Simple living in the country - back to basics

LadyWithAPlan

Your afternoon in the garden sounds perfect! Busy week but good prep including the mouse car!

rtandon27

Love to start a week with a plan & yours has inspired me!
I'm sitting outside, enjoying the unusually warm morning armed with a pen and ready to do a meal plan and a shopping list! The luxuries of a day off have not escaped me 😀...
...but first COFFEE 

Cheery_Daff

Well, the evening went considerably downhill after that 🙄 But the less said the better, we are back on track! 

I did accompany Mr Cheery to his rehearsal tonight, so I've been sat in the nice lounge at the practice room doing various things for my job application - have at least ascertained what the entire form looks like, and filled in my name and address 😂 An excellent start 😂 

Have also arranged to speak to someone I know tomorrow who may have some vaguely insider knowledge, and have identified someone else that I know that I will also try to have a chat with 

Also spoke to both of my parents 🤯 A rare occurrence! (They've been divorced for 40 years so aren't in the same house to pass the phone between them 😂). One had fallen over, and the other was complaining about an IT course they were being forced on 🙄 So not exactly cheerful but hey ho. 

In financial news:

HW is at £123 for October
Prolific at £2.83 with £2.02 pending - rubbish! 
1P is at £21.65, no surveys this evening
TCB £4.50 cashback from my supermarket voucher is available - not sure whether to withdraw or leave to the end of the month like I do with Prolific.

Just remembered I should have ordered a supermarket fuel card, as we did actually top up at that supermarket yesterday 🙄 Hey ho (although also just remembered I can do it with more of a discount through work so in fact I need to do that!!)

Oh, and I said I'd get a National Trust gift card too as that had I think 7% off (was that through work, or TCB?! Aarrgghh, should have written it down!) Taking my mum at the weekend - got free entry but I'm buying her lunch in the cafe, might as well get a discount 😂

EssexHebridean

We too have snagged a free pass for NT and are hoping to visit somewhere on Sunday - we'll be on the way back from a meeting that we've booked an overnight stay at and felt that actually making a day of the Sunday when we are already out and about would be nice.

I can't get over how well you've done with OP - always takes me ages to get that high and you've done it in a matter of weeks! Maybe this is an indication that I ought to be slightly more focused on it, however... 

Cheery_Daff

I've been checking 1P several times a day and clearly it's paid off! I think it'll have taken me less than 2 months, which isn't bad. Mind you,the whole site has crashed on me several times today so who knows 🙄 Up to £21.90 now though! 

Got the evening to myself, so I need a plan.

5.45-6.15 OUTSIDE
* half an hour of scything

6.15-7.15 WORK 🙄
* want to tick off as many small annoying emails/tasks as I can and plan tomorrow (I'd do this first, but then it will have gone dark before I get chance to go outside!)

7.15-8.00 TEA & PREP
* make tea
* make breakfast and dinner for tomorrow
* find clothes
* pack bag for tomorrow

8.00-8.30 HOUSE
* change sheets
* 15 mins of decluttering

8.30-9.00 ADMIN
* check banks
* make decision about savings account

9.00 onwards FREESTYLE
* blog post?
* flute practice?
* tv?
* happy wheel

Let's see how the evening pans out...

Cheery_Daff

Well, as usual, I got SOME things done 😂

Did 45 mins of scything, finished row 12 and got a bit further in my audio book 😊

Got everything ready for tomorrow.

Did an extra 2 hours of work (not as bad as it sounds - I didn't get to the office til 9.30 today, and left again at 3, so I did need to top up a bit!)

Had TWO trips to the mouse lay-by 🙄 We've clearly just left it too long before we started eviction proceedings - I think we've done 10 in the last week or so, including 2 tonight and 2 last night 🙄 Hoping that's the end of it, but I'm not holding my breath! 😬

So I've not really done anything else, apart from some text conversations, reading Martin's email etc. 

Big car is going for an MOT tomorrow. When it went in a few weeks ago, I'm sure i remember them saying it'd need a new tyre and something else, so I'm expecting that at least, and it would be lovely if they could make the heater work again, although I'm not holding my breath on that either 🙄 The red engine light flashed on very briefly yesterday but I'm hoping that was nothing, and Mr Cheery has driven it for 2 hours today and it's not happened again (he was heading near the garage so if it had come on, he was going to just ditch it there and I would have picked him up).

Annoyingly, the orange engine light has now come on in the other car! Aarrgghh! So I'll book that one in for next week while I'm there tomorrow. For goodness sake! 

Right, nightie & sofa I think - banking will have to wait til another day 🙄

themadvix

I think there are definite advantages to having a car that is too old to have engine warning lights - it either works or it doesn’t! 😂

 Hope the garage bill is on a par with what you expect.

Cheery_Daff

Ha, yes I can see that would be an advantage! Ours are 14/15 years old so I'm hoping it's a problem with the light itself (which we've had before in another car) rather than anything more serious 😂

Going to treat myself to a new set of headphones after I've been to the garage today (well, providing I can find some in the big supermarket, that is!). I ripped one ear off mine a few weeks ago, and now I can't find them at all! 

themadvix

I think that’s a well-deserved treat!

rtandon27

Earphones are a must - they are a bit like glasses - I have one pair on/in every desk, bedside table and totebag - LOL