Simple living in the country - back to basics

EssexHebridean

I found that there were aspects of living more "quietly" that I really enjoyed during the lockdowns - and that while I didn't want to carry on to that extent long term, it did make me consider making a point of keeping some weekends clear just for quiet time. It's about balance isn't it - hopefully most of us are now over the thing of feeling like we don't want to mix with others because we might catch Covid - and it's nice to see that masks have mostly disappeared in public now if I'm honest - but I do think the quieter year or so left a lot of people re-evaluating. 

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all for your kind words 😊

Our diminished horizons are definitely illness related, rather than wider aftermath of the pandemic. We're generally pretty sociable, Mr Cheery even more so than me, and actively seek out social occasions several times a week if possible (I confess that was much easier when we lived in a city!)  We're usually out and about somewhere most days over the weekend, and quite often I find myself craving an occasional day at home 😂 

I do like a bit of hibernation over the winter though, but there hasn't been the balance this festive season as we've both been so poorly.

Still, we have been out and about today, although I've since had to have a nap 🙄😂 Only for a trip to a nearby town, lunch in a cafe, and a wander through the town park and along the river. Most jolly. So literally nothing off the list I made has been done 🙄

Starting to feel vaguely human again now after lying under a blanket watching a couple of episodes of Lark Rise to Candleford. Mr Cheery made me sausage and mash, which is the first time he's felt able to do anything remotely that energetic since before Christmas. 

So today's list is being transferred to tomorrow. I do need to stir myself tonight though - the recycling needs to go out (it's all boxed up ready but the end of the drive is quite a hike away), and the car needs to be dropped off at the garage either tonight or 1st thing tomorrow morning (I think my preference is tonight rather than getting up early!).

Speaking of which, we saw a neighbour this morning - someone they know had dropped their car at a (different!!) garage - and the police had turned up the next morning, because the garage owner had been found drunk in it, several miles away 😮 Not a good advert for your business!😮

KajiKita

Wowsers! If that happened to my car I would be totally freaked out by that! 😳

Glad you’re both feeling a bit better 😊 I can’t remember if you had covid or heavy colds? Either way, don’t rush around just yet - even the ‘ordinary’ bugs seem to be leaving people feeling wiped for a while. 


KK

Cheery_Daff

Just heavy colds KK - it's wiped us both out! 

Dropped little car at the garage last night just for a service - they've just rung to say various things need sorting with the brakes, and it's going to cost about £500 🙄 Could well do without that but hey ho. Not planning on replacing the car, so it'll need sorting out, and I've used these guys long enough now that I trust they won't do anything unnecessary. 

Part of me wishes I hadn't bothered sending it in for a service - but I suppose it's much better to know in advance if your brakes are failing! 🙄

There's enough in the car pots if I pool maintenance/MOT pots for both cars so I won't have to pull from anywhere else, and the next MOT is for the same car, and not til May, so let's hope nowt else goes wrong before then 🙄

Cheery_Daff

Just popping in with a small achievement - I've done the final coat of paint on a small bit of one of the study walls that got missed when I ran out of paint before 🙄 Bought a couple of tester pots to finish, but then never did. 

As it happens, it's pretty hard to see the bit I missed, but in certain lights and from certain angles it really annoyed me 😂 All sorted now though, and I only used one little pot, so the other one can go into the garage for emergency touch ups later. 

A small achievement, but it feels good to get something ticked off!

themadvix

Very annoying about the car, but brakes are definitely not an area to skimp on, especially with your hills.

Very satisfying to tick that little job off - I find small, annoying jobs have a snowball effect - the satisfaction from one can roll over to encourage me to do another!

Karmacat

What madvix said  

EssexHebridean

Brilliant small achievement on the paint - I love stuff like that, feels like SUCH a win even if you do end up berating yourself for not having done it sooner! 

That’s a pain about the car. Mine’s due it’s MOT in a month or so, and I’d usually service it at the same time but now I’ve thought about it I have a feeling it will be a long way under the mileage for it this time as of course MrEH’s car does Hebrides trips now - mine was doing around 4000 extra miles a year with those, and allowing that I did less airshow mileage last year too, I could see me being anything up to 5000 under my previous “usual” so that might need thinking about. Thank you for prompting that thought process! 

Cheery_Daff

Definitely worth thinking about whether a service is necessary EH! We never bothered before we moved here, with any of the cars. But this garage seems slightly more reliable than our old one (which would fix stuff cheaply, and you'd often end up back with the same thing within a couple of weeks). Worth keeping everything in good order though when you can't walk anywhere! I don't have a set time of year though, usually try to roughly alternate with the MOT so each car is being seen roughly every 6 months so any trouble is picked up. This time the service light came on though - don't know whether that's because of the mileage as not had this car long enough for it to happen before 😂

Anyway, collected it now, and joy of joys, they've fixed the boot lock, which hasn't opened for months. Goodness knows how much they'll charge for that- I'd asked about fixing it before and they'd said I'd need to order a new lock off ebay, so I never bothered. This time someone else must have looked at it slightly differently cos they didn't even mention it, just wrote it on the form at the end.

No idea of cost - I did ask but they send invoices but the people in the garage don't know - invoices get sent out by the office. Maybe it lessens the shock a bit... 🙄 I'll assume it'll be in the £500-600 mark just in case 🙄 Blithering car only cost £1500 but I'm not going through the hassle of buying another one! 

Also nipped into the supermarket, got some reduced fruit and veg and a few other bits, but paid with vouchers so nowt to add to the list.

Oh, and had a cuppa in the cafe, but used vouchers (a Christmas gift) for most of that too so just paid a top up of 70p.

Oh! And we nearly missed the cafe opening as we had to stop to extinguish a small fire by the side of the road. Completely random - why is anything on fire when everywhere is so wet?! Middle of nowhere, no people or houses, just a small fire on a grass verge, smouldering away. Most odd. Don't know whether someone chucked a cigarette out of a window and caught a bit of litter?! Anyway, stomped on it, and covered it with a mole hill dugout with my bare hands, and it hadn't lit itself again by the time I went back past it later. Most odd.

Oh!! And my painting led to more painting - couple of bits of kitchen wall this time. And we ferried the chickens into our house and they spent a happy hour sitting with Mr Cheery while I dug five wheelbarrow loads of finest quality compost out of the floor of their run and transferred it to the veg patch, and gave the whole thing a spruce up ready for our new arrivals next week. Still need to put up a temporary fence to keep current ladies separate from new ones, but not today.

Next on the list - eating some of that haybox soup.

Actually turned into quite a productive day!

KajiKita

Oh I am soooo jealous of the compost!! 😊❤️😉

Well done on the painting followed by painting 😊 That’s some good momentum there. 

KK