Seasidegal's Scrimpy Retirement Diary!

redofromstart

Good to see you back posting.

maggiem

Happy New Year and great to see you posting again. 

TallGirl

Lovely to see you back glad you had a nice break. 

Seasidegal58

Thank you @beanielou @redofromstart @maggiem and @TallGirl 😀

Another very windy and rainy day today!  DD's OH was out early to drive his son to the station as he is due back home to start work again. This afternoon we took a drive over to some friends of DD and OH who live a few miles away. We used to stay with them a few years ago when they were running a rather nice guest house before DD and OH bought their place here. As the senior members of the family have aged they now run the house as a cafe plus as an historic house museum. Unfortunately DD got the day wrong!  We were due to actually visit them tomorrow and they were run off their feet in the cafe as nothing else was open in their village today. So we'll go again tomorrow!  I had a really tasty roast ham and stuffing sandwich there though!😋 it's a nice drive - snow on the mountain tops which looked lovely. 

We started watching the new Harlan Coben thriller on Netflix last night - Fool Me Once. It's shaping up to be good. I also watched the two series of The Bear whilst I've been up here as I don't have Disney+ at home. It's one of the best things I've watched in I don't know how long and I highly recommend it!👍

MSE SCRIMPY THINGS
Not much to report today - another NSD. 

I've got a few things to do when I get home though including:

1. Writing a stinging letter to my flat's managing agent about a payment they are demanding which looks excessive;
2. Submitting my tax self assessment form before the end of the month;
3. Thrashing out a reduction in my monthly bill with Sky with whom I have my TV channels, broadband and landline. 

Currently DD and OH are on work calls so I'm off to see what the Bears are barking at outside. Probably The IP (aka The Invisible Predator)!😀

milann

I’d been reading about Fool Me Once in our local newspaper. Apparently a lot was filmed around these parts so I’ll be eager to watch and see if I recognise anywhere.

EssexHebridean

Ahh welcome back SSG - you sound like you've been having a great time with lots of adventuring and more planned ! Lovely to see in the new year - or should I say celebrate Hogmanay - up in the Highlands too! 

I don't envy you at all having to steel yourself to tackle the question of unreasonably stiff charges from managing agents - thieving rogues, the lot of them! Hopefully they will reduce it to a more reasonable level once challenged, although that in itself raises the question about why they asked for so much in the first place! 

Seasidegal58

@milann - I read it was filmed around Manchester, Oldham, Stockport and Cheshire. The main character's rather fabulous modern home was filmed in Alderley Edge (of course it was!🤣)!

Hi there - @EssexHebridean (waves!) - our managing agents changed quite recently and I thought they were an improvement on that last lot!  However they've now hit us with £516 each balancing charge for the last year which has been transferred over from the old MAs with a vague reference to 'extra electric charges'. There are 14 flats in the block so that's £7,224 extra on top of what we've already paid. The electric charge relates to the three communal hallways and side of flat where the bins live.  All lights are on timers to come on in evening and only when someone walks through and then they go off.   Also, this applies to the outside lights above the entrances of the communal doors but two haven't been working for months anyway!  I know prices have risen but come on!  So I'll be asking to see copies of electric bills. 

There is also an ongoing rodent problem which they are supposed to be sorting out but I won't go into that at the moment!😳

Anyhow still very raining and grey here today but the wind has dropped at least. We went over to see the friends again today which was really nice. Their Historic House was decorated beautifully for Christmas and it was lovely to chat to the senior members of the family who are both very much on the ball but looking quite frail now. ☹️. The family is holding rather a really interesting historical exhibition later on in the year and I'm really looking forward to seeing this. 

DD has cooked a rather delicious looking stir fry for dinner this evening using up the last of the venison and the older vegetables. Yum!😋

MSE SCRIMPY THINGS 
A £50 win on the PBs this month!  Very welcome and this will go straight into the Holiday category on YNAB.  I've decided that any extra money I receive like PB wins, lottery wins (ha!), Opinium surveys and Topcashback earnings are now going to be allocated in here!
 

And another NSD today!👍

Seasidegal58

It's been a bit of a brighter day today - a couple of showers but some wish-washy blue sky peeping in an intervals among the clouds.  We had visits from a flock of goldfinches and chaffinches today who helped themselves to lunch from DD's bird table. They are beautiful little birds. Luckily Bear1 isn't bothered by small birds in the garden. He does take umbrage to seagull sized though!  The last seagull who tried to settle on the bird table was promptly furiously barked at and chased down the garden!

I spoke to DSis last night.  Both she and her OH went out to celebrate on New Year's Eve so Little Nephew stayed overnight with OH's sister. He was allowed to see in the New Year and DSis telephoned him to wish him and his aunt a happy New Year. However, he told her that he couldn't speak long on the phone to her as he was due to call his girlfriend!  He's ten years old!  How times change!😳

Today was a very lazy day as I slept in late - mainly because DD and I stayed up late to binge watch the rest of Fool Me Once. So I had brunch instead of lunch. 

I've downloaded a new book from Amazon Kindle called 'Glossy' It's the story of Vogue magazine from its beginnings to now and is proving very interesting so far. I love reading about fashion history though not really very Vogueish myself. 

Tonight DD is cooking beef fillet plus beetroot and mushroom potato Dauphinoise.  It's been a lovely two weeks up here as she won't let me cook the dinners so I feel quite spoilt. She's a much better cook than me anyway!🤣

MSE SCRIMPY THINGS
Not a NSD today!  Spends were:

• Above book;
• A donation to Alzheimer's Research. My cousin sadly lost her husband just after Christmas due to complications with Alzheimer's. Terrible, horrid disease. She has asked for donations to the charity rather than flowers so I did this online today. 
• A cream sweatshirt and joggers from Uniqlo which I want for slobbing around the flat. The sweatshirt is a man's but I wanted it big and loose. The joggers are women's but are the HeatTech pile lined sort which have had good reviews. I put the order through Topcashback of course!😉
• Cinema tickets for next week to see 'Ferrari'. My friend and I have a little 'Cinema Club' going on. We always go to the matinees so it's less crowded and I buy the tickets and she drives us there ( I don't drive) and gets the coffees to take in with us. 

milann

Sounds like a perfect arrangement re the cinema club. When I go to a show with my friend we tend to take turns paying for the tickets but whoever doesn’t pay gets the drinks and a cheap meal somewhere. It seems to work ok.
Sorry about your cousin’s husband, as you say Alzheimer’s is a terrible disease. Especially the early onset. 

I’m not surprised you want to see the leccy bill…..cheeky bar stewards asking for that much more money.

Seasidegal58

Another bright day today but cold. That is until mid-afternoon when the heavens opened for about twenty minutes and then the wind increased - it's still howling outside at the moment. 💨

I just realised today that there are tube strikes all next week in London which has killed my hair appointment on Tuesday as I have a half hour tube journey to get there. So I've had to switch to the following week - annoying as my hair needs doing asap because my usual appointment was pushed back anyway owing to my being away. 💇‍♀️

Been reading my Vogue book this afternoon. Last night we tried watching the new Bradley Cooper film on Netflix called Maestro about the composer Leonard Bernstein. It's had absolute rave reviews from the critics and I was looking forward to seeing it. However we switched off halfway through - both he and Carey Mulligan were good but it was a slow turgid film. We ended up watching the documentary series on BBC iPlayer - 'Disco - Soundtrack of a Revolution' which was fab!  Watched two episodes with the final one tonight!


MSE SCRIMPY THINGS
NSD today though DSis contacted me to see if I was up for seeing the musical 'The King and I' at end February. We were hoping to go last December but couldn't get everyone on board for dates what with work and holiday commitments. So I'll have to earmark some funds from the Entertainment - Theatre/Concerts etc' pot. 

I also did an Ocado online shop for next week. Still not sure about my final list but I wanted to book in my  slot for early Monday evening. I can do a proper recce when I get home on Sunday and finalise it then.