Life is a minestrone as the song says - my new diary

teapot2

Busy work day yesterday with quick trips out to sit in the garden away from the screen between meetings.  Gave the garden a quick watering before having my tea then chilled out for a couple of hours before bed.  I had to go to the local medical centre this morning for a follow up blood test.  Quite surreal as the waiting room has about 6 chairs in it all very spaced out, all staff in scrubs and most in masks.  Went for a walk to the harbour afterwards and sat for a few minutes enjoying the scene before coming home again - I still feel a bit uncomfortable sitting admiring the view as it feels like that might be frowned on  .
My veg box should be delivered this afternoon.  I'm out of some fresh veg so that will be good timing.  I still seem to have a couple of big leeks left though so need to look up a recipe that will use them up as I've not been making soup in the warmer weather.   
I'm working from 4.30 into the evening so will have a couple of hours in the garden till then.

beanielou

How lovely to sit at the harbour for a few minutes.
I can smell the sea air xx

teapot2

beanielou said:

How lovely to sit at the harbour for a few minutes.
I can smell the sea air xx

It was lovely and the sea air was particularly..... well sea smelling as it was a very low tide and quite pungent

teapot2

Not much been going on - same old same old.  Struggled a bit with work this week but am taking a week off starting on Wednesday coming.  I realised I hadn't taken time off since Christmas apart from a few days when my friend's mum died and I went to stay with her.  I was meant to take time off at Easter but didn't in the end so its been a while and well overdue.
Few things happened on the money front, I realised one of my CCs was coming to an end of its 0% rate this month.  I had a look on the MSE website for a 0% CC that had no transfer fee and decided to try for a S@nt@der one as I have a couple of accounts with them.  I had to apply directly online and was accepted immediately, and given a higher credit limit than I expected so am just waiting for the paperwork in the post.  I'll be able to transfer all of the balance from the card that is losing its 0% so well pleased with that.
I know interest on savings is rubbish at the moment so I went for what seemed like the best easy access option and opened an NS& I acct which again seemed to go smoothly.  I can only pay in and take out £500 at a time so have left some money in my TSB acct in case I need to pay into my Spanish acct which has all the DDs coming from it.  
I'm on £32 with Prolific and over £20 on 1poll, also had a Pinecone survey this week so that's building up too.
My plants are coming along, think they appreciated the recent rain and its certainly a lot easier to weed and dig into the borders.  Hoping to get on with the garden while I'm off work if the weather is reasonable.

beanielou

Enjoy your time off 

teapot2

Soooo that's me got a few days off which I'm definitely ready for.  Looks like it will mostly be wet, windy or foggy until I start work again which is a shame as a bit of sunshine would have been a bonus.  Hoping I can get some gardening done inbetween showers.  At least the weeds will be easier to pull or dig out in the wet  .  I have some indoor gardening to be getting on with too as some of the peppers and chillis could do with repotting - more than I expected germinated and grew so some are sharing pots.  I might need to order some more compost as well.  I'd like to have a walk to the garden centre at some point as well.
I got an email to say my new 0% CC has been dispatched so hopefully that should arrive soon and I can do a balance transfer.  I also need to make a monthly payment to various CCs.  I withdrew £35+ from Prolific so will add that to one of my payments.
Off to do a bit of meal planning and to see whats left in the fridge.....

teapot2

Yep I definitely chose the wrong week off weather wise as it was pretty dire some days.  I managed to sit in the garden a couple of times for a short while.  Glad I took the break though and felt better for it.  Back to work yesterday and all went ok.  Not much else to report, I didn't get anything like the amount of gardening I'd planned done.  I still have a fair bit of weeding to do in the front border so that I can get some annuals planted - they are sitting waiting.  The border seems to have been invaded by some sort of ground covering plant I've not seen before.  If I don't dig out the roots which are deep, it just comes back again - blooming thing is everywhere. I ventured to the garden centre a couple of days ago and got some stocks to put in the pot by the front door.  That's the first shop I've been in since lockdown started, as they've moved everything round, I couldn't find what I was looking for so had to go round and round several times following the markers on the floor.  We all had to have a big trolley to 'aid social distancing' so after I'd pushed that and manoeuvred it through narrow spaces several times round the shop I felt quite tired.  I had to go to the High St today so emboldened by my GC visit I treated myself to a pot of fresh crab meat from the fish shop and a loaf of brown sourdough from the community baker.  That was lunch sorted and delicious it was
Money wise, I've paid around £500 off CCs this month so far so pleased with that.  Also did a BT from my Sainsbo card which had run out of 0% onto the new Spanish bank 0% CC so pleased with that - was a no fee transfer too.
Had a Ugov survey today so crawling along there, hoped to get to payout on 1poll this week but survey are few so don't think that will happen - need under £2 to get there!  Have missed out on a couple of well paying Prolific surveys the last couple of days but doing those I manage to catch - currently on £9 odd there.
Have an online work meeting shortly so better skedaddle and check the state of my hair - I've definitely got lockdown locks eek.

beanielou

Boo to the bad weather while you were off.
At least you had a wee break from work

teapot2

Did more weeding in the front border yesterday as all the rain we've had has made it easier to pull out the weeds.  Still got lots of that annoying ground cover weed type plant but am going to try and keep pulling it up regularly but its tricky where its growing in amongst plants I want to keep.  Did an online training yesterday afternoon/early evening and then caught up with a friend on Zoom for over an hour.  It was getting late by then so just had a bowl of porridge and some raspberries for my evening meal.  I'm in a virtual conference on Monday and Tuesday which again will finish early evening as most of the contributors are in the US so time differences come into play.  I want to be a bit more organised food wise so will have a think about getting something prepared beforehand.  I fancy a big salad today - maybe something with green lentils and goats cheese  .
It was really warm yesterday evening and there was a beautiful sky quite late on so I sat out in the garden for a while before going to bed.  While it was lovely and I'm very grateful for what I have, its at times like these that I feel the loss of OH very keenly. as that is a special moment we would have shared.
Its a sunshine and showers type of day so will do a bit in the garden when its dry, I want to plant more radish seeds as have eaten them all and forgot to do any succession planting doh.  Been eating strawberries from the pots this week, often in previous years when I've not been working at home the birds have had them so this year we are sharing  .  I planted some very old carrot seeds I found and they are coming up much to my surprise so pleased with that.  Also hoping to repot some of the pepper plants today and have taken off the top leaves on the mint and basil to encourage the plants to be more bushy.  I've been enjoying watching a variety of bees visiting the garden, they seem to particularly love the chive flowers and the Salvia at the moment.  
I was looking back through this diary and its about 2 months since I stopped eating biscuits and cake and made an effort to cut down on sugar.  I've pretty much stuck to this other than having a small sample when I've baked for the family - purely in the interests of quality control of course  .  I'm not sure I've lost much weight - maybe a few pounds but am definitely feeling like I've got more energy so will keep on with it.  Not sure how I'll fare when /if we ever get back to sit in coffee shops as somehow coffee and cake are inextricably twinned in my mind!  I'm a bit confused about my weight as I had to go back to have another test at the GP last week and they weighed me and I was about a stone lighter on their scales lol.  I'm definitely taking their result over mine.  Maybe time to get new scales methinks.  Better get on and do stuff instead of writing about it on here

teapot2

Had a busy week which included a two day online conference with work fitted in around it.  Really feeling tired by the time Friday arrived so decided to have a very lazy day today which I've done.  I've read my book and finished it and caught up on diaries but not done much else.  I wont even have to cook a meal tonight as I have some left over aubergine parmigiana and I'll have salad with that.  My garden salad leaves are finally big enough to pick, thats the second sewing but although the first sewing germinated and grew, they are still smaller than the second sewing so not sure what thats about.   Other veg are growing slowly, the chard isn't coming on by leaps and bounds so maybe need to do a second sewing there too.  The first lot of beetroot seeds didn't germinate but the second sewing is peeping through.  I have tiny wee peppers on one of the indoor plants and the herbs I planted are coming away now.  The local veg shop advertised jam strawbs on FB so if they have any left when my veg box comes, I'll make strawberry and rhubarb jam.  I need to find something to prop up one of the courgette plants and also loosely tie the mangetout plants to pea sticks where they have resisted attempts to coax them to cling on already.  
I'm in a tentative bubble with some family so walked round y'day, my hesitation is due to the husband working in a busy environment which might not involve much social distancing so no hugging as yet.  Lovely to spent time in the garden there though and see the tiny humans for a bit.  Last day of school yesterday up here so its been a funny old time for them and quite emosh.  We sat under their gazebo as the rain hammered down and the thunder rumbled - adults cooried in and the tiny humans asked to put swimwear on so they could continue playing on the slide and trampoline lol.
Money-wise I've transferred £500 to savings today, been trying really hard to save a bit so I can build up my EF which was emptied by the leaking roof last year .  I cashed out on 1poll yesterday and just south of £20 on Prolific though the 1poll payment will take a few weeks to arrive.  I did a Pinec@ne survey this week which was paid out really quickly.  I've  been offered a wee bit of extra temporary work, will leave deciding over the weekend.  Don't want to overload myself as I find online work  more tiring but being self employed, I think my default is to not turn work down.  Anyhoo will ponder.......     
Am annoyed with myself as slaistered some jam on the settee arm earlier, the covers are washable but its too wet at the moment to get them dried outside so am off to sponge it down again.