Crazy Cat Lady Chapter 4 - The Aftermath

Honeysucklelou2

Fantastic news CCL!

janb5

So pleased!  A boost when it is really needed!

juliejim

Great news on the goodwill payment CCL.
I'm back at work fulltime from June 1st so just next week to get myself sorted!

jwil

Great news about the payment

crazy_cat_lady

Morning  
Thanks all for your kind words. The good news has sunk in a bit more I think - it is a lot of money and I think you will all understand why I was so concerned about losing my exam marking this year in terms of finances. I do have plans for it - siphon off what I need to get me through summer in terms of school uniforms and a couple of days out (we have survived lockdown this long, we do not need to do loads during the 6 weeks) and then the rest goes towards that sodding credit card that's sitting reminding me of the cost of my divorce every single day. I'm also quite relieved to know that there's still other exam work filtering through for me even now. I assume that there will have to be some significant changes there over time as well but short term nobody really seems to know what is going on.
Day off from the internet yesterday, but not a day off. It was still awfully windy all day and I was quite demotivated so I did the 'round of crochet', 'one job', repeat. It worked well - takes me about 20-30 mins to do a round of the blanket then 10 mins to do a little job. Managed to get the kitchen and the bathroom done by early afternoon, then spent time packing up the car for my first ever tip run. Took dd with me to help unpack at the other end. I had never been to a tip before so wasn't sure of what to expect apart from what I'd seen on TV - but was much amused to find out that dd had a vision of us like a pair of those poor children in developing countries, scavenging among huge heaps of rubbish I don't know if she was relieved to see a load of skips or a bit disappointed. I was very pleased at how easy it was - got my free permit - turned up at my allocated time slot, emptied the rubbish into the skips, went home. I think I will do that again rather than pay for people to take it away from me if I can fit stuff in the car.
In other exciting news, dd's favourite Portugese chicken restaurant has opened for collection only in Newcastle - a bit of a hike but she has offered to pay for all of us if I drive her there to collect it. Bless her - it's the most excited I've seen her since lockdown started apart from when she saw her bestie from a social distance so I think I will probably do it now that we're allowed to travel as far as we like as long as we don't stay overnight anyway. It's only 15 miles, hardly 260 miles between London and Durham or anything I had no idea she was so dependent on N&O's but hey - I love a spicy chicken meal too.
So apart from that exciting drive today I need to get out for a walk as well - me and ds went late last night as it was windy all day again yesterday. I need a longer walk and apparently the wind is going to die right down again today so we shall see. Other than that I need to finish clearing the living room, hoover through and then just the basics - washing, washing up, but no cooking today (which is almost as exciting as the thought of the food). I have two more blankets approaching completion so will be crocheting for much of the day too. I have no clue what is going to be done with all of these lockdown blankets apart from to say that I hope people would appreciate a blanket as a gift in about 7 months time.  
Dawnybabes - how nice was that shop manager to do that for you? It's always lovely to read stories like that. Obviously not that you got 'ladies secret things' instead of nappies in the first place though.
Juliejim - I can't believe you're back full time in a week and we're still on the rota. Good luck getting it all sorted.

apple_muncher

So pleased you're getting the exam money, ccl. Are you going to set up a 'golden chicken' fund?!

crazy_cat_lady

Hello  
Day off from computer and internet yesterday as I'm desperately trying to finish these couple of crochet blankets I have on the go at the moment. Unfortunately I'm on rounds that have over 800 stitches so that's not the quick job that I expect it to be. And it's half term so I'm determined not to be the victim of being stuck doing work all day as well.
Monday was a strange old day - I needed a couple of golden items (you're right apple - my exam cash may just keep me stocked in that short term) so decided to go for a long walk to get it. Obviously I was on my own with that but I did just under 5 miles. Unfortunately I did that over the hottest part of the day, and caught the sun a bit. So that, coupled with over an hour of walking meant I was quite tired in the afternoon. I lay in the garden (in the shade) for a long time - not even reading, just lying about. And that has kind of set the tone since. I'm not getting that much done if I'm honest - but I don't mind.
Yesterday, my mam and stepdad popped over to drop some books off for me to read and we had a socially distanced chat outside for about 10 minutes. I can't wait until I can see them properly again that's for sure. Had a bit of a frustrating day with my crochet - found a mistake I couldn't fudge 4 rows back so had to undo it all, so I may as well not have done any crochet at all on Sunday or Monday. And I had to do a z00m meeting about health and safety and reopening schools with the union (I stepped down as workplace rep but agreed to stay on as health and safety). I thought it would be about half an hour but we were on over two hours and it wasn't the most interesting. I love my health and safety role and it is so important at the moment, but this was a dull meeting which only served to reinforce my personal view that the guidance from the government is rubbish and impractical. Contacted the Head afterwards to let him know what I'd been doing and discuss risk assessments with him - we'll need to put some time together next week to go through that. I hope the government are going to stump up for all the extra stuff we're going to need to buy at school to make this work.
Dragged myself out at 9pm for a late walk as I'm a bit sunburnt so avoiding the hottest parts of the day, although it's not that hot here compared to you lot down south (22 yesterday). I will need to drag ds out with me today though - he's staying up until 3am at the moment as he's not tiring himself out during the day and that's starting to become a problem. And he's been asking for Pr1ngles so I'm going to get him to come with me to get them. Still want to go when it's quiet though as our local shops have become a bit of a free for all. Social distancing wasn't really happening well locally anyway, and this business in the news has made everyone think that rules no longer apply to them. I will continue to keep me and mine safe as well as I can, and let other people take whatever risks that they want to.
Not many other plans for the day - wonder if I'm starting to get myself into a bit of a rut. I need to get back to doing a round (or side) of crochet and then a little job. I've got a load of washing in at the moment but I'm not that sure what else needs to be done - I hoovered right through yesterday, booked an online shop, cleaned the bathroom... I might spend some of today doing my required training courses for school - I know it's half term but I'm still learning. and quite loving it. I'm amazed at how diverse my lockdown time has become. I can speak a bit of French, German and do sign language. I've learned about autism, the second world war, Van Gogh, Macbeth, Dr Jekyll and volcanoes. Plus I've completely redecorated the bathroom and taught myself how to cut ds hair. However, I still haven't learned (or wanted to) any gardening, new cooking skills or sewing. 
Which reminds me - people reading this that can sew. I have a cotton tote bag that I am in love with, which I took shopping with me on my long walk the other day. I got it caught on a branch and ripped it. It's a very neat rip but now not much use as a bag with a big L shaped tear. Is it fixable? Should I get something like wonderweb? Or just cry and send it to rest alongside my favourite mug that I dropped and smashed last week? Any advice appreciated.

f0xh0les

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbE5hXt27uU 

for how to sew an invisible stitch - easy peasy.  Or if you wanted to, you could match up the ripped ends as best you can, use wonderweb on the inside of the bag, and a square of fabric on top of that to reinforce it - like a patch on the inside - and wonderweb it all.  I don't think wonderweb would be strong enough on its own, but bag fabric/wonderweb/odd bit of fabric-sandwich would work.

crazy_cat_lady

Thanks for that f0xh0les - it's on the list of things to do. Meantime I've done a bit of foxgloves shopping from home and swapped that cotton bag with another cotton bag that was storing my books that I need to read. So I haven't lost the bag I love but not risking losing stuff when I'm out and about.
So I've spent some of today channeling my inner foxgloves and done lots of shopping from home. I am proud and I'm sure that she will be as well. Clearly the walking is going well because I found a big hole in the toe of my trainer last night - was just about to order myself a pair of walking shoes when I remembered that a few years ago I'd bought a pair of sandals that I wore to death for that year and then put under the bed and forgot about. Dug them out and they are proper hiking sandals - so they will do for the short term as they have plenty of life left in them yet. Obviously no good as and when the rain arrives but fine for the moment.
Also wanted to sort and stash away all of my paperwork and legals relating to the divorce and continuing financial situation. Much of my stuff is kept online but I have lots of important bits of paper. When I was on the hunt for the shoes I found an old expanding file from the old days of my dmp. It still had lots of paperwork in it - mostly dating back to 2010 or before. So I sorted and shredded that and have filled it with letters from my solicitor, my decree absolute, court order and child maintenance stuff. At least I know where everything is now. And I did a bit of decluttering while I went on.  
So a new bag, new walking sandals and a new storage file, all shopped from home.
Went out for a late evening walk with ds last night and found a new footpath, which I'm going to explore again tonight. I don't do too well in the sun so my walks need to be early morning or late evening (and I am never ready for that early morning). Late enough for the chavs to be home but not so late that it's dark. Maybe about 9pm. I did 50 minutes in the garden with dd this afternoon and am just about the colour of a cooked lobster. I have 8 rounds of the blanket left to do and would like to say it will be finished tonight but that's highly unlikely as I'm now on 1000 stitches per round. That's not a fast job.
Watched Boris tonight. How they can continue to ignore everything that Cummings did is beyond me and whilst I'm part listening to him I've decided that as I'm less that 100 miles from the Scottish border I'm going to start listening to Nicola whatsherface instead - I trust her more than him. I have already arranged a mini garden get together with my mam and stepdad. We're going to have a socially distanced lunch which is VERY exciting, and quite possibly the best news I have had in weeks. Am also in the process of arranging to see bestie very soon - we had talked about a socially distant get together in the park between our homes but now gardens are also an option I think that will be better. Really looking forward to getting my social life on the move again. It was never extravagant but I will be looking forward to seeing a couple of people that I have very much missed seeing over the past two months. Whilst the numbers are still uncomfortably high for me to be anywhere near happy about life returning to normal any time soon, I feel less stressed about going back to work on a more regular basis now, and will risk myself there reasonably happily (but not my kids) now that I can see my family and friends again, albeit from a distance.  
Right - I have crochet to finish so I'm going to be getting on with that now I think.

janb5

I`m really rather jealous CCL as I dont see any way out of my `prison` and the news focused on the gathering of 6 but simply excludes shielded people.....I cant wait to finally have a social life again!