Put away your purse & become debt-averse

HairyHandofDartmoor

I'm sorry to hear you can't go to your holiday cottage Foxgloves, how disappointing. Another thing to look forward to next year I suppose. I'd love to stay in a NT cottage, that sounds lovely. 

How confusing about the coffee shop. I thought it was just pubs that had to serve a substantial meal to stay open not coffee shops? Anyway you're not breaking the law if it's just guidance I guess 🤔.

You sound like you're getting a lot of enjoyment from your new piano 🙂.

Onebrokelady

I think the idea is that you normally sit down to eat whereas in a pub not serve food people will stand at the bar or in groups ,it shouldn't matter what you are eating, at least you didn't go to another county like the  bloke from  Nottingham who was on the news today,he went to the next county because their betting shops are open and while he was there he had a pint, his words were the rules are there but rules are for breaking 😡😡

foxgloves

Indeed OBL - & while on the subject of said city, the crowds out celebrating the last night of Tier 2 made for very unedifying TV News viewing. As I've said on someone else's diary, I wanted to line them all up & slap every single one of them before sending them off to do a maskless shift in one of the local big hospitals. All the phones were out for selfies 'Ooooh Virus, look at me being a rebel'...... & in a county where Covid hospital admissions are apparently rising faster than anywhere else in the UK at the moment. Mr F said 'What a rubbish species we are!' And it made me think about how many people locally are volunteering to help out with visiting vulnerable people, feed hungry children, were stitching scrubs & masks for care workers earlier in the year etc, & at the other end of the evolutionary scale, you have these ignorant selfish idiots. 
Ah well, it was ever thus!
F x

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
I'd planned quite a relaxing day for today, starting with a nice bubble bath, hair wash, then breakfast (made for me!), a couple of hours sitting at my desk researching some Christmas present ideas I can't get in our local shops, followed by watching the final episode of 'Roadkill' while finishing sewing together a knitting project. That was the plan.
Instead, I spent more time than I would like unblocking the loo. Oh deep, deep joy! Half way through my efforts, Mr F (who has been up a ladder painting for most of today) appeared, flushed it & pronounced there to be nothing wrong with it. Completely normal. I did a follow-up flush & it was just as blocked as ever. When I say 'blocked', I don't mean in a disgusting way, or in a way which necessitated a plumber. But I remember all too well an occasion where I called a plumber out to a blocked loo in my previous house. He took one look, went out to his van, brought in a big loo plunger, did about 2 plunges & that was it. Job done!! And a £40 call-out plus bill for me! The loo in our current house has never blocked. Not once, & that is how I want it to stay. So that was my relaxing start to the day over.....instead wielding plunger, arm down loo, boiling kettles of water, but job done without recourse to plumber or resulting bill, so worth the effort.
Have managed to do my Christmas present research & also placed a few orders.....a click & collect (presents), a B*dy Sh*p order (presents & a skincare top-up to make use of my £10 loyalty card vouchers plus the current 15% off code) & also a couple of ingredients for my Christmas cake which I simply haven't been able to purchase locally. No online surveys today, so I thought I'd pop on & chat to you, then I intend to get that knitting sewn up. I did make good inroads into this last night but hasn't realised sewing all the green french knots on would take so long. It will be finished this afternoon for sure, & I intend to cast on my friend's Christmas present by this evening. As Mr F has taken over the kitchen with his paint pots, ladders, music set-up, Uncle Tom Cobbley & all, I have made an executive decision that we are having a Chinese takeaway tonight. (He didn't argue!)
So I shall go & crack on with my needle,
Samhain Blessings to you all,
Foxgloves x

Onebrokelady

Samhain Blessings to you and Mr F 😊 I hate anything to do with plumbing or toilets in general, it's just water does so much damage and gets everywhere if there is a problem. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about my Christmas shopping in light of the new lockdown, I was planning on doing it over November but that plans been scuppered now, I will make use of online as much as possible but I don't like to shop online 🙁

foxgloves

I'm the same, OBL. I enjoy shopping, I like to be able to look at things properly, especially the quality. I do shop online, but usually mostly for things I can't buy locally or in the city centre. There'll have to be a lot more online purchases for Christmas, that's for sure, plus I shall have to post a lot of it. I am going to have everything ready a lot earlier to get around this.
F

HairyHandofDartmoor

Onebrokelady said:

Samhain Blessings to you and Mr F 😊 I hate anything to do with plumbing or toilets in general, it's just water does so much damage and gets everywhere if there is a problem. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about my Christmas shopping in light of the new lockdown, I was planning on doing it over November but that plans been scuppered now, I will make use of online as much as possible but I don't like to shop online 🙁

foxgloves said:

I'm the same, OBL. I enjoy shopping, I like to be able to look at things properly, especially the quality. I do shop online, but usually mostly for things I can't buy locally or in the city centre. There'll have to be a lot more online purchases for Christmas, that's for sure, plus I shall have to post a lot of it. I am going to have everything ready a lot earlier to get around this.
F

I like shopping too, even if I don't buy anything I like walking around the shop, browsing and looking at things. You can't judge the quality of an item online very easily and there's nothing like seeing an item in real life to get a sense of whether you like it.  But we will either have to do our shopping  very late of do it online. It's awful for small shops that don't have an online offering 😥.

I'm going to give mainly vouchers as so much of my family live away and I have a £10 budget for most people so spending £3 on postage just doesn't make sense. My cousin suggested we should buy ourselves our Christmas presents rather than buy them for each other and that makes a lot of sense.

foxgloves

Yes, I don't like leaving my Christmas shopping late, HHoD, especially as almost everything will need to be boxed & posted this year. I feel very sorry for the indie shops. Am going to make sure I use the ones which can stay open. Already heard our village garden centre & farm shop will be open, also a bakers in town & various other places.
F 

foxgloves

Hello m'dears,
Well the wind is groaning down rhe chimney & I'm glad to be snugged up on the sofa knitting my friend's present. A gentle day for me today - I've pottered around tidying, done an hour of piano practice, emptied all the bins, ordered two more Christmas gifts (a 20% new customer discount code on one of them, though the expensive postage wiped a chunk of that out).
And I've been discussing lockdown with Mr F, as the rules for his sector can be a bit ambiguous, though he thinks they will be closing. And I've progressed my knitting. It's a throw, so it's a large gift to knit, but it's on a 9mm circular needle so it is growing well.
Mr F has been painting the kitchen almost all day, except when he fell off the ladder & had to take a break to check he was still in one piece. His jaw & shin seem to have taken most of the impact so he must have slipped at a weird angle!
No more jobs for me today apart from attempting to recreate my Nana's apple charlotte, which I shall serve with ice cream if it's nice....... actually, I'm sure we'll eat it however it turns out. I shall go & butter all the bread for it in a minute so I'm not doing it at the last minute.
Then tomorrow, I'd better make a few plans for Lockdown.
F x

Onebrokelady

Sounds like the prefect day, it's been a mild calm day here until about half an hour ago when the wind picked up. I'm still knitting a little blanket for the cat bed,I didn't really pick it up while I was ill but I did some last night while I couldn't sleep, I went to get it finished because i have other things I want to have a go at 😊