Seasidegal's Scrimpy Retirement Diary!

milann

Your weekend sounds lovely. Glad you had a love time with your friend. The afternoon tea sounded delicious 👍

EssexHebridean

So good to have trustworthy, reliable tradesmen isn't it - makes a world of difference. 

That does sound like a lovely time with your friend - and the afternoon tea too - how posh! 

Seasidegal58

Thank you @doingitanyway @milann and @EssexHebridean!👍
Actually looking back, the afternoon tea with the glass of bubbly was only £45.50 - the rest was my contribution for tip and a gin and tonic!
EH - he is a very reliable tradesman - he's getting on a bit now so I'm not sure how long he's going to keep working. I'll miss him when he does retire.....☹️
This morning I visited a friend to meet her baby girl for the first time!  She was born just before Christmas - 4lb 10oz so a real little dolly!  She's put on a bit of weight since then but is still in the newborn size babygros. She said she's been given so much clothing from friends whose babies have outgrown them - she showed me her huge drawer of babygros - there were loads of them all beautifully folded a la Marie Kondo!  I laughed and said you've been Kondo'd!  She said she started doing the folding routines during lockdown and did her own clothes and her husband's and little boy's. Her husband thought she was daft so she lets him get on with his own folding now!  She said as the baby outgrows everything she'll take the really tiny premature outfits to the hospital to see if they would like them for the premature unit - if not she said there's a good local charity that specialises in taking in baby and children's clothes plus baby paraphernalia like pushchairs, walkers, etc, for those families in financial difficulties - especially needed nowadays since everything has risen so sharply in price. I'm going to let DSis know about it for little nephew's outgrown stuff. 

This afternoon I've tidied up, did some laundry and caught up on diaries. 

Tonight I've got the rest of the SW recipe sardine spaghetti I made earlier. I had two coffees, a millionaire shortbread and flapjack at my friend's - then came home and fainted when I read how many syns they constituted!!,😱


MSE SCRIMPY THINGS
Spends today were lottery tickets for Wednesday and Friday, chocs and flowers for friend (two very nice bunches of white cabbage roses for £3 each in the Co-op - the local supermarkets are selling such nice and affordable flowers these days) and taxi to friend (she very kindly drove me back). 

doingitanyway

Ooh I love sardines with pasta and sardines. I add black olives, loads of herbs and some anchovies too 
Congratulations to your friend with the little girl too.

EssexHebridean

Another fan of sardines with pasta here - sardine & butterbean pasta is a bit of a staple here in fact, although far less of a "cheap dinner" than it used to be with ever increasing prices!

That's a lovely charity for the baby clothes and other items for small people - must be such a help for families locally who are struggling too. 

Seasidegal58

Thanks @doingitanyway and @EssexHebridean!👍
A friend of mine has a sofa bed I wanted to have a look at. I need a sofa bed when friends stay instead of using my sofa cushions as a bed for them - it's got to be an actual comfortable sofa for me as well. I went over to see her yesterday and tried it out. It's smart, modern, more comfortable than my current sofa when sitting on it and has a remote control that you activate to turn it into the bed.  The important thing too is that it's got to fit into my living room when extended as a bed as I haven't much room. I rang the company today and have made an appointment with one of their reps to visit on Monday - he's going to measure up properly and bring swatches so I can look at the various upholstery fabrics they offer. 

Today was a quiet one - didn't do much - popped up to the shops and finished watching 'The Gold' which was very good and I really enjoyed it!👍. Also read for a bit and did some laundry. 

I had my half a syn Slimming World brunch today, fresh fruit and fat free yoghurt in the afternoon and jacket potato low fat cheese and beans with salad for dinner.  I'm looking for a reasonable loss this week after last week's excesses!

MSE SCRIMPY THINGS
Yesterday's spends were a plant for my friend and a Next voucher for DD's little step-grandson's birthday present. Today I bought satsumas, grapes and baked beans. 

Sky were offering an Apple TV subscription free for six months then cancel if you want. I've taken it out as there's a few things I'd like to watch on Apple TV - at the end of six months I'll decide whether I'll cancel or keep on with it. 

doingitanyway

Sofa bed is a great idea.
A friend has a futon. It looks good and is comfortable too.

lashie

Bad Sisters and The Morning Show are both very good on Apple TV - hope they are on your list 😀

EssexHebridean

My heart always sinks slightly when I spot that someone who I'm staying with's "spare bed" is actually a futon - the friend we used to stay with for the beer festival had one, and while for the first few nights it was OK - after about night 3 it definitely wasn't! 

The sofabed sounds brilliant SSG - here's hoping that it will fit in OK. I have to say one of the things I'm edgy about for our move  (if it ever happens!) is whether our sofas will get out of the flat OK - we've had the doors changed since, and I think the new pones are fractionally narrower than the old! EEK! I'm far more concerned about them moving out of the flat OK than about whether they will fit into the new house! 

badmemory

I know how you feel about getting stuff out.  My original double glazed dining room window was large enough to get just about anything through.  When it came time to replace no-one would do an opening window that large.  It is now very much a case of turning stuff on its side (hoping it is the correct side) & left a bit, right a bit & whoops it is too tall for the next door.  Thank goodness I wasn't the one struggling to get the new beds in.