Prosperous soul in the making

clearmydebts

Hope you're having a great day!

savingholmes

Thanks everyone for your good wishes. I had a better birthday than usual as my wider family made more of an effort with it being lockdown and my shhh.... 50th. All my siblings have sent me presents which never happens. My little nephews and neice sent me pictures and one set recorded a video singing happy birthday. Both my parents and MIL were generous. My side of the family had organised a little 'booklet' of appreciation with things they valued about me. The kids and DH made an effort too. I've had lovely chocolate fudge cake with two types of ice cream and am about to have steak. We have a Mr A delivery coming soon and some compost arrived earlier so sorted! DS nipped H&B for me and got me a standard fuschia and a couple of cones for me to grow peas up. My brother sent me a funky v3g k1t so I can have a go at growing purple carrots etc! LOL.

We will eat soon and then do a fire pit with toasted marshmallows. I don't know whether any of you can recommend a parasol and base - I'm spoilt for choice if I go expensive - but don't want to splash out and regret it. I got sent £100 towards it and have some personal spends I could put towards it too...

MovingForwards

I'm glad you've had a fantastic day and have been spoilt!

H3r1t@g3 carrots are delicious, if you can grow quite a few do so, you won't regret it.  Meat, carrots with jus look good on your dinner plate.

Is it a parasol and base you want or would you consider the marquee type, without the sides? Means a few of you can sit in the shade.

Enjoy your toasted mallows 🤗

savingholmes

Thanks MF. I did consider a gazebo type thing but most are too big really - as we have quite a 'designed' / fully planted / occupied garden and limited patio / grass space. Will keep looking....

I've had a lovely day. I was dreading my birthday during lockdown but family rallied around. I got 4 phone calls from family - 3 of which would normally only text at best so that was good. The steak was divine. DS bought giant marshmallows and they were great toasted in the fire. We are finally getting the use out of the fire pit and outdoor sofa we bought this time last year. I can't believe I am 50 - it feels surreal. I still feel much younger - my kids tell me I certainly act like a kid all too often too! My DS painted me a card which was lovely. DD gave me long hugs which is unusual so that was nice. I have a pressie still to come tomorrow from one sister and I don't know what it is so hopefully it will be good. 

Feeling very grateful that we and are wider family are all okay in this crisis. One relative has had a 40% paycut but has kept his job. Another has had his business really take off and DS is winning too with freelance work. It's a weird world.

DancingInTheRain

A belated happy birthday to you! 🎂🥂
So pleased you had a lovely day, very well deserved x

mark55man

happy belated birthday - sounds grand, with more to come

savingholmes

Thanks Dancing and Mark.

Well I've bitten the bullet and bought a truckload of ISBN numbers for my book. Still waiting on a tax code. I need to decide my price and then I can set up a barcode for the first print book. It's harder than it sounds to set a price - as you potentially need to allow for your print book to be discounted by around 55% for them to be willing to stock it - so you have to ensure that you set a high enough price - but not so high people won't buy it! Complicated!! Plus you potentially need different prices for different countries of the world so it gets really complex. I think I will start with the UK or I will never get it out there! Once I've sorted out a barcode - I can then finish sorting my cover. Those are today's steps. I potentially also need to sign up to a service so I can get some advance book reviews so that when I launch it is more attractive to people. I have just eaten a frog and sent a utility bill to the people setting up my company - I thought I had done everything but I hadn't - so could be waiting for a tax code for another 14 days yet! Doh!

I'm absolutely loving seeing all the birds at the moment. In 1 minute I've has seen a magpie, blackbird and robin. The weather was gorgeous yesterday although it rained overnight. It's quite windy here today though but very bright. DS has been and collected the milk I missed off the order that came yesterday. DH has popped into work and is dropping stuff off at the tip too - so it is a bit quieter here than it has been which is lovely!! He raises his voice when speaking on the phone and it drives me mad. There are worse problems.

I haven't given up on transferring my DB pension. A different IFA  has been in touch and has links to a different transfer service. He reckons he can probably get it through via them. I am awaiting an updated transfer value at the moment before I can do anything else with that.

longway2go

Hi SH, I have just finished reading a good chunk of your diary (I went back to the start once but then it kept putting me further ahead)... Anyway... It looks like you are doing fantastic and lots of exciting things going on for you.
Happy belated birthday, nice to hear you had such a nice day 😊. The book launch sounds confusing but very exciting, I hope all goes well with it.

You seem to be very knowledgable about growing veg so I may pick your brains about that if you don't mind? 

MovingForwards

That's a giant leap forward to getting your book out to the people and I'm sure many of us are waiting to grab a copy!

There is a lot more nature around and appearing to be confident around humans, or is it them being cheeky.

Hope this IFA can help as that will be another positive step forward too.

jwil

Belated Happy Birthday!  Glad you had a good day.

You are making loads of progress with lots of projects, and I am very excited about your book. 

Have a lovely weekend