Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

WelshmansDaughter said:

What do you do with water play? Small One likes water and so far I have not got beyond throwing stones in it

The one at church is a fancy gadget-ridden table where the water goes in at the top and there are all sorts of outlets and wheels that spin. We just add cups and things so they can pour or drink.

DGD loves water too, especially running water. At first it was mostly letting her hold her hand under the tap. I think it fascinated her. Now she gets a washing up bowl with things like cups and spoons, and entertains herself for ages while I try to keep the floor mopped. Bath toys are good too - boats, ducks, etc. Ice cubes would be fun but you'd need to make sure they didn't get swallowed (I don't want to be responsible for a choking hazard). If kiddo is allowed to choose things from the kitchen cupboards or play box, that adds a dimension. I'm a great believer in letting them work things out for themselves., so if they want the sieve, let them try the sieve. They will remember it what happens better than if we take it away saying 'You don't want that'. Mind you I spent some of Sunday morning mopping up a soggy soft toy octopus that someone had decided was meant to be in the water. Then I had to mop the child who tried to rescue it. The advantage of playing at home is it's all-weather and they don't have to be dressed!

One of the best ones I've seen for slightly older children in hot weather was a tarpaulin over a slide and spread out on the lawn. Douse it with water to make it extra slippery! This was at a friend's house and kept lots of children fully occupied.

Cherryfudge

I was supposed to be meeting a couple of people from work for a coffee this afternoon but one couldn't come. Still managed to meet the other and had a bit of a catch-up, and in the middle my phone went off. There was too much background noise in the café so I let it ring and rang back later but as soon as I could, as I could see it was the manager from my relief post. She wants my documents for pre-employment checks, so things are moving forward there. I was able to tell her I've just had confirmation I can work in a relief post while on the redeployment register.

DH and I had a search at home and found my degree certificate which I thought was lost. It was where it should have been so I must have overlooked it last time I checked. Alarmingly, it's quite badly foxed - I thought that only happened to very old books!

Dinner was corned beef from the freezer plus pastry and assorted veg from the fridge, which made quite a nice pie. The rest of the pastry made a sweet Swiss roll type thing with apricot jam and sultanas. A very waste not want not meal.

I had a text from my friend at work to ask if I wanted her to sort through a file I'd left. I said no as I think it's mostly certificates that I need to look through myself, but I asked her if she'd check my locker, to which she replied she was keeping any chocolate she found. I told her she'd be lucky... and had back a photo of a couple of boxes of (undoubtedly my) taste in chocolate. I've told her they're hers.  

Spreadsheet research has progressed as far as looking up what delimiters are, but I also found a printout from many years ago saying I'd got 100% in some aspect of elementary spreadsheets. I didn't even know what it was about, so the refresher is clearly needed, but at least I know now that I used to know, IYSWIM.

Expenditure:
Entertainment £6.15
Housekeeping £8.10

MS:
My cappuccinos are below £2 a box again!
Used up lots of fridge oddments and a tin of golden syrup, though not in the same thing.

Things I'm thankful for:
Friends, and keeping in touch
An opportunity to cheer someone on
J feeling better after yesterday
Dh finding my certificates
Remembering a birthday just in time

Cherryfudge

Today's been a lot cooler: the weather forecast said 14 degrees and rainy, but the rain wasn't too bad and I'm sure it was well over 14 while I was out and about.

Dh was out early to look after DGD while her parents went for a scan. There are extra scans for health reasons but all seems to be going well, with the baby growing as he or she should.  

I filled in the well-being questionnaire for tomorrow's CBT. I find these really hard to do and ended up in tears - ironic as I've generally been quite positive recently. I emailed the Talking Therapies mentor who deals with employment-related issues, and she's going to ask the therapist if I can do the questionnaire in a different form. I've no idea why it had such a bad effect on me but there's something going on that I haven't sussed yet.

DH and DGD came to the house to collect me and we read a Noah's Ark story: rather apt as it was still raining but it gave up while we were out. DGD has lots of new words this week so I made a list for posterity, though I realise now I forgot 'penguin'. We won't see her next week as we're all away.

Our dinner tonight was more of the aubergine and chickpea stew: I can see that's one to make again, but I might up the spices a bit.

Good news: I have a written copy of my job offer and tomorrow I've to take various documents to be seen and photocopied. I'm happy to see it in writing: not that there was any doubt they wanted me, but it looks very solid.  

This evening I had a message from DS2 alerting me to the closing hours of the Santander Easy Access Saver and for a wonder, I managed to read up on it and get an application in. I've put it in joint names as DH is worried he might not know where money is if I die! We have nearly everything in joint names anyway, and where it is at present is a joint account but the interest rates are low. There's the possibility interest rates on this new account may drop, but even so they will be better than I'm getting now. I also passed the info on the the rest of the family and one person signed up, so hopefully that will do them a favour.

So I'm still buzzing a bit from pushing through to get the account sorted: hopefully I can sleep soon.

Cherryfudge

Most of today was pretty full, so I sent my apologies for this evening's meeting. In the morning I had a bit of dash round trying to find my notebook for the CBT session. It turned up where I thought it should be, but something was on top of it. The actual session seemed quite useful: it's all done in little steps so I get used to recognising anxiety, not just that it happens but how I interact with it. The next two weeks will be about trying to find when/where it happens, and what I worry about.

The session was supposed to be half an hour but was around 50 minutes - and that's not me talking, honest. Well, a bit of it was, but not excessively. That left me not a lot of time to grab a few bites of the remaining pastry from the other day and the bag of certificates and hare off to meet the person who had to do all the photocopies for the relief. It's a massive building and there were rather a lot of papers to copy, so that took a while as well.

it was going on for one by the time I got back into town and I'd promised myself a new (cheap!) notebook to use for CBT, so I went on a search, during which I also happened to browse a few charity shops then bumped into the friend I'd had coffee with the other day. That turned into quite a long chat but eventually I bought my notebook, some dehumidifying sachets for wardrobes, a bag of soda crystals and some things called 'spring links' which look like carabiners but which are only really strong enough to keep my keys attached to some accessible part of my bag. I checked the market for interesting edible bargains and didn't buy any, then decided to go to what remains of Wilko. There's really not a huge amount left: I didn't realise how much I regularly bought there till I went to buy items one more time and there they weren't. I did treat myself to a couple of plant troughs at £4.50 for two, plus shampoo, serum and dish brushes.

When I got home I finished the pastry and had a large coffee: it was after three and that was my lunch!

Dinner was that great standby, lentil and chorizo soup, and I decided to catch up on correspondence by texting quite a lot of people. 

Dh had a meeting again, and while he was out I had a slight panic, realising I'd not sent off for a replacement railcard. Eventually I managed to sort this though, by renewing online, using Clubcard vouchers and using my (forgotten) railcard account which already had photos ready to upload. That saves £30 on the cost of the card, another £30 as we decided the two together option was practical for us as we rarely travel separately now, and whatever the future savings may be on rail journeys. Memo to self: you can do this!

A theoretically quiet day tomorrow: we'll see.

Expenditure:
Toiletries £3.20
Household 8.28
Garden £4.50
Stationery £1.49

MS:
Sorted the railcard with no direct expenditure of money
Discounts from Wilko's closing down sale  
Soda crystals are about 50p cheaper in Yorkshire Trading (and if you carefully stand on the bag the brick-like consistency becomes once again fluid. I Googled why it goes hard and apparently it's the heat. Moral - buy soda crystals in January).
Dinner from stores rather than trek back out to the shops.
Extra portion of soup now in freezer.
More blackberries!

Not so MS:
Going into Wilkos.  
Had to use the tumble dryer for the bedding as it was washed in the morning but the overrunning meetings and shopping meant I didn't get back to put it on the line till gone three.

Cherryfudge

Here is my theoretically quiet day. There's nothing I actually have to do today but plenty that would be useful:

Have a quiet time and do Duolingo (my mind has lost track of how to use de and des so I keep using up all my lives. I know it's a learning stage and one it comes back properly it will be embedded, but for now it's disheartening)

Another load of laundry

Sort out an outfit for tomorrow (funeral of a relative of DH's, a nice lady who made us very welcome. We had arranged a visit back on 2020 but the pandemic intervened and then she went quiet. Eventually DH found she had become forgetful and had to go into a care home, where he visited but it was a struggle. We are literally her nearest relatives, geographically, though she has closer family down south).

Pot on a camellia and have a bit of a tidy of the garden

Bring in the houseplants that have over-summered out of doors and tidy them up

Text someone who is willing to adopt a plant but I don't know her address (I need more windowsill space) 

See if I have in-date coriander seeds for next year (I've bought too much coriander when I could have picked it from aa pot, and now L!dl seems to have stopped doing coriander plants)

Do a bit of spreadsheet practice

Have a look at finances

Reply to any friends I didn't get back to yesterday

Email work to say I'll be away next week so can't be signing any HR documents for redeployment (not sure why I haven't already had these)

Find remnants of aran yarn in the stash for my next crochet project, and pack crochet /yarn/patterns etc to avoid last minute stress

Sort out clothes for trip to Scotland and get the food crate out of the shed (this is so useful for self catering! We bring the things it's ridiculous to buy for a week, like salt and oil, coffee and tea, then buy fresh thing when we are there)

I know that's more than enough list but nothing is urgent and doubtless other things will find their way in.

Floss

Cherryfudge said:

 
Email work to say I'll be away next week so can't be signing any HR documents for redeployment (not sure why I haven't already had these)

That email might be just the prompt needed!

Cherryfudge

The email has shaped the day. Turns out they thought I'd been sent the paperwork already, but I can't find it and I've looked carefully. I've been sent another copy then had a mini meltdown - not as bad as the one over the NHS routine questionnaires - because it refers to the redeployment process starting with my 'dismissal'. I emailed back and said I'd started the process (not them), and objected to the negative connotations of the word 'dismissal'. The manager has forwarded my comments and I think she sees what I mean, so I'm waiting to hear from HR.

I can see the procedure is to terminate my contract, but I'd rather it was worded something like 'the meeting reached mutual agreement that X's contract will terminate on the grounds of ill health on (date)' . Maybe I could have a job re-writing things that wrong-foot and potentially disadvantage an innocent party?  

I have, however. ploughed on with bits of the list.

Quiet time / Duolingo / email / laundry / camellia / garden tidy / houseplants / texting friends:

DONE.

There's a bit of a garden bias there, and I found a newt, which I'm happy about. They have such exquisite little hands! It played dead out of shock but seems uninjured and relaxed after a minute. I also divided up a plant and nearly divided up a bee that was sheltering underground. Amazingly it escaped the secateurs and I left it in another plant pot. It was a largish one, not red tailed, but I don't know what sort it was. I also found plenty of woodlice, slugs and worms, but didn't develop any meaningful relationships with those.

DH is out to a work dinner so I'm going to make pancakes for my tea.

No shopping today.

Cherryfudge

Hunting for coriander seeds has been productive, if by 'productive' I mean it's caused things to happen. There were coriander seeds - out of date. There were also a lot of other seeds - also out of date. Such a shame. The drawer where I keep them is quite deep and things had been buried under a load of cardboard labels from bulbs and the like (all now in the recycling. I don't recognise any of the pictures so I assume the plants are long gone). I've kept the label of my first rose tree (Grandmere Jenny) and the damson (Merryweather). The seed packets are in a heap and the whole operation is suspended as DH is in the way, using his laptop. Any excuse. There will be plastic labels to go in the recycling too.

I think I'll keep seeds that don't look too old - I seem to remember radishes can stay viable for ten years, which would be useful if I liked radishes - and donate the rest to the flower bed. It could be fun if some come up, though when I did this a few years ago. nothing happened.

Tidying in the garden has been more positive. Four remnants of bags of compost (complete with slugs and slug eggs!) have been thrown on the soil and the bags are binned. Hopefully the birds will see the slug eggs. There's one just-started bag of compost, with which I've been filling pots for the baby streptocarpus plants, and I fitted in some weeding because stray grass gets into things.

I think I might have to buy fresh coriander seeds.

badmemory

I have got so fed up of using stuff & finding out that was well in date & the same thing was there but out of date, that I now list everything that comes in the house along with the use by date & location.  Put it in a spreadsheet & just a search for it.  It can even tell me if I need more.  Oh the joys of needing a hip replacement & not being able to do my usual stuff.  The one thing I don't seem to be able to keep straight though is the freezer log.  No idea why that is.

Floss

Well done for objecting to that  wording - previously I've seen it recorded as a change in terms & conditions but retaining continuity of service. Maybe see what ACAS says?

Also, o.o.d. seeds may well still germinate, it's always worth a try!