Simple living in the country - back to basics

Baileys_Babe

We have a few decent power banks, one of which is in the car emergency kit. A couple of rechargeable patterns, portable gas store and had, and a kelly kettle. Also useful in a power cut and used when we go camping.

badmemory

Mr Cheery may qualify for a BT freebie.

Karmacat

Sorry Mr Cheery's still so unwell, but great to hear you got out today.  

As far as medical issues are concerned - what would help?  Wounds (from using the scythe, for instance, or a kitchen knife!). illnesses (pain, fever, sleep enhancer), aches and pains (ibuprofen gel, voltarol) digestive upset (you know what works for you, I can never spell any of it anyway).  Does your county have an emergency preparedness website? I've got one of those little single plate camping stoves as well, with butane cartridges - Halfords and whatnot sell them.  Battery powered lanterns.  A couple of extras of your favourite tipple!

Staffordia

We have a Jackery that can charge items via USB, 3 pin plug and 12v. We use it in the truck mainly for the cool box which also has a heat function, and charging our metal detectors out in the fields.  But in an emergency could be pressed into use in the house.  It is charged via 12v or at home with a solar panel option. Not cheap though 

Cheery_Daff

Thanks for all the suggestions 😊 I confess I'm not sure what people think the Internet provider should be providing - battery back up for a mobile phone? @badmemory - why might Mr Cheery qualify? (I may have given the wrong impression but he's not going to be either old or ill enough!) 

Annoyed myself today - agreed a while ago to a work task which is involving me spending 6 hours doing something NOT connected to my immediate priority 🙄 Bit annoying - especially as I didn't follow my own 'should I do this thing?' flowchart 🙄😂 I have to sit in on a zoom call, but not join in - so I can't interact, but also have to keep sound (and preferably video) on, and give feedback later, so can't really do anything else! Aarrggh! 

Hey ho. May end up driving Mr Cheery to his band practice this evening, or may stay home while he goes. Either way, I'll have a few hours to get stuff done. 

EITHER WAY

* banks/ynab - not done since payday
* blog post - not finished September's yet
* progress on job application - putting this off, it's due end of next week
* quickly ring mum
* finish preparing for work tomorrow, got people coming to our house for a full day of work

IF AT REHEARSAL
* more focus on job form
* more focus on preparing for tomorrow

IF AT HOME
* tidy up! 
* make food for tomorrow
* bit of scything if not raining

1P payout hasn't arrived with PayPal yet, but I only ordered on Friday so will continue to keep an eye out. 

Just checked on regular savers with NW as payment from main account went across recently. Nice to see them building up! The £50 one is at £500, 5.5%, matures Jan 2025, grand epic total of £69 interest 😂 The £200 one is at £400, 8%, matures Sept 2024, total interest £103. 

Considering another general savings account, ours is 3.75%, Coventry have one at 5.2% but only 3 withdrawals a year. I'd have to work out how much we need access to - eg we pay for a tank of LPG in a lump sum, that can be £800 three times a year, wouldn't want to lock all that away, or the holiday fund, but could definitely put in, for example, savings for new car etc. Will work it out (maybe tonight!)

badmemory

All I meant was a couple of quick visits to a hospital & the distance to where you live may well be enough to qualify.  They are making a lot of money out of these changes so there is absolutely no harm in trying.  I will certainly be trying.  Whilst I may be some years older than Mr Cheery I haven't been anywhere near needing an A & E visit since I was 13.  If your mobile signals are fine then no worries.  I live a lot closer to a town than you do but my mobile signal is rubbish, so without a landline I am isolated.

EssexHebridean

There have been a lot of issues with the Digital Voice changeover up in the islands Cheery - up there of course there are areas that simply don't have a mobile signal at all - and initially people were being told that it was fine if the digital calling system went down, because they could "just use their mobiles", and the providers weren't understanding the concept that they couldn't because there was no coverage! Of course as we now know, in a full on area-wide powercut (rather than just an issue with your own home being cut off for a while) then as you say mobiles are no good anyway, and I *think* that is a message which is finally starting to get through to people so fingers crossed we may start to see some resolutions on those issues in a while. I have a feeling that there was some sort of battery backup to enable the landline to work was what was originally offered to some folk in the worst affected areas up there but try as I might I can't recall what the details were.

Out of interest, have you checked whether your old phone socket still works at all? Again, that original advice up there was for people to make sure that they kept an old style corded plug in phone for the eventuality of a power cut, and in some cases that did work.

I can completely understand your lovely house and location may not feel quite so lovely when things are all a bit fraught and actually, that remoteness doesn't feel quite so helpful as it would in any other circumstances. It's a tricky one isn't it - trying to balance that need for peace of mind alongside wanting to live somewhere wonderful. As you say, not one for "right now" but certainly worth exploring a bit more how you feel about the concept of moving somewhere a little closer to the centre of things, maybe. 

Your six hours doing something that you can't actually participate in does indeed sound rather tedious! 

Cheery_Daff

Ah, thanks badmemory, I understand 😊 Will investigate. 

Thanks too EH, good to know what's happening in other areas. Yes, we have a cable plug in phone (for exactly this reason!) - but the old phone socket has already stopped working - it's now plugged into the router. Miraculously it survived the lightening strike 😂

Yawn, what a long day! Finished the zoom thing at 4, nipped to pick up prescriptions, stuffed in some tea, and been working since then, trying to prepare for tomorrow. Admitting defeat now though, very tired and still need to sort house out enough to have to work visitors tomorrow 🙄 They're both very nice and have been before 😂 But I'd still like to get clothes out of the bathroom, get stuff off the table, run the hoover round, get rid of any evidence of mice 🙄😂

Got the dehumidifier on in the study, but it'll need to go into the spare room soon - noticed some of my cardigans are showing signs of damp 😡 Not much air circulation in that room, and they're a bit stuffed onto the rail, so this is probably a good indication that I should have a clear out! 🙄

Cheery_Daff

Oh, and I meant to say about our octopus friends and their balance forecasting tool. Have you tried it? It always says I should be paying lower, and when I click to change the DD amount, the other part of their website projects I should be paying the exact amount I am already paying. 

However, it does let me change the DD, and I have now changed to that recommended by the balance forecasting tool - done that 2 or 3 times now. So I've just reduced from £71.23 to £60.72. We're £302 in credit, and I've kept a screenshot of their balance forecast tool in case they query it. This is electricity only, so £302 credit i fine, I think.

Loop app has stopped working, logged me out and wouldn't let me log back in 🙄 Had some instructions from customer services but they were more than my head could take earlier - will reassess tomorrow 🙄

Must check the LPG tank next time I'm out in the field, got no clue how much we've got, and they've not fitted the automatic sensor thing yet (well, if they have, they've not told me about it! 😂). Got the heating on most days now so will need to keep more of an eye on it. 

Might have to also do some radiator balancing fiasco soon - far end of the house is always much colder and inclined to damp 🙄 Not helped that the well is under that bit, or that it's exposed on 3 sides, and gets battered by the east wind, and various other damp-and-cold inducing factors 🙄 And the boiler is at the top end, so those radiators are much further away. I do think it could be better, but I've yet to find a plumber who can be ar*ed crawling round rebalancing the radiators, so I suspect I'll have to do it myself 🙄 Not tonight though!

beanielou

I cant find the Octopus energy balance forecasting tool.