, as I become victim to all sort of things because I am then Older.

I suppose I'd better revise my Bucket List.  

I'd better find that walking stick and Zimmer frame!🤣

Cherryfudge

Seasidegal58 said:

I'd better find that walking stick and Zimmer frame!🤣

 

And the red hat, don't forget the red hat!

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple
with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired
and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
and run my stick along the public railings
and make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
and pick the flowers in other people's gardens
and learn to spit.
 
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
and eat three pounds of sausages at a go
or only bread and pickles for a week
and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.
 
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
and pay our rent and not swear in the street
and set a good example for children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

 

                                             Jennifer Joseph

 

Cherryfudge

Work was quiet yesterday and I managed to complete my November timesheet. I seem only to have worked about 8 hours overtime, but it's felt much more. There are a couple of sleep-in payments, which is welcome. I've yet to send it in, and the same goes for September's!

I'm stressing about a team day we are due to have soon: the last one was a disaster, and I just don't want to go through that again. The people leading tried too hard and it just felt patronising and as though we were being blamed for things behind all the smiles, then a manager has told me they are doing another 'lessons learned' session. I know what this is about: there was a serious happening and everyone is very jumpy because we can see how easy it is to do something wrong despite loads of training and experience - so why spell it all out again? Especially in the presence of the people who've already had to deal with it. I'm thinking of speaking to the manager and pleading the ill effects on my mental health.

This lunchtime I was supposed to be going with H to the baby's swimming lesson, but I've cried off in favour of a quiet day. I think I will go to Wilko's and treat myself to a couple of Christmassy bits that have been calling my name! The other day I thought I didn't need them, but in fact do we actually 'need' any decorations? No, but they cheer up these dark weeks. We have loads already: our own and inherited ones and DH is getting edgy about the amount of clutter, but neither of these will take up much space.

That said, I will spend a few minutes tidying before I go out, to try to redress the balance.

Cherryfudge

I managed a very tiny amount of tidying and got some of my errands done. I can see my low mood has been quite a feature today so I made myself work on what's real rather than how I'm feeling. And real is okay.

By sunset we had fog, so it's Proper November Weather.

I didn't get the Christmas stuff and I've not had my glasses mended, but maybe these can be done tomorrow. I spent a while searching for some fondant cutters towards a gift I plan to make. None of the local shops seems to have them so I've just ordered them online (£2.49).

I bought a dessert for H and A as we went to theirs for tea and this really cheered me up (the visit more than the dessert). Lovely to see them all and play with the baby. H was annoyed because their swimming session had been moved and the class hadn't let her know, so she'd wasted time and petrol. However, the vegan ice cream went down very well with fresh raspberries - I love raspberries and as three of us are restricted on milk products, vegan is proving very handy. Bathing the baby was fun, too.

I looked at the data on my fitness app and realised that although I slept last night, I was very sleep-deprived the previous two nights (heavy shift then early shift) and also dehydrated, so this probably hasn't helped how I feel.

J has just texted me to arrange our Christmas shopping day on Saturday, so I have that to look forward to. I'm thinking going by train would work well as it would only cost me about £11. The bigger city is around £28 or a longish car journey. Then my phone cut out. I'd seen the battery a few minutes before and it was 41%, and a similar thing happened this morning. I seem to remember this in the past and I think it meant the battery was nearly worn out. I can't remember how old this battery is, but I use my phone all the time, so I don't think it owes me anything but before I go and spend money, I'm trying out a few things from the Internet.

Spending today:
Housekeeping £7.19
Household £2
Gift £2.49

Things I'm thankful for: a lovely time with A and family, really juicy sweet pears, a good score on my language app this morning.

Cherryfudge

Another day off. DH's friend, who's a pharmacist, came round and took time to do a meds consultation with me because the hour wait for food and coffee in the mornings is a bit of a stress. He reckons that as I haven't felt a big difference since taking the Omeprazole first, I could take the levothyroxine and wait the standard half hour then have breakfast/coffee. The Omeprazole can then be taken along with aspirin a bit later. He explained something I'd not been aware of: aspirin not only has the potential to make holes in one's stomach, it also changes the chemistry. The Omeprazole helps counteract that, so it's partly a case of a drug being taken to counteract an effect of another drug. I don't get to stop the aspirin because it helps guard against blood clots and the occluded vein in my eye puts me at risk of losing the sight in it if ever a blood clot should wander in.

So to put it briefly, he reckons I can have breakfast (and coffee, don't forget the coffee) half an hour earlier.

Aside from that I've wasted a lot of the day worrying about work from a bit of a sideways angle. I went on their website to look up the staff wellbeing area (which I didn't find as I can't remember what it's called) and found a survey in my emails which I then spent a lot of time completing. I'm still havering over telling the manager I won't be at the staff day because of the pressure on my mental health. I'm still weary from the weekend and it seems to have put me on some sort of cycle of worry again so I think I could do without it... but I don't tend to back out of things. It's a bit like deciding I need to go sick when I have a really good attendance record. On the other hand, it's on my day off.

Later in the day I went to get my glasses repaired and bought a few small gifts for family. I also got one of the Christmas decorations I'd had my eye on but decided against the other.

This evening DH had the extra curry he'd brought back from Sunday's event. He was wary as it was Thai Green curry and he didn't know if he'd like it, but he loved it, so maybe that will expend his repertoire. I had pizza and the first mince pie of the season with my friends while we watched the rest of our film.

It's late and I'm tired so I'll do the spending list tomorrow. I've just paid my credit card up to date though, so as to minimise any nasty surprises next month.

Things I'm thankful for: DH's friend's helpful advice, lovely evening with my friends, finding tiny 'Christmas lights' for the dolls' houses.

Cherryfudge

Yesterday's spending:
Toiletries £11.49
Hobbies £3.25
Gifts £11.49

Today has also been a bit costly: I had my first dental visit for four or five years and to my delight the new dentist is not only nice but also thorough and also... told me I clean my teeth well! There was the option of a small filling but without my previous records she couldn't tell whether this was static or developing so I said we'll review it in six months.

It also turned out she had done her Master's in dental care in a field related to my area of work, so I hurriedly got her 30 second version of what to do - it seemed a bit cheeky to ask her for the potted version when she's done a Master's in it, but on the other hand I was on her time, and she probably had other people to see.

I went through the market on the way back but didn't get anything here (enough junk food and not needing any fruit or veg) but I went to buy DS2's birthday present that I'd seen yesterday on a Black Friday discount. The discount had ended! I bought it anyway because it's not too much and he's not easy to buy for. I got a couple of stocking fillers as well so those are gradually topping up.

Now work has rung looking for a few hours' cover: I'm still tired and I'm dog-sitting so I'm not going to give them the whole evening even though my usual Wednesday night activity is cancelled. Just deciding what to say to them apart from 'okay' and wondering if I can get the goldfish tank cleaned before I go! (The answer there is that I can: I don't actually have to help work out, and as I wasn't rung till after the shift started, they must be coping so far. And the fish tells me he needs clean water).

Today's spending:
Medical £55 (dentist)
Garden £4.75 (an unheated seed propagator from a charity shop - not cheap but cheaper than new).
Gifts £24.96
Housekeeping 49p

And this afternoon I'm thankful for not having any major dental needs, for a few hours extra work that will in my head pay for most of the treatment, for the puppy to play with today and for finding something that I think DS2 will enjoy using (it's a mini waffle maker in case anyone's wondering)

And I'm proud of myself for resisting a coffee table in the charity shop, on the grounds that DH stresses over the clutter... but it's one of those things that's hitched a lift home in my head so do I try to work out how we'd live with it? It's a good shape and size and we don't have one, but that doesn't mean to say there's space.

badmemory

Your dentist probably enjoyed talking to someone on the same wavelength as she was. 

Cherryfudge

I did about four more hours at work and it wasn't too strenuous at all. One of those cases where having one more person frees everyone up to work more easily. I had a chance to speak to the manager and explained my reasons for not going to the Team Day, and she accepted it, so now I just have to get over wondering if I've done the right thing and can I stand missing out. I think I needed to, though. Afterwards I went to see if there were any good apples left under the community tree. It's as well I had a bag because I picked up 50! Mostly small, I hasten to add. There are still lots there: no one else is using them. A lot of what's left are damaged, though.

I dropped them off at home and went on an evening bargain hunt to L1dl where I spent an unplanned £23.08. It would have been £26 but I had a discount voucher and most of what I bought was end-of-the-day markdowns: two joints of lamb, some salmon, two loaves of bread (okay, that was a bit absent-minded of me), some brownies and a couple of muffins. The brownies are super-sweet so I cut them in half and three then last me about a week. The lamb is an indulgence because we like it but can't usually justify spending so much. It just seemed so wrong to let it go to waste, but I Ieft a lot more than I bought as it's still a lot of money and we haven't the storage. One of these will become a Moroccan roast and the other might become curry. There are a couple of days till the end date so the slow cooker will have to come out tomorrow.

Muffins look as though they would feed an army so mine is going to be two portions - hold me answerable.

We finished off the Southern Fried Chicken for dinner - I discovered recently that burger-type things cook in the microwave in a couple of minutes - how useful is that?! Ideal for when I am short of time or hungry, and it must be a big fuel saving.

Cherryfudge

A last-minute Black Friday deal... well, I'd been giving it serious thought for ages. I've ordered briquettes for the log burner - both to reduce our reliance on gas and electricity and in case those two fail outright on us. £78.16 spent, and that's with 10% off. The alarming thing is that actually wouldn't last us a month if we used only that. We have plenty of kindling and our own logs too, so this is more about having well dried and easy-to-store fuel.

...and £12.99 for a train ticket for Christmas shopping with J.

Cherryfudge

In contrast to yesterday, nothing spent today. I had my share of the salmon as a hurried sandwich at lunchtime, which was both healthy and nice. Two and a half minutes in the microwave - I need to remember that for future reference.

Work was quite a good shift and once again, I didn't have to lead. I'm in again tomorrow and it should be quiet, which is just as well as I'm sandwiching the shift between church cleaning and a sleep in at work, and following it with a day out.

Things I'm thankful for today: some good news about a work situation that had been on my mind, a positive step forward in a friend's family situation and me actually sending my timesheet in, in good time (though October's is still due).