Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

It was just yer basic carrot and lentil job but it was pretty tasty (especially as I found some sesame seeds at the back of the cupboard and toasted them to sprinkle on top - proper tasty!)

So, needless to say I didn't get round to YNAB last night I was proper exhausted, and ended up in bed by 10pm - and later woke having a most distressing dream about my sister having murdered several people, and when I found out and tried to tell the police (who didn't believe me), she tried to poison me :eek: I mean, in real life she's rather more fierce than me (not difficult) but I suspect not that bad :eek: :eek:

Anyway, a loafing day on the cards today. Well, relative loafing anyway, as I've been informed my 'loafing' days look rather productive from the outside I have already been for a run, picked the poop (and eggs) out of the chicken run, and raked up the grass :j

Now I'm going to sit and drink a cuppa while I FINALLY sort out banks and YNAB, and maybe do a sneaky blog post.

Then a shower, and then Mr Cheery and I are taking ourselves out for breakfast at our current favourite cafe, which annoyingly doesn't open til 10.30 on a Sunday. I'm planning to take a bit of diploma-related stuff with me to do.

And then no other particular plans :j Some friends said they may come out for a visit, but as it's not quite so sunny as yesterday, I suspect they may decide they drove enough yesterday and don't want to drive an hour out to us... Quite often people tell me we live 'so far' away and they're too tired to drive here... which is fair enough of course. But I get the impression that they think I don't know how far away it is, and don't do the same journey myself in the other direction several times a week :rotfl:

Anyway, in the absence of visitors... some batch cooking perhaps? and a little flute playing? and I MUST put away the washing - my study looks like some kind of laundry facility at the minute, especially as we had a visitor on Friday and I had to quickly gather up all my dumped clothes off the bathroom floor and threw them in the study instead :rotfl: :rotfl: Domestic goddess I am NOT :rotfl: :rotfl:

Right, hope you all have suitably MSE days of fun and frolics (or at least getting useful things done!)
xx

greenbee

It does sound as if your loafing days are very productive... I've just managed to hang out my first load of laundry!

Have you noticed yet that people think it's too far for them to come to you, but fine for you to go to them? Clearly the distance is shorter that way round...

Cheery_Daff

Definitely noticed that greenbee!

Anyway, I am popping in to confess that I have STILL not sorted out YNAB :eek: silly girl.

And also my car is being held hostage (again) by the garage :eek: well, actually they were quite happy to release it, but they haven't actually FIXED it, and it has an intermittent fault that means it just rolls to a halt in the middle of the road every few miles :eek: limped it home at 10pm the other night, and limped it to the garage at 7 this morning, but did NOT fancy another 30 miles of cross town rush hour traffic and summer evening countryside traffic, only to have to do the same in reverse on Monday.

Feel I've pushed my luck too far already and been very fortunate not to stop on a blind corner or whatever :eek:

Anyway, so I am hanging about at the bus stop, and feeling grateful that (a) it's sunny, (b) I put my sandals on, despite the freezing fog that enveloped my house this morning, (c) there is a bus not too from work that will get me within 11 miles of my house, and (d) that we have another car, and that Mr Cheery is willing to come and get me in it.

All good things :j and I get a little evening trip to Bakewell which is always cheerful :j

Cheery_Daff

Right, finally on the bus (only 15 mins late - I was on the phone to traveline trying to find out where it was when it finally turned up). £4.70! I suppose that's not too bad for a 50 min bus ride to another town but it feels a bit steep to only get half way home :rotfl: :rotfl:

Nowt much else to report financially I don't think. Had to order chicken food and bedding again this week - pesky chickens. But that's it on the big purchases.

Nearly the end of the month so will be able to tot up the MB income - we've been over £800 the last two months but things are quieter over the summer... looking like I'll make it to £600 though so that's still good!

And I realised I only overpaid the mortgage by the £1000 MB money last time, not the other money that I'd already saved so I'll pay that off too :money: can't remember what it was off the top of my head but it included the marriage tax money which was almost £500 so a decent wedge altogether :j

Wish I'd thought to get a drink before I left work, this bus is rather warm... might not off for a bit if I can - going to the end of the line after all...

debtfreeoneday

Hope the car is fixed soon and cheaply!

Cheery_Daff

Thank you, so do I!

Not today though - apparently the guy who knows about electrics is going to look at it on Monday morning... Rather vexing really as next week is the one week of the year where I'm meant to be somewhere specific 9-5 every day :eek: almost like having a proper job! :eek:

Fortunately Mr Cheery can take me to the nearest town, where I will apparently be able to get a bus to the ludicrously out of the way place I'?m meant to be. He's then got a hospital appointment in the city, and can collect me on the way home. What a faff!

What will be more of a faff is figuring out how exactly we collect the car when it IS fixed, given that where I'm meant to be is nowhere near the garage, and if Mr Cheery drives to the garage he'll then have two cars and no way to drive the second one home :rotfl:

Anyway, that's all hypothetical because I suppose they may decide they just can't fix it at all :eek:

Anyway, we'll figure all that out later - the sun is shining and we've just been on a VERY hot walk down to our local village fete, which is down a big hill and then back up again. Yesterday I went to another local school fete, and the tombola was full of wine and cider and what did I win??

A jar of Aldi pickled beetroot and a bottle of strawberry flavoured water :rotfl: :rotfl:

Today I had slightly more luck, largely because I ignored the normal tombola (the prizes were all kids toys) in favour of the excellent "bottle-bola" in which you paid £2 and got to choose a bottle bag, and they ALL had something in (some alcoholic, some not).

This time I won a bottle of sangria :j :j :rotfl:

Back home now and trying to cool down a bit. Been contemplating some gardening but it's been far too warm so I'm going to wait til the chicken ladies are in bed and attempt to get the strimmer to work (it's not broken, just brand new and I've never used one before).

But before that a couple of pals are calling in on their way home from somewhere else so we can have a nice laze around in the sunshine :j :j

Karmacat

Extremely vexing about the car, Cheery, and I hope its *not* hypothetical to think how to retrieve it. But your day today sounds lovely. And alcoholic, with sangria in the picture

Cheery_Daff

Morning all (just) :hello:

Well, still no car :eek: I rang the garage twice yesterday - at lunchtime the bloke had apparently not turned up yet, and at 4 he was 'looking at it now', and they said they'd ring when he'd finished, which they still haven't done :mad: I'll have to ring again at lunchtime, yawn. Honestly, it'd be quicker to train as a mechanic and fix it myself! :eek: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Still, can't complain, although it does make this week a bit of a logistical faff. Me and several colleagues are holed up in a posh hotel on a 'writing retreat' - an element of our work that we are meant to do, but which we rarely get proper time for, so this is designed to encourage us to get on with it without checking emails or doing anything else (er, they didn't specifically exclude the MSE forum.... :rotfl: )

Which is all very well, but it's 18 miles from home, and Mr Cheery has had to be in the city these last two days, so there's a bit of messing around. Yesterday he drove me here for 9am then went home, then back to the city (driving past where I am), then picked me up on the way home at 5.30.

Today he's had to bring me here again for 9am, then go home, then he's going back to the city again, but is busy all evening, so either I stay here at this hotel on my own til he goes past at 10.30pm, or I get the train into the city and find a pal to have tea with.

Tomorrow I have a docs appointment at 8am, so it looks like he might have to take me to that, then bring me here, and then come and get me again (although maybe he doesn't need the car tomorrow? Fingers crossed...)

Of course, it's possible that the garage might FIX THE OTHER CAR at some point, in which case I'll have to abandon work, get the train into the city before the garage shuts, and then I can drive back here to carry on the afternoon.

But who knows. Yawn. All very tedious, and I don't like the uncertainty. Are we going to have to do this ridiculous ferrying all week? Will we need to buy a new car?! Or am I going to have to sack off this afternoon's work to go and retrieve the other one?!

I should probably let go of the whatifery :rotfl: For the next hour I am here with a specific job to do (which I am trying to avoid, hence being in here waffling about the car), and then at lunchtime I'll try ringing them again and we'll see where we are.

Oh! Also meant to say about MB... Struggled last week going backwards and forwards with stupid casino offers and feeling like I wasn't getting there, but ended the month £552 up, meaning a total of £2400 since I started in the middle of March :money: According to the new calculations, that's £52 each for me and Mr Cheery to play with, and around £220 to the mortgage, and £200 to savings :money:

This month is already going well - I'm up £60 since yesterday!

Right, back to the day job I suppose....

themadvix

Hope you hear back soon about the car.... So frustrating! In the meantime, hope you got the specific job done!

Cheery_Daff

Job didn't get quite finished (although significant progress was made) but the car is (apparently) now fixed, and I am in a (non MSE) taxi to collect it :j (slightly more MSE as the train I was on before the taxi didn't have a guard so I couldn't buy a ticket...)