Travelling On

Karmacat

Yep, a good long walk was had - a circular one, joined up two of my routes by walking along the Common locally.  And the local school has a few farm animals for animal husbandry training, so I went to see the cows and sheep.  No pigs on view, I guess their breeding sows are in their pens at the moment.

Again, didn't do much, a bit of writing - I had a problem with Open Office, it just didn't open any more, and I was looking at Microsoft Store, which is where I have to get software from these days, as the penalty for relying on Microsoft security, and then realised something I'd already downloaded for free (called Cool File Viewer, of all things 🤣) could do the job.  So I did a bit of writing, first time ever my planning is enabling, not overwhelming - then as it got late, I had fun with chapter titles and quotes that are out of copyright - even TS Eliot isn't out of copyright, because he died in 1965.  Thomas Hardy, yes.  Dylan Thomas, no.  They've got to have been dead for 70 full years.  It's quite a lot of fun reading all these quotes 😃

Karmacat

Pah, Cool File Viewer wanted an annual payment - small, £7 or so, but I dislike the principle.  So I struggled through learning how to use Of fice dot com, the free online version - uploading something so I can write in it, then downloading it to my computer again and deleting it from online.  There's 5GB free storage, so I'll use that for ongoing things like the novel I'm playing with again, and the genealogical biographies I'm writing.  There's also 2GB free storage at the dropbox account I had to open the other day - its just backups of backups really, I'm doing my external HDD today.

Need to stay busy and listen/watch for news on text and WhatsApp for my lovely siblings.  Staying busy with stupid stuff, plus trying to clean the bathroom properly as we have a talk tomorrow and my sister will be over here for that.  


ETA - hurray, first WhatsApp message has come in, all good, I'm so, so pleased.  The text will be a lot longer coming, and may be ambiguous.

EETA - yep, text is here, ambiguousness is its very nature.  Ah well: we'll see.  Taking the day off.

IAAM

That sounds a perfect thing for a To Do list. 

I think I often have so many things on my To Do list that the important ones get overshadowed. 

It’s too late for today but, tomorrow, I think I’m going to just put one thing on my To Do list. Something just for me and my well-being. 

Enjoy your walk 

Karmacat

Hello IAAM, thanks for posting yes, I made *very* few plans this week, in case the phones and texts were bad news and I needed to drop everything and get myself on a train or something.  Fortunately, it's all currently fine, genuinely - we might have a repeat some time in the New Year, but maybe not.  We had a three way conversation just to confirm everything, and hey presto, I'm switching my life back on, though it takes a bit of time, I must say.  About six hours, judging by my behaviour today 🙄🙃 ooh, just found a dinosaur ... 🦕

Anyway, by about 3pm, I was picking myself up, another little walk, and starting to tidy and move things back to where they should be.  I'll have to be a bit careful on the heating now - I've been a bit profligate today, but I don't really care.  So, little mse things for the rest of the week:

- I'll be doing the last coat on the areas I've been painting upstairs.  That will help with the tidying, because then I can "populate" the desk again  
- won 50p on the baby Happy Wheel!
- yesterday I took photos of my gas and elec meters, before today's profligacy - I'm going to take more pix tomorrow, we'll see what its like.  Maybe I'll do it every other day for a couple of weeks, just so I know.
- backed up laptop on the main external hard drive.
- now backing up the flash drives - finance, house information, genealogy.
- plumber invoice arrived today, and I've paid it straight away, I'm happy with everything so it's only fair.
- confirmed that the new cash isa, 4.35%, is up and running.
- a lot of ancient technology has left my house today!  Two laptops, an external hard drive, and three phones - all gone to secure data destruction and recycling of the actual minerals/materials, by a highly recommended local firm.  Very happy with that.
- beans are on soak, to be cooked tomorrow.
- I need to change the battery on my digital scales - it's held in by a screwdriver, and I have the right screwdriver **dances happily**
- need the scales to make Jamie Oliver's eggless choc brownie/cake recipe, I'm utterly rubbish at judging by eye.
- next week: pay television licence, for the end of the month.  

themadvix

That sounds like a very productive day!

 And yep, judging by eye it great for cooking, but never for baking! I love my digital scales 😊

Karmacat

Me too!  They're the first digital scales I've ever owned, first "coin" type battery I've ever changed, and I've done it absurdly pleased.  Plus:
- beans are now in the slow cooker, with *loads* of herbs (some quite old, ahem).
- carrying on double backing up of genealogy, writing, house stuff etc.  Flash drives are very slow compared to modern external hard drives!
- won 24p on the baby Happy Wheel.
- now ready to open the paint tin and get going.  
- just taken updated photos of my meters (and because I take photos, I don't need to stand on a chair, I've now realised 🌞), and its a bit "oops".
Gas: 1851 on 21st Nov, 1853 now.  That's a whole summer quarter in two days **faints**.
Elec: 46084 on 21st Nov, 46090 now.  I'll input the later figures right now, see what the damage is.  

Karmacat

Right, balance was £446 on 29th September, now £270 on 23rd November, so I've used £176 of fuel in just under 8 weeks.  I've worked hard at keeping appliances and heating etc off, and then had one very profligate day so it averages £88 per month, call it £100 because its some way off from 2 calendar months.  

My DD is £118, and I'm more than twice that in credit, and not using that amount monthly: that's fine!  I'm somewhat relieved.

I'm still using all my energy in clawing my house and garden back from the brink caused by years of neglect, and if the most I can do is not add to the problems being suffered across the country, that's what I'll do.  I've started making charity donations again this year, and that's something too.


ETA - phew, I've done it!  Still not used it all, so I'll do some more tomorrow, as the stuff that's leaked out the bottom of it is going mouldy 🤢 but today, the most I'll do is clean the surface of the desk that I've been standing on, and get some of the things that belong on it *back* on it.  Feels unbelievably positive!

themadvix

🥳🥳🥳 for the painting! And also using less than your DD - that’s great!

Karmacat

Thanks MV yep, I'm pleased with both those things.  Haven't done any more today: issue at the moment is cleaning mould, I'm afraid, yuck.  And I'm going to reach in to the depths of the big cupboard by the back door for a clear out.  Nasty in there, its where the ant infestation was last year, more yuck.  I want to massively declutter, and clean, so that ... ta-da!!!! - when my niece's cat comes to stay in January, it's safe for him (ant powder.  Nuff said).  

Still doing fiddly bits of tidying, and I decided I wanted to bake Jamie's eggless brownies/cake mix - but I forgot I usually halve the amounts, so I've ended up with almost a kilo of cake 🤣🤣🤣 which is not good!  I may have some for breakfast over the weekend 😏

All good otherwise, won 50p on the baby Happy Wheel.  And the digital scales worked well

ETA - filled in the beginning of this year's tax return.  Such a lot of repetitive nonsense about how to list the state pension, I'm actually going to have to go onto one of the boards here and get some proper information.

themadvix

I’m struggling to see the problem with half a kilo of cake?! 🤣🤣 Cake for breakfast sounds like a good idea.