Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Right, half a pizza is in the oven (ate the other half last night - this little temporary oven is only big enough to fit half in :rotfl: )

So, bit of a brain dump of things that need doing...

Bedroom was sealed up and covered with dust sheets yesterday so builder could fit new window - need to dismantle dust sheets, change sheets on bed, remove scruffy bits of carpet, hoover floor and original rug, generally put things back together.

Went to the zero waste shop this morning - stupidly took labels off shampoo and conditioner bottles in the shower, and then when I grabbed them to go into the car they were all sticky :rotfl: So now I need to go back and clean them, put the washing liquid stuff away (not used it before, thought I'd experiment), and find the spray bottle to decant the surface cleaner into (not had that before either and usually I just use vinegar but I really don't like the smell :rotfl: This is stuff you dilute so hopefully won't use much!)

Outside... some of the plastic has started to rip off the chicken run, but we've just bought some bigger staples, so need to go and staple that back on. Also need to clean the house out, rake out the old muddy hay and replace with clean stuff, check I ordered new bedding, get the new corn out of the back of the car and into the outbuilding, check how much food there is left, and bring in all our plates/dishes etc we've taken chicken food out in over the last few weeks and not bothered to bring back in Marathon washing up session needed!

Also need to put various things away. Bathroom is (as usual) full of my discarded clothes. Remembered we've actually got a second washing basket in the bedroom that is full of bedding that needs a wash Living room has a load of packaging from Mr Cheery's recent selling adventure - it's our only real living space at the minute so it's doing my head in having it more cluttered up than usual.

That's probably it, aside from a general clean. Want to get the place in some kind of normal order so that we can make a start on the DIY and not feel like we're living in a squat

Today is grey and drizzly and cold so not really an outside kind of a day (aside from essential chicken chores). So it makes sense to be inside and cosy!

Right, off to check the pizza and come up with a plan...

Cheery_Daff

So, some progress made!

What I've done so far...
* Poo picked the chicken house
* Removed all the muddy hay from the floor of the run and replaced with fresh clean hay
* Stapled the plastic back to the side of the run
* Checked supplies, and ordered bedding and food

So, what's next??

3pm-4pm: Bedroom
* Hoover floor
* Clean
* Remove all dust sheets
* Change bedding
* Put washing on

4pm-4.30: Bathroom
* Clothes away
* Clean
* Hoover

4.30-5: Living room
* Enlist Mr Cheery to co-tidy the living room
* Dust
* Hoover

5-6pm: Kitchen and tea
* Make some kind of frittata or something for tea (egg-based something - for once we have a profusion of eggs!)
* Tidy temporary kitchen
* Empty bins (forgot to put the bin bags out AGAIN, damn it!!)

6pm-7pm: Admin
* Look through list of new cars and maybe ring about seeing one tomorrow
* Pay builder for windows
* Email building regs re checking final building work

7pm-8pm: Plotting and scheming and fun
* Make plan for things to do while I'm on strike
* Flute practice

That's probably enough for today. Does help to have a plan though! :j

Cheery_Daff

Evening chums :hello:

Bizarrely enough I actually did quite a lot of that list! :j And Mr Cheery has done most of the rest this evening so all good :j

Not much to report. Went to see a car today, all paperwork etc in order, bloke himself nice - but car massively underpowered (and it had a more powerful engine than our current small car so it should have been stronger - seemed like there was something wrong with it). Anyway, we said thanks but no thanks and walked away.

Did go to a cafe for lunch with a friend while we were still in town.

Paid the latest invoice from the builder, for fitting the windows. Need to check we think the bolts are ok, email the building regs geezer, and then hopefully that's the builder over and done with.

Had a small palaver this morning trying to get temporary insurance to test drive the car. Tried three different websites and they all said 'something in the information you have given means we can't quote' :eek: But what?! Who knows, because none of them said! Mr Cheery can't find his photocard driving licence so we used the number from the paper counterpart - but surely your driving licence number doesn't change? We used his name, but my debit card - but surely that doesn't matter?? So what was it?!

Anyway, eventually I gave up and rang our current insurers (didn't start with them because they were still shut) - once I'd figured out who they were :eek: Had no physical paperwork, and an email search for 'car insurance' only brought up stuff from 2018 - for about 10 minutes I had rather a panic that I didn't HAVE any car insurance :eek: :eek: Eventually figured it out, they were helpful, I'd locked myself out of the online system, and we ended up being 30 mins late for the test drive

Anyway, £20 for temp insurance and £13 for the RAC check (to make sure it's not stolen or whatever) and still no car but hey ho.

Anyway, thought we could play play-along-matched-betting :rotfl: Always more fun when I feel like I'm doing it with someone else :rotfl: Next post...

Cheery_Daff

So. Starting balances

Today: -£2 (because I had a qualifying bet that I put on the other day but the match wasn't til this evening)
November: £237
Overall: £4451.

Ready, steady, GO!

Cheery_Daff

1. Bet £5 for £5 free bet = down £5 (but either it will win, meaning I'll be up £12, or it'll lose, in which case I get a £5 free bet)
2. Bet £5 on darts get £2 free bet = £0 (turns out there's only one match left and the odds are stupid so I didn't bother)
3. Wager £5 for 5 free spins = down £4.25
4. Wager £10 for 5 free spins = up 15p (don't think I'm being a very good advert for MB at the minute! :eek: :rotfl: )
5. Wager £10 for 15 free spins = down £8.30 (this is brutal tonight!)
6. Wager £10 for 5 free spins = up £18.90 (finally!)

Bored now. That's an hour done and the final totals are...

Today: £0
November: £239
Overall: £4453

So basically it's taken me an hour (while I was also messing about on the internet on my phone) and I've made £2 :rotfl:

Not really a very good advert for MB at the minute am I?! :eek: :rotfl: Still, some folks are a LOT more diligent than me - I'm not doing it much at the minute and only really doing mostly casino...

Anyway, NOT losing sight of the fact that it's still £239 extra this month, which after all is pretty much £10 a day so.... :money: :money:

Karmacat

Thanks again Cheery, thats really something. Sorry about the car, incidentally - it takes a *lot* of work to keep things going, doesn't it, including the paperwork!

Cheery_Daff

It certainly does KC. In fact I heard someone say the other day that running a home these days is in some ways (but clearly not others) more complicated because you don't just have ONE phone supplier, ONE electricity supplier etc - *everything* needs to be checked and navigated and optimised. Choice is obviously good in some ways, but it does rather complicate things sometimes!

(and obviously I'm not advocating that we go back to doing without washing machines :eek: Unless I also get to do without my job, in which case I *might* be willing to talk about trading... :rotfl: :rotfl: )

Sp0eaking of job - strike starts today Urgh. I don't like striking (who does??) and I've already had several people that I know personally point out that my pay and conditions are, in fact, compared to theirs, perfectly good Yes, of course they are - I don't dispute that for a second. But we're not on strike solely for MY benefit - there are plenty of people in my line of work on FAR worse pay and contracts than me and that's rapidly becoming the norm, not to mention pay gaps, reductions in pensions, rapid changes in workload expectations etc etc. And it won't ever get better if we keep just accepting it.

Anyway, whatever I think of it, it is what it is, and I do believe that if you're part of the union (and can therefore call on them in a crisis, and receive the benefits from their negotiations), then if they call a strike, then out you go. I know not everyone can/will, but well, this is what I'm doing.

What I'm NOT doing, however, is driving a 60 mile round trip to stand on the picket line every day

Still, I do want to make good use of my time, and that's partly around home improvements, and partly about upping the MB to (hopefully!!) replace some of the lost income, which will be around £1000 (although I can claim around £300 from the strike fund). Because the strike is Nov/Dec, it looks like wage deductions will be some in Jan pay, some in Feb, so not too bad.

Anyway, already lost the morning in cafe trip/trying (AGAIN) to leak-proof the chicken run :eek:

So - a list...

Cheery_Daff

Ordering in terms of themes rather than activities...

Normal 'home' stuff
* hang washing up (may need re-washing by now )
* take clothes upstairs
* make lunch
* tea in slow cooker
* washing up
* hoover big rug and get it back down in bedroom

Life admin stuff
* email building regs geezer to check bolts
* ring garage to get lights fixed on car
* ring dentist to rearrange appointment
* YNAB and banks
* transfer dosh back to savings account
* check what I can replace in regular savers

DIY stuff
* investigate lime plaster - what are the benefits, is it worth it, and what do I need?
* get on with some actual plastering!

That should keep me going for a while :rotfl:

Karmacat

My sympathies on the strike, Cheery - and yes, what you're describing as your attitude is exactly what unions were set up to be (I know you know that, I don't know why I put it that way, and I can't think of another way right now, sorry) ...


As for the potential (actual?) nightmare of that drive to stand on a picket line, at the back end of November when there's still heavy rain (and floods, for all I know) plus wet chickens, well ... you made the only decision possible :rotfl:


Good idea to treat it as a sort of work day! NB lime plaster - I may be thinking of the exact opposite, ie artex, but is it true that you can't mix your plasters? That if you put ordinary plaster on top of lime plaster, between the weight and an unwanted chemical interaction it shortens the life span of the whole arrangement? Just goes to show how much genuine research is a good thing, oops good luck.

Cheery_Daff

I don't know about mixing plasters actually! But the point of the lime is to be breathable - which it won't be if it has 'normal' stuff either under or over, and since the lime stuff is more expensive and takes a LOT longer to set etc, there doesn't seem any point using that at all if you've already got a layer of normal stuff.

I have mixed feelings but my research is proving rather interesting... right now I'm thinking yes to lime for downstairs - that room does get rather damp and ANYTHING that will help is good. Upstairs... hmm. Upstairs is already plastered and just needs skimming... when I've had lunch I'm going to go and chip a bit off and see if I can figure out what it is. If it's normal, I'd have to remove all of it to do lime, and it's not in that bad condition right now...

So we'll see. Mr Cheery has made slow cooker stew so off to have that for lunch :j