Travelling On

beanielou

REsult on the curtains

Karmacat

Hi Beanie - it really was a result, wasn't it!  The next sewing thing is going to be getting my inherited sewing machine out, and learning to use it, but that will be next week at the earliest.

Today: I've done more tidying (holiday stuff not yet all put away); started my money shuffle, I'll finish it tomorrow; amended Asda order for tomorrow; and ticked an item on my adjusted "finance things to do" list, wrote the final email to Sains - they don't understand that I'm not worried about my dormant files being seen by other companies, which is normal.  I'm worried about Sains staff making a mess of things again, which is what happened in the first place.  Whatever, I won't write again, but I want to know what safeguards they have on staff in relation to dormant files.  That's it.

Downloading statements: Coop Visa can't give me automated statements from the last six months, which is a bit concerning, I hope there's no cyber attacking going on.  I'll try again later, but I have to keep on tidying the porch because of the shopping coming tomorrow.

Karmacat

I'm keeping on going - it's all the same things, which is quite boring to read about. 

Supermarket order was smaller than usual, so I managed to clean it in one day. 

Downloaded TalkTalk and Three statements.  Can't do Vodafone - I suspect, since I only started with them last October, I never actually set up an online account.  Oops.

Holiday case is clean, and anti-viralled on the outside, just drying off to go inside the big suitcase.

Good rechargeable batteries found, charging now and I'll see if my landline handset works - otherwise, I'll have to buy another, my landline number is out there with far too many people and businesses.

Used some Amazon vouchers from Vodafone, for more rechargeable batteries (so I can use my handsets!) and a Jekka McVicar book.

I bought some Wilko coir fibre compost a few months ago, and expected to be able to break a chunk of to rehydrate it gradually.  No such luck.  The bag is now in the bath, expanded massively; I'm supposed to put 16 litres of water in, wait a few hours and bob's your uncle, so that's what I've done.  I *will* plant some seeds today, when I've cleaned the tray for underneath the pluglet pots.

Bit of a walk late this morning - lovely and sunny!  And I'll be out in the garden for half an hour, doing some of the easier stuff.  Couch grass departure may be involved  

debtfreeoneday

Woah. I’ve never heard of compost like that. Imagining your bath full of compost now. 

apple_muncher

We had some of that coir stuff. I got dh to saw off chunks of it! Also put it in an old washing up bowl and filled with water, then scraped out the useable compost. Rinse and repeat.

Karmacat

debtfreeoneday said:

Woah. I’ve never heard of compost like that. Imagining your bath full of compost now. 

It's very mad!  Luckily, it's still in the plastic bag it came in - they say you should keep it there.  16 litres isn't much once it's in your bath    and of course even though I've got the pluglet sets laid out on the clean tray, I haven't planted the seeds yet, getting the coir thoroughly wet and malleable took much longer than I realised.

apple_muncher said:

We had some of that coir stuff. I got dh to saw off chunks of it! Also put it in an old washing up bowl and filled with water, then scraped out the useable compost. Rinse and repeat.

I wish I'd thought of that, that's a good one!  I *would* have put it in the old washing up bowl, but that's holding a plastic tin of 5l of paint, which is leaking from the bottom, so to speak     One old cat litter tray is now used to clean the shopping, and the other is in the garden, acting as a bird bath    

Almost an hour again in the garden - couch grass and all sorts of other stuff, nice big area cleared by the patio.  Keeping it clear for autumn, maybe the seeds of perennials that I plant tomorrow will go there, eventually.  Mad Young Kitten came along, he'll now roll on his back and let me stroke his stomach, while he purrs madly.  Wonderful, though that did make me notice how many ants are creeping about my patio.  I'll have to take action over the weekend.

For now - night night  

Karmacat

Phone consultations, washing machine on, 45 minutes enlarging the weeded patch by the patio, then the online funeral, my nephews were three of the pallbearers.  Until today, I've never been to a funeral, online or in RL, that omitted the Lord's Prayer in favour of the Socialist Internationale   

But life goes on: also saw a video of my little great-niece, chewing a hunk of broccoli to relieve her gums and testing swallowing the pureed version, that was fun.

My Jekka McVicar herb book has arrived, so I'm off to tidy up the porch finally, in sympathy   I might dabble my tootsies into signing on with Vodafone soon, but the porch comes first.

Karmacat

Power bills
I'm not going to do too much today, but I have just taken pix of my meter readings and uploaded them.  After I'd submitted them, they showed a page giving:
- starting balance, on April 3rd.
- electricity costs I'd input
- gas costs I'd input
- closing balance today, which was a debit of £80.13.

You can believe I took a photo of that too!  And then I realised, once and for all, it didn't show the amount of the DD I paid on April 19th, which was £110.  Which means that as of today, right this minute, my account is £30 in the black, and I was away in Dorset for 4 days of that.  Of course, that has to last till 19th May, 12 days away, so I'll be in the red again by then.  But still - they could perfectly well update that figure if they wanted to, but they want to intimidate people, and I think they've always wanted that, its not a new thing.  It's just more obvious now we're paying more attention.  

I was working really hard during April to keep my energy costs as low as possible - a degree lower on the central heating, an extra fleece, all sorts of things, and I was using it less than in winter anyway, of course.  But it still came out to the new direct debit being at more or less the right level.  So now I *get* the worries about next winter on a visceral level.  I'll be okay, but many others won't be  

Karmacat

Barclaycard
Not that I *have* a Barclaycard - I simply have about 8 pre-filled applications for them delivered to me in the last 6 months, some with mock credit cards.  And I've had enough!  It would be a nightmare to ring, of course, so I found that their website has a "contact" section for people who don't have an account with them  I wonder why    So I've filled it in, and sadly it has all my details on there, but they've already got those of course.  So I gave them down the banks for bothering me in such an environmentally damaging way.  We'll see what happens.

It only came to mind because I'm trying to keep my porch tidy after clearing it yesterday.  I so want to move the little table at the side of the door, but I don't think I can do that today, I'm expecting a horror story, which isn't for the weekend    Early lunch prep beckons.

apple_muncher

Hope the horror story didn't get a grip and drag you under...