Moving forward and upwards

MovingForwards

Thanks Ren, it's good to see you posting again.

TomBo has been in No2 all day, cleared a load and also filled the garden waste bins ready for next collection 😃

Watered everything and noticed my ball carrots have sprouted. Indoors I'm having tomatoes sprouting on a daily basis and my peas are sprouting too.

Over ate as I got so fed up today. Have two meetings this month and the hosts insists on physical attendance; two different days. The first meeting I'm going to use to my advantage and make it clear I'm unimpressed doing both roles for my wage. I'm also just going to do flexi those days, start mega early, skip lunch break and finish early. Working late tomorrow so will finish early Friday, I don't see why I should keep doing free O/T and not get my time back. I could rant for weeks about loads more but it won't help.

Had beef casserole for tea, chocolate for pudding.

longway2go

Sorry you are having a nightmare with work but definitely use it to your advantage where you can. 

savingholmes

Well done on all the gardening. Glad the neighbours are appreciative. Definitely take your time back.

MovingForwards

Thanks SH, I am they've had too much free time from me since the other half of the 'team' went off sick. 

Made the mistake of looking at my utility account earlier this week, they cancelled nearly every bill. 
Looking today they've generated something resembling new bills with a mix of estimated and my readings, even though I provide them within the 7 days they ask and they used them for generating my now cancelled bills; opening and current readings tally with what I provided.
Not only that but they recalculated it and I was in credit, now used with latest electric meter readings, generated a standalone electric bill but not gas.
- I dislike this company more with every passing day.

Confused yet? I am!

One day, hopefully soon, I will be with a different supplier. 

doingitanyway

The utility provider sound awful and you are on the ball. Imagine how someone older and less on the ball would fare? 
Roll on the new supplier.

Skint_yet_Again

Can you name & shame them Babs so we can avoid them ! 

MovingForwards

Thanks DIA and Skinty,

I thought I already had its Sc0tt1sh P0w3r.  I've already commented on the MSE review thread about them.

The other supplier ($$E) drops me an email every 2 weeks as they keep checking to see if SP have updated the national database. They are not the cheapest, but still cheaper than SP and their complaints team are more with it, unlike SP's or their executive complaints handlers. 3on are the cheapest of the big 6 for my use / area.

I'm going to sound a lot older than I am, but it was so much easier years ago when it was one company for the gas and another for the electric. Makes you wonder how they coped with all the properties, sending paper bills etc and without the IT technology available like we have now! 

MovingForwards

TomBo has been in No2's garden all day, he's making great changes and there's now two paths running round it. Loads to still do but it's definitely getting that cottage garden feel and look.

He made my bean and pea frame for our garden, it's nice and stable.

I popped out for a break today and found some old gutter pipe, will cut some holes in it, sink it in the soil, fill it with a compost mix and grow more strawberries in it. 

Tomorrow we will be doing No1, No2 and our garden.

£21.39 in the bank, £2 is bank fee and £20 in my purse, 12 days until payday.

Skint_yet_Again

You may have mentioned them before, my brain is not firing on all cylinders at the moment 🤦‍♀️😆

Gardens are coming along nicely. 🤗 Have you seen the MSE weekly newsletter ? Not sure if you would be interested in the free seeds that come with gardening mag and 2for1 entry to gardens ?

MovingForwards

I may have only mentioned them by initials when ranting months ago 🤭

Believe it or not, I've not picked up any of the gardening mags to read for months. I can't seem to focus on things. The 2for1 thing isn't anything we could justify, or get use of. Thanks for thinking of me, I do really appreciate it Skinty x

Just as a side note, last year I slowly worked my way through the seeds I collected free with the gardening mags and they were great to get me started while I found my feet. When seeing them all together for this year there wasn't many in a packet and it was quite repetitive eg loads of normal toms, various lettuce, two types of carrots etc and not what I really wanted eg cabage, runners and other greens, root veg, fruit etc.
- It wouldn't be cost effective for the mags / suppliers to provide 'exotic' seeds like heritage free as they have to provide things easy with high success rate or customers would complain, people wouldn't buy the mags and think the suppliers are not good.

This year I've found my feet and I'm using a reliable, cheap supplier where I can pick my fruit, veg and companion seeds by amount. I can also pick things to suit my climate and buy things like russian black tom seeds (think dark purple beef tom's but full of flavour) and melon; both are suited to the weather over here.
I got 500 strawberry seeds, 360 pea seeds, 200 dwarf french beans, 400 marigold etc for 99p - £1.25p each, quick P&P is £1.25.

I've a lot more time now to research and get the right things for our edible needs, soil and weather needs. Due to being here nearly 12 months I've had almost a full growing year and the garden is in better shape now than when we moved in, rushed to get things set up.

Oh and we've been watching the good life, we really are Tom and Babs 🙈