Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

badmemory said:

Cheery_Daff said:

 Helpfully, she also said we could ring together, so they'll deal with me and then I can pass the phone over to Mr Cheery, so we won't both have to wait in a queue.

That is a major bonus when getting through is a big pain.  You can take turns in pacing the floor whilst holdinh on.  That's when I get the bulk of my steps done.  I'm sure I never used to spend this much time waiting for them (as in anyone) to answer.

Indeed. Every time I ring someone now it seems to be 'we are experiencing unusually high call volumes' 🙄 Pretty sure they just lost/let go half their staff in the pandemic and haven't seen fit to replace 🙄 Most annoying. I usually get a few steps in while on hold too! 

Anyway, good evening! A perfectly acceptable day today, although nothing done off the weekend list.

At work I am mired in a swamp of bureaucracy. I have a higher tolerance for it than many of my colleagues but good grief, I've had my patience tested today. At one point I checked my watch thing and it said 'stress level - high' 🙄 I'm thinking of writing a book - perhaps something like the Spreadsheet of Blame I made when we moved house. That was most satisfying 😂😂

Nothing much money saving to report aside from the usual stuff. Took lunch to work and didn't buy anything else. Found a free parking spot so didn't pay. We didn't share the journey today though - I went early and Mr Cheery didn't need to be there til 4, and we did lots of hanging round on Monday, so that's about 100 miles we've driven between us today 🙄

I watered the greenhouse when I got back, the fig was looking a bit sorry for itself and pretty much everything else has died. Fortunately I took most of it out the other day. I am such a rubbish gardener! 🙄

Also started scything! Not done much, but it's a mammoth task and it felt good to just get half an hour done. I do always like to be toiling in the fields when Mr Cheery drives back home down the drive 😂

Working at home tomorrow. Mr Cheery is off to a funeral, I've got a couple of online meetings and a LOT to do. Fortunately my study is the coldest room in the house so no excuses 🙄

Hope you can sleep well, MSE chums!

Cheery_Daff

Afternoon MSE chums 😊

I'm having a sidetracked day today- my list at work keeps getting longer and longer, and I've still not done the two most important (and biggest) things on it. 🙄

Have come outside to do one of them - I printed things off to read yesterday. But it's so lovely out here in the dappled shade, and this is my view from the swing seat so I'm distracted out here too! 😂


Feel like I should open the gate looking at that picture, but I can't even be bothered to do that 🙄😂

Annoyingly I think one of my fillings is about to come out 🙄 It's been slightly precarious for a while, but I was eating something earlier and I seem to have dislodged it. It's not come out, or wobbling, but it's definitely not in the same position as before and it's only a matter of time before I get food stuck behind it as there's no way of cleaning back there.

Sadly the only way to get a quick dentist appointment is to be in agony (which I'm not - yet) so I suppose I'll just wait til my rearranged appointment in 3 weeks and hope (a) they'll put a new filling in then and (b) it's not cancelled again 🙄

themadvix

Lovely view Cheery, not sure how you'll get any reading done!

Not good about the filling though - hopefully it doesn't get to the agony stage, but even so, it's very frustrating and unpleasant when there's something wrong with a tooth.

Elisheba

Looks absolutely lovely.  What a great view while you work 

Cheery_Daff

Thanks both 😊 I ended up coming back inside after not too long - I was just daydreaming looking at the view, and the chickens were messing about, and it wasn't particularly conducive to concentrating! 

It was quite cute though - Poppy chicken came and sat on the swing seat with me on the blanket and nodded off for a bit 🥰 Very cute - except she didn't nod off for long, and spent about 20 minutes sitting quite happily chattering at me - bok bok, bok-a-bok 😂😂 Very sweet, but not really a work environment 😂

Ended up working til about 8.30 to get stuff done before tomorrow 🙄 Mr Cheery wasn't impressed 🙄 

We've had our covid test kits in the post - testing window for the study opens tomorrow, but we'll need to do them when we can get them straight to the priority postbox (maybe just tomorrow night)

Also had a letter from the council about recycling. They didn't collect our recycling bin this week, but that's not unusual - if I forget to put it out once they tend to just assume I don't want it collected any more and don't bother coming the next week 🙄

Anyway, the letter is to inform us that they don't collect glass on the rural round, which we already knew of course - I don't THINK there's glass in our box (but I'll check). There's a general leaflet in there too so it's probably just a coincidence that it's turned up on a week they didn't collect our bin. 

Anyway, nothing much else financial to report. Tea from the freezer. Down (again) on the Happy wheel this morning - and I think one of my regular casinos has gubbed me which is a bit of a nuisance (probably because I actually won something last week 😂).

Tomorrow I have an all day zoom meeting - most tiresome but doable and necessary. I joined this committee in March 2020, and my first meeting was going to be in London - it was my first cancelled thing at the start of the pandemic. I do hope they get back to face to face before my 4 year term runs out at the end of next year!! 

Right, probably not far off bed time... 🙄

Cheery_Daff

Oh, and I meant to say it's looking like we will indeed need a new washing machine soon - the stuff we put in earlier came out dripping wet 🙄 Going to give it another try with a smaller load, but it's done that a few times now so it may be reaching the end of its useful life. Will have a bit of a look round to see if there's an easy fix, but as I've said before, it's well over 20 years old so has put a decent amount of mileage in! 😂

Bluegreen143

My washing always comes out dripping wet so I put it on an extra spin cycle after and it sorts it out. Not great though as I guess costing us extra to run?! And unlike yours, ours is only about three years old 🙄 impressed at the age of yours!

Cheery_Daff

Oh no, that's annoying! 

Ours is old, but there are only 2 of us and we don't do that much washing 😂 1-2 loads a week max, so it's not exactly been over used 😂

However,  this is a new issue,  it always worked fine before,  so I'm going to try these things before I give up on it

https://www.hunker.com/13410564/how-to-repair-a-washing-machine-that-is-not-spinning-fast-enough

Not sure whether 'not spinning fast enough' is the right issue but it's a good place to start!

elantan

we found with our it needed a new set of brushes, they cost less than £10 to buy and was a wee half hour job, hope u get it fixed 

Cheery_Daff

elantan said:

we found with our it needed a new set of brushes, they cost less than £10 to buy and was a wee half hour job, hope u get it fixed 

Ooh, that sounds promising, thank you! Fingers crossed!

Not doing it today though - all day zoom and it's my last day before a week off so lots to do in between (and after, and before 🙄). Speaking of which, best get up!