Cheery's country living adventure

the_cross_rabbit

Must be that time of year as we are getting mice 🐭 too
CRx

rtandon27

OH saw one lurking outside  by the kitchen door, under the 'horse-trough come herb garden' - he decided to ignore it as it was doing no harm. Should Mickey decide to take up residence he will be promptly evicted! - It's  the time of year for all creatures great and small!

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums! 

Glad it's not just us with the mice... I spotted one again today, grrr. The traps are set - although last night one had gone off when I came in, so I diligently drove up to what we now refer to as 'the mouse layby' and released... a handful of sultanas onto the moors  I was convinced there was a mouse in there, but last time I opened the lid to check one jumped out at me and escaped so I wasn't going to try that again!  

Not much MSE to report here I don't think. I told you the pension lump sum has arrived - hooray! I have yet to do anything with it, not even transferred to the savings account, so it's just sitting in the main current account at the minute. Me and Mr Cheery need to sit down at the weekend and allocate it to various pots. 

Just sorted out breakdown cover. We were with AutoAid last year, and they've sent us about 12 renewal notices in the last couple of weeks - so many in fact that I was considering NOT renewing with them as they were so annoying! However MSE website suggests they are still cheapest (currently £60, we got them on some kind of offer for £38 last year) so I've just paid up. Well worth it when that covers both of us driving any car.

What else? Oh, I bought a couple of bras the other week - only one fits so I need to find something else to exchange the other one for, must remember before the time for returns elapses. 

Managed to remember to collect my train tickets for the weekend - I go on the train so rarely these days it's easy to forget! Did them through TicketySplit so saved a bit (£57 return to London, not bad at all). Need to book a trip for work too while I'm thinking about trains... 

Speaking of work... I'm still on strike. Yawn. Could very much get used to not going to work mind you (although I expect I'll feel differently when this all starts filtering through my pay slips...) Trying to take advantage of the time to get some stuff done but so far it seems like normal daily tasks and meeting up with folks I've not seen for ages is taking over... 

Anyway, I've got an evening to myself tonight and need to make some plans because two hours have already slipped away without much to show for them!

Cheery_Daff

Oops, brief interlude there while I evicted an ACTUAL mouse up on to the moor. Poor little thing. I do feel rather sorry for them - but I always find a nice cosy bit of wall to put them in, and leave a bit of chicken food out so they'll have something immediate to eat to get over the shock of being trapped in a little box (albeit only for 10 minutes in this case) and driven a couple of miles up the road  

Anyway, as I was saying, the evening is running away with me, and I need a list! And YES I am going to include the things I have already done  

ALREADY DONE

• Rang sister
• Evicted mouse
• Renewed breakdown cover

STILL TO DO

• Practice presentation for weekend
• YNAB and banks 
• Hang washing up
• Find new bra to swap
• Transfer money to savings account
• Open new savings account

Ok, that'll do - in fact it's unlikely I'll even get all that done... Going to start with the presentation and see where we get to... 

Cheery_Daff

Morning all, gosh it's been a while! 

I confess I still haven't done some of the things on that list.. Oh dear!!  My presentation did get done, and presented, so that's the diploma all done and dusted after six years, hooray! And I really MUST get round to swapping that bra before it's too late (in fact it might already be too late, eek!) And I also need to sort out the savings account. Goodness me, what HAVE I been doing for the last fortnight?! 

Well. I've been on strike for quite a lot of it of course (although you'd think it'd give me more time, not less, but I think I just got rather more relaxed and slow as I didn't have to rush things to fit them in round work...). I've nearly finished building my new compost bin (still needs a bit doing). Started plastering (and then started scraping it off as I haven't done it for a while and made a bit of a hash of it). 

I've met up with quite a lot of pals too which has been nice - although now we have to look at that in a different light of course... 

Yesterday was the first day back at work after the strike,and after a bit of ambiguous faffing around and confusing information yesterday, after last night's press conference the information is clear - we're not to go into work at all unless individually told we must (they're keeping buildings open so some staff will be needed, but certainly not me). So today is going to be a day of allaying anxieties, cancelling things that weren't already cancelled, figuring out how to do things I've not needed to do before. 

I was meant to be going to London today, but clearly that's not happening now. Annoyingly, I only bought the train tickets yesterday morning - I'd been putting it off and putting it off, but when they still hadn't cancelled I figured I'd best get on with it. They're only off peak ones though so I can get a refund (minus £10). Also need to claim for a delayed trip last weekend too. 

Might need a bit of a list to get my head in order... 

Cheery_Daff

Ok, money-related things that need doing. 

• Transfer pension money to savings account
• Open Mr Cheery's new savings account
• Transfer first dosh into mine
• YNAB
• Exchange bra
• Order another metal bin - been meaning to do this for ages, we can't get both the chicken food and corn into the existing one when they're both full, and a pesky mouse found its way into one of the bags the other day, grr. 
• Email boiler man

That doesn't seem so daunting now does it?? I feel like I've missed about a dozen things off

themadvix

Well done on the diploma Cheery! It must feel great to have that out of the back of your mind too.

At least you managed to see friends... ours kept cancelling and now who knows when we’ll be able to see them!

I would have thought you might be able to get all of the train ticket money back considering the circumstances. I’ll need to claim a refund for mine for travel at the weekend, but I’m waiting to let the company update the website after last night’s announcement.

Fortune_Smiles

Well done on getting your diploma completed Cheery.  We have been self-isolating for a week now and are slowly finding a new way of being.  I suspect there will be a lot more gardening and decorating achieved in the Fortunate house over these next months.  I am very envious of your chickens at the moment - T£$co are rationing eggs!

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

Thanks folks

Don't be too envious of my chickens Fortune - I suspect you can get more eggs from Tesco than they're producing at the minute!!

I think my problem (as usual) is going to be the lack of standing up. I've often found it on the days I work from home - I get into what I'm doing (or procrastinating on the internet...) and find myself sat down for hours. Trying to create a system of 45 mins work, 15 mins standing up (at the minute tidying my study which is an APPALLING mess and all dusty after Mr Cheery did some kind of drilling/sawing and left the door open). This morning I've managed to clear off most of my desk and give it a good scrub down which feels a LOT nicer. Going to set the timer again and try another 15 min session after a bit of work. Feels good to be doing something proactive. 

(Rest of the house is a tip of course... but that'll come... I hope...)

themadvix

I wouldn't bet on that Cheery (the eggs)... none to be seen in Sainsbury's or Coop this morning! (My Coop will now only sell two of any one thing to a customer....)

I hear you on the standing up thing.