Cheery's country living adventure

missymoo81

Hope you managed the cafe Cheery. I love A cafe trip to reset the brain. I always do my best work there! Please make sure you make some time to take care of you this weekend x

Cheery_Daff

Thank you Missy - hope you have a break too! 

Yes we did indeed sneak in a cafe trip this afternoon, thank goodness! Although we did have to sit outside, and it was COLD. There's a new woman working there who has just NOT got her mask technique right - it's constantly sliding down, she's constantly pulling it back up, and quite often she has her nose out. She stands really quite close to people when taking orders too. It's a real shame, it's one of the few indoor places we felt safe as it's spacious and they were so careful. I think we're going to have to mention it sadly - neither of us were brave enough today, and I don't think we're brave enough to mention it to *her*, but we're friendly with one of the other people who works there so might mention it to them... It's starting to put us off going if we know she's going to be there.  

Anyway, money news. Had our first quote for tree planting (£1800) and someone else is coming tomorrow. We'll have to pay out and claim back, so I'm glad it's not a vast amount! 

Mortgage challenge (I was going to say 'weigh in' then, but you know what I mean! ) CHECK in tomorrow, so checked the balance (after MUCH faffing as I couldn't remember how to log in to the online account as I've only ever done it once). Down to £192,011 Hoping all our overpaying will have paid off and we'll be ahead of where we'd planned to be at this stage when the chart is released

Next round of covid study vouchers have arrived, and I NEED to get my act together - they're all electronic and sitting in my email, some of them are used up, some aren't - I need to print them out so I can write on them (and so Mr Cheery can take them if he goes to the shop). Not redeemed the latest lot, so not added them to mortgage total yet. 

Ooh, and while I was looking for the mortgage paperwork, a voice said 'NEW STUDY ON PROLIFIC' Where did that come from?? Seems I've installed some kind of 'prolific assistant' to tell me if new studies arrive Might have to go and do one now! 

STILL nothing on StreetBees. 14 stories done, and a grand total of 20p earned Hey ho! 

Cheery_Daff

One 70p study done, and I wimped out of a £3.64 one after I realised it was going to take 30 mins and I'd have to record myself speaking... still, 70p is better than nowt. Got about £4.50 in there now, will withdraw it when this lot clears and send it to the mortgage - they'll count towards over payments for the next challenge chart (which is at the end of January )

StrawberrySuze

Hi Cheery 
I hadn't heard of streetbees until you mentioned it,  I have done 2 stories, the first one was rejected, I really don't know why the second one is being reviewed, it took much longer than the 5 minutes it said. I might have earned 30p woohoo, will try not to spend it all at once!

Cheery_Daff

Ha Suze - I just went and checked and found my second ever paid survey!! Fortunately didn't involve photos as in already in bed 'if it's approved that'll be 50p i've earned in October, woo hoo!!

themadvix

The prolific voice is truly terrifying I find! Mainly because in this day and age I always have my speakers up full volume so I can hear people on calls - and then forget to turn it down, making me jump out of my skin when there’s ‘new studies available on prolific’! 😂

I think it’s definitely worth mentioning the mask thing at your café Cheery- I’m sure you’re not the only ones concerned.

South_coast

StrawberrySuze said:

Hi Cheery 
I hadn't heard of streetbees until you mentioned it,  I have done 2 stories, the first one was rejected, I really don't know why the second one is being reviewed, it took much longer than the 5 minutes it said. I might have earned 30p woohoo, will try not to spend it all at once!

Hi Suze, hope you don't mind me jumping in. If you've had one rejected, click the link to drop them an email. I've had it a couple of times and they've always sorted it out for me. I think sometimes the photos don't make it onto their system so you need to re-create it and send by email

South_coast

themadvix said:

The prolific voice is truly terrifying I find! Mainly because in this day and age I always have my speakers up full volume so I can hear people on calls - and then forget to turn it down, making me jump out of my skin when there’s ‘new studies available on prolific’! 😂

I'm now gutted I didn't know there was a voice thing when I was working from home! That would have been fun! Although I can't bear any kind of beeping noise, so I tended to mute the speakers again as soon as each call ended, as I couldn't cope with a loud "ding" after mouse clicks or pop-up boxes appeared!

rtandon27

Cheery - definitely mention the mask issue at your cafe - there really is no excuse not to have this skill perfected by now!

Cheery_Daff

Thanks folks Yes, we'll definitely mention it - just perhaps not to the woman herself. We've only met her a couple of times, and I wouldn't want either her to feel awkward, or US to feel awkward (given that we're in there several times a week!) Will probably go for breakfast tomorrow and mention it to the manager who's very nice

Nicely relaxed day today. Little excursion this morning and an unfruitful trip to a charity shop, but the discovery of a new (to us) cafe - not one we'll frequent very often, but it's good to know it's there when we're in that neck of the woods. Had a chat to both my mum and my sister, which was nice, and a bit of time outside raking leaves and sitting with the chickens. Bloke came out to do a quote for tree planting, and then I spent AGES in the bath reading the whole of a Wilkie Collins novella Once I'd started I had to get to the end!  

Just had a nice video chat with a pal we've not seen for ages as well, which was lovely

And I FINALLY tackled a small but tedious life admin job - sorting through our vouchers from the covid research. They arrive by email, and you have to cash them in, but then the voucher itself is just a link in another email and I was getting rather jumbled. I've written all the numbers down now, checked how much is left on each one, and forwarded them all to my work email to print on Monday (I could connect this laptop to the printer but, well, I can't be bothered ). Got £160 worth that still need using!

Realised we'd actually got two lots in the last week that I'd not cashed in, so I've done that now, and added another £100 to the mortgage According to my spreadsheet, we just need another £122 overpayment to shift from it being paid off in May 2035 to April 2035 so that's my target for next month! (Although having said that, I'm not convinced my spreadsheet's completely right, so I'm going to wait til later in the week when this payment has cleared, then check the actual balance against my spreadsheet balance. I think it's a couple of hundred out - can't figure out why, but might as well adjust it now so I'm not disappointed). 

Anyway - getting there! And it's meant to be not raining tomorrow which is good!