Cheery's country living adventure

ElmoR

It's going to be quite a day when that ceiling is finished and off your 'to do' list!

DH had a holey ceiling when I first met him and it took him years to finish fixing it. He used to talk and write about it endlessly. Who knew that ceilings could take over a person's life!

Cheery_Daff

😂😂 You're right, of course! This fiasco started in November 2019 when the builders replaced the joists/floorboards. Since then I've sanded and oiled all the joists, screwed battens to the sides of them all, filled all the holes with insulation, and now most of them with plasterboard, and sealed round the edges. Before the builders come I've got three big pieces of plasterboard left, a couple of awkward tiny bits, sealing round 10 pieces, and then painting the lot. Then once this lot of builders have done their stuff I'll be doing the plasterboard/sealing/painting rigmarole with another 12 pieces. What a fiasco!

Cheery_Daff

Afternoon MSE chums! 

Gosh, the weather is SO much better than yesterday!! We ended up with quite the blizzard 😮 Still snow on the ground today, but it's melting now.

I've blanched and frozen the last of the kale, so feeling very pleased with myself 😂 And I've just spent a happy hour in the greenhouse rearranging trays of seedlings and sowing some more - another type of beans, courgette, squash etc. All tucked up and hopefully will get round to germinating eventually... 

Nothing much else to report. Down £19 on the Happy Wheel this morning, but otherwise nowt financial has happened. We're about to go for a walk, and might pick up a cuppa. I'm planning to make extra of whatever I make for tea to stick in the freezer - I've already got two portions if soup and three batches of curry in there, and I'll make some breakfast muffins tonight too. This is great - I really wanted to get eating back under control and a big part of that was having easy meals ready for when I went back to work.

Obviously the weather is due to be glorious tomorrow 🙄 Hey ho - will focus on being efficient so I can have a peaceful evening in the garden!

greenbee

Good luck getting eating under control @Cheery_Daff - I need to do the same (I'm hoping the weather improving will help). I have stuff in the freezer, and I'm cooking properly, but I'm also eating other stuff in between... 

I also rearranged the greenhouse - I've put all the pots that succumbed to the cold into a couple of buckets to deal with later and put the survivors together. I'm looking forward to the weather improving and spending more time in the garden and less in the house!

Cheery_Daff

I've not ditched my frost bitten beans yet - still hoping some of them will pull through! 

Off out to swap plastic for fleece though to keep everything cosy overnight. Fingers crossed...

greenbee

I went out just now, but the sun is shining and the greenhouse vents are open, so I need to give them a bit longer!

Cheery_Daff

Afternoon chums! 

First day back at work is going... OK. Had a while this morning where I just couldn't get my head around what my job was or what I needed to do 😂 And I was teaching this afternoon and it took me a minute to remember how to use breakout rooms etc 😂

Still, up and running now (although still objecting to being at work in general, especially when the sun is shining!)

Mr Cheery and I did sneak off to our favourite cafe, which opened today for the first time this year. Love those folks 😍 We were the only ones there, we had to sit outside of course, and while I'd planned to sit and do a bit of work as I would usually in the cafe, in reality it was just too cold to stay for long, despite the sunshine.

Delighted to say the premium bonds winnings have arrived, so they've been transferred into the kitchen fund, which currently stands at £467.67.

MB down by a few quid this morning (although it's Monday so there should be a few free spins to appear after various weekend offers, so that might make it up a bit). Monthly total £42 now.

I did a couple of Prolific studies today, so total when they've paid will be just over £5 - will try to get to payout by the end of the week!

Right, best get back to work for a bit...

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, nice bit of Prolific action this afternoon and I'm up to £9.20! 

Also, emailed head of dept about dropping to four days. He's fine with it, but said there's an option to drop temporarily (for a whole year) before making a permanent decision.

I was planning to reclaim my Fridays forever but I hadn't realised this option was available. Who knows where we'll be a year from now... sounds like a good idea to have the option available.

Going to mull it over tonight.

Cheery_Daff

Been mulling it over, and subject to a few checks, I'll take the temporary option. Just need to get a guarantee that I myself get to make the decision about whether it's permanent or not, rather than them. Don't want bosses to change their minds and make me go back to full time if I don't want to - and equally if I've taken the temporary option and changed my mind, I don't want them to prevent me from going full time again. Will check what the deal is tomorrow.

Realised the latest batch of covid vouchers has been sat in my spam folder for several days... so have transferred the equivalent dosh into the kitchen fund, which now stands at £517.67. Yay!

themadvix

Good news about the flexibility with your job Cheery. And at this rate you'll cover the whole cost for the kitchen from your kitchen fund instead of savings!