Cheery's country living adventure

EssexHebridean

Ooh the potager garden sounds lovely!

Cheery boo to car adverts not getting taken down when cars have sold - hopefully something else will turn up soonest for you. I know the last timer I looked at potential "cheap and cheerful" options in case an earlier than planned replacement of MrEH's steed was required Autotrader had MASSES of options around the £1k mark - but of course it might be different up with you - we also only look at dealers too as we want the security of having at least some form of comeback if all isn't quite right with it!

Hurrah to NINE days off too - I have just a single day's holiday still to take (Although another one booked already, also) and am resolutely planning to add that to a weekend to make the most of it!

Sugru is indeed wonderful stuff - MrEH has a car mirror which has been held in place with it for several years now, and I've got a LOT of phone cables which are having their lives extended thanks to a generous application of the pliable wonder!

Cheery_Daff

Pleased to report wellies are still holding up :j and I have been more than ankle deep in a fair bit of mud the last couple of days :eek:

Still off work :j

Had a little trip to see family yesterday. Gosh the weather was VILE. At one point the hail stones were so hard that I couldn't hear the podcast I was listening to in the car :eek: and they coated the road and people were starting to slide about :eek: (not me though, winter tyres for the win! :rotfl: )

Did stop for a drink to take some tablets with on the way home and some normal milk-and bread shopping but nowt else.

Today has been nice :j :j finished and sent off the last of my diploma work this morning :j and then as it stopped raining for about 30 seconds I walked to the local village to meet a pal for lunch :j It's a cafe I've only been to once, cheap and cheerful but tiny so no room to linger and do the crossword so it certainly won't be replacing our normal favourite...

We went there though because I had a £10 voucher that I won in a raffle back in May :rotfl: never got round to using it as cafe is always packed and we don't really like being sardines, the tables are SO close together But friend and I managed to get a table in the window, and had two pots of tea, an egg butty and apple crumble and custard each which, using the voucher, came to a grand total of £6 :money:

It was a nice walk over there, although VERY muddy :eek: She gave me a lift home though and we spent another couple of hours drinking tea and putting the world to rights here :j

When she'd gone I FINALLY stapled the rest of the plastic round the chicken run :j :j I hope it makes SOME difference, it was like a swamp in there :eek: :eek: I don't think they like the rattling of it but I made it as tight as I could and it was very windy, and they went to bed as normal so hopefully they'll get used to it

Also dug out all the mud and hay and cr*p from the ground and replaced with fresh hay. Straw would be better but, well, I grew a field full of hay so that's what we're using :rotfl:

Got a few hours tonight to do as I please... what to do??

Cheery_Daff

Checked Autotrader again - we do appear to be rather more limited up this way than you EH! But we are of course also limiting ourselves with our requirements :rotfl:

At the minute if I filter
within our price range
diesel
£30 tax
within 35 miles
private seller
under 150,000 miles

there are currently FOUR cars for sale, one of which has an MOT which runs out in a week :rotfl: If i up it to 50 miles there are fourteen (although their '50 miles' includes both Leeds and Birmingham - both of which are rather more than 50 miles according to my calculations), several of which are spares or repairs.

Anyway - yawn. I think I caused trouble with family yesterday by saying we were buying privately rather than trade. Some people take 'I'm doing something differently to you' as 'I'm right and you're wrong', which OF COURSE was not what I was saying - I'd happily buy from a trade seller but Mr Cheery will NOT, and given the choice, if I don't feel strongly myself, I will go with the option that gets me the least earache from the person I spend the most time with :rotfl: :rotfl:

Anyway, as I say, YAWN. Bored of thinking about things that need thinking about at the minute!

chased building regs geezer twice now and had no response - to be honest I don't blame him, as technically he's already replied saying 'yes all the bolts need to be fixed' and the builder has basically said 'yeah, but we put another couple of screws in elsewhere, so do they REALLY need to be fixed??' I want him to say YES emphatically, even with the extra little screws - but it seems he has more important things to do, so I'm just going to have to say it myself.

YAWN.

Should I do YNAB? I was feeling quite chipper an hour ago but right now I am tired and slightly grumpity and think I might be better off asleep :rotfl:

lykkelig

I'm hoping the chickens get used to the plastic noise quickly. I think they will and kudos to you for getting out there in the less than favourable temperatures these past few days. Family in huff because you do something different? Not only do it but say you're doing. Oh dear, I mean, how dare you suggest there are different ways of doing things and how dare you state your OH's preference and, shock horror, fancy the thought that you're needs and wishes change because of the needs and wishes of your other family - the one you actually share a life with. I find families to be strange beasts. It seems they're primed to take offence quickly and easily and even more ready to feel a snub that never was intended. It's probably blown over quicker than it happened but yes, strange beasts is the best I can come up with.

Cheery_Daff

Strange beasts certainly is the right phrase lykkelig!

Didn't sleep well last night which is very unlike me, so feeling a bit vacant this morning Let the chickens out and fed them their porridge, but then just sat down and have done nowt since other than look out of the window - not even made a cup of tea! Must rectify that!

Oh, but I did remember to double up my nectar points :j :j So now I have £60 sat waiting for me to use before next Tuesday :eek: of course I have to trek to the big city to use it and of course I'm off this week so don't otherwise HAVE to be there... but we can perhaps arrange to have tea with a pal or something :j :j Worth it for a free £60 to spend on Christmas presents :j :j

Meeting a friend in a cafe this morning (again). Seems my week off is mostly going to be made of this Trying to decide if I can hold off on breakfast rather than having breakfast AND cake? Maybe if I go back to bed for a nap :rotfl: not meeting til 10.30 so it's quite a while to wait!

In other news it's actually NOT RAINING this morning :eek: feel like I should get my running kit on, or at least my wellies and go for a walk. But sadly I just can't be bothered :rotfl: But perhaps I'll stir myself enough to make a cuppa and see where things go from there :j

EssexHebridean

Must be something in the water about sleep last night - I had a shocker for the first half of the night although when I did eventually settle (around 3am) I slept like a log according to the fitbit!

I saw your instagram post so I already know what happened regarding the cafe/breakfast/cake question - brilliant! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Yes - I suspect it's the trade sellers that increase the options for vehicles as setting those same parameters for your neck of the woods but with trade rather than private selected gives a LOT more issues. We did briefly discuss going the private seller route last time we were talking about it but it rapidly became apparent that while MrEH would have been OK with it (Albeit with reservations re risk on handing over cash etc) I was going to turn into one seething mass of anxiety if we followed that path, so not for us. I'm a wimp I know but I would have convinced myself we'd get sold something that turned out to be total rubbish and have no come-back whatsoever, and would probably never trust the blooming thing as a result! :rotfl:

Exciting that you've handed your diploma stuff in - congratulations! :T:T

Cheery_Daff

Thanks

Yes, I did end up having cake FOR breakfast, as the cafe didn't do anything other than cake until lunchtime, not even toast! :eek: still, it was an exceedingly nice bit of lemon drizzle and even though it was a good 3 hours ago I"m still not hungry, so... :rotfl:

Yes it's always a balance with buying cars isn't it? Ours tend to be so cheap that we basically know there's going to be SOMETHING we'll need to deal with :rotfl: I wouldn't go to buy one on my own though, and always pay for the RAC check thing just to make sure it's not stolen or whatever. We've walked away from a couple in the past when they've turned out to be not quite what the advert said, or we've just got a not-quite-right vibe from the seller.

Anyway, enough car talk for now :rotfl: from me anyway

Had a nice morning in cafe with friend and wandering along the river, although it was quite sobering as someone died near there in the floods last week

Just popped into a little market town on the way home for tea bags and it's looking very pretty in the sunshine :j And I remembered we needed corn for the chickens so popped into the feed store on the off chance. The thing I usually buy online is more expensive in there, but they had a 'deluxe' version of something else for half the price so they've been downgraded from organic I'm afraid It's got extra types of seeds in though so I imagine they won't mind :rotfl: and it's saved us a tenner :money:

EssexHebridean

I very much doubt the hens will care a jot whether their feed is organic or not, will they! As you say they may even enjoy the variety! if they complain just tell them it's "Deluxe"...! :rotfl:

Your lemon drizzle did indeed look AMAZING! I was extremely jealous!

Cheery_Daff

I have to say they were most underwhelmed by the deluxe treats with extra different types of seeds. Pretty much turned up their beaks! Mind you they're not always great with new things - give it a couple of days and they'll be refusing to go back to the other stuff I imagine :rotfl:

EssexHebridean

Trust you to end up with picky birds! :rotfl::rotfl: