Tales from The Shire

Fortune_Smiles

ruby_eskimo said:

Happy new year to you Fortune, sounds like you had an excellent and much needed mix of celebrating and relaxing over the last week.  Goals for the next year sound very reasonable and I'm eagerly anticipating the PB draw to see if we've won anything on the first go 😆

Oooh good luck on the PBs Ruby 🍀

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Back to Work

I have de-Christmassed 👏  Took me all day, and the boxes are all still stacked up in the dining room, but it's done.  We moved here from a much smaller house and our decorations looked a bit pitiful when we put them up the first time.  Since then we've added one or two decorations each year which means we now need an extra storage box to put them in.  We could also use some storage boxes for family photos and documents so I'll get a couple if they're not too expensive.  Mr F has been tasked with taking the boxes back to the barn.

We had Christmas leftovers for lunch and supper - a part-baked baguette topped with damson jelly and a brie type cheese, followed by fruit then more of the Swiss Chard, Bacon & Gruyere Tart with beans and chips.  There's still a slice each of the tart left which we'll have for lunch tomorrow.

Took FDawg for a walk this morning and I even started my belly dancing dvd today 💃  I just did the first two introductory sessions but that took an hour and it was quite hard work.  Probably because it worked muscles I'd forgotten I had.  Fun though.

I ordered some dog food and treats for FDawg today and did the on-line grocery shop.  Came in a little under budget so that cash will go into the savings pot.

Mr F has cleared his back log of emails from Christmas so, hopefully, will be a little less grumpy tomorrow 😆  The first day back to work is always pants isn't it.

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

First day back certainly is pants 😂 I usually spend the day trying to remember how my job works and wishing I didn't have to do it! 😂

Love the thought of you doing your belly dancing DVD, what fun! I've not done a video workout for a while. Building myself up with plenty of dog walking at the minute!

Well done for de-Christmassing. We won't be doing it for a while 😂 but then we've only got the tree up, nothing else, and I do love the twinkliness of an evening 😊

Your food always sounds so tempting and well prepared! 

Fortune_Smiles

Cheery_Daff said:

First day back certainly is pants 😂 I usually spend the day trying to remember how my job works and wishing I didn't have to do it! 😂

Love the thought of you doing your belly dancing DVD, what fun! I've not done a video workout for a while. Building myself up with plenty of dog walking at the minute!

Well done for de-Christmassing. We won't be doing it for a while 😂 but then we've only got the tree up, nothing else, and I do love the twinkliness of an evening 😊

Your food always sounds so tempting and well prepared! 

I even have a belly dancing hip scarf Cheery - red with gold coins 😆

I love that you wait to take down your tree until something else cheerful is happening.  I worry that, if I left mine up much longer, the baubles would need dusting 😂

I'm hearing about lots of tempting, well prepared food on your diary too.  Sounds like you are enjoying your new kitchen.

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

Certainly am enjoying the kitchen! 😊😊😊😊 so nice to have a selection of leftovers and batch cooked meals to choose from. I'll never take a functional kitchen for granted 😊😊

savingholmes

Gotta love a bit of belly dancing. I have a black wrap with coins on - but I'm not sure it would even come close to fitting right now. I went to a class once (a series of) - but then they stopped doing those type of classes which is a shame because as you say it makes exercise fun. May need to look into some utube on it and try from home...

Fortune_Smiles

savingholmes said:

Gotta love a bit of belly dancing. I have a black wrap with coins on - but I'm not sure it would even come close to fitting right now. I went to a class once (a series of) - but then they stopped doing those type of classes which is a shame because as you say it makes exercise fun. May need to look into some utube on it and try from home...

I'm using this DVD SH.  I've only used the first couple of sections in the Introduction so far but I'm finding it really easy to understand and follow.  It looks like it's going to be great for a re-starter/beginner like me.  It's great value and has good reviews too but if you do an internet search for 'leila belly dancing body wisdom' lots of Y0u Tub£ clips of the video come up.  This one covers the two introductory sections I did yesterday.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Leftovers

We're still munching our way through Christmas leftovers.  At least Mr F is helping out so it's not all down to me 😉  The last of the biscuits and chocolates went today 🤭  We had avocado and goat's cheese on toast with a fried egg for breakfast to use up a donated avocado and some hard style goats cheese leftover from before Christmas.  Lunch was the last of the tart followed by fruit.  Supper is a vegetarian chilli as Mr F fancied something warming and I had three quarters of a red pepper sulking in the fridge.  We might be having cheese and biscuits for lunch tomorrow to use up the last of the open crackers (there are several packets of unopened crackers too but they will keep) 🤭

I gave everywhere a good vacuum today.  The floors looked like they'd been sprinkled with fairy dust there was so much tinsel and glitter around 😆  Also tidied the guest room and my art nook.  I have to admit, I'm not pushing myself this week - just pottering and number crunching and day dreaming.  Mortgage freedom feels within our grasp and I can't quite believe we've got this far.  Still 2 or 3 years to go all being well but that's a long way from the 18 years we started out with when we moved here.

Mr F and I had a long chat about the mortgage and what we might do after August when our fixed rate ends.  We'll still have a mortgage then but a fraction of what we started out with.  I think much will depend on what interest rates are doing at that stage and how inflation is going. However, we're agreed that we'd like to keep a little more of our disposable income for getting further work done in the house and having fun.  Fingers crossed life doesn't throw us any curve balls between now and then.

By the way - did anyone win on the Pr£mium Bond$?  I haven't heard anything so either I haven't won this month or they're late updating the system.

One of the Younger Fortunates has Covid - we think he caught it on New Year's Eve.  He's feeling very poorly with it.  We've been calling him every day and he doesn't seem to be getting any worse thank goodness.  Mr F is minded to start travelling for work again 😲 but I think he should wait as long as possible before going back to it.  Covid can still be a very nasty thing and Mr F is over 60.  The NHS is under so much pressure right now I think we should be doing everything we can to stay healthy.

Hope you are all safe and well.

Fortune x

savingholmes

Hope the younger fortunate recovers quickly.

Laughed at the fairy dust. 

You are very disciplined when it comes to cleaning and tidying. The gene seems to have passed me by.

Hope you get to play in your art nook soon.

badmemory

The PB results were out this morning.  You don't have to go into your account to check if you have your holder number.  The results appear on there usually the day before & it tells you how soon they are due out. It's nsandi/prize checker.

Your holder number is either 8 numbers followed by a letter or 9 numbers.