Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Ha, giggling at your hamster beating up the mice Elisheba! 😂😂 We seem to be pretty good at getting ours into the traps - we're using the cage ones that are the size of shoeboxes, and we put scrumpled up newspaper and a loo roll tube in them, so they have somewhere to hide in the trap itself, encourages them to go in I think (well, that and whatever tasty treat we've stuck at the other end! 😂) we also have a good handle on their favourite places now too, so we're pretty good at catching them 😂

Not heard one since I took that one last night... Does that mean we've finally got them all?! 😂😂

Sorry to hear so many of you have had mix ups with NI numbers as well 🙄 Honestly, I think we all need a private detective to follow us round sometimes to unravel whatever ridiculous messes arise 🙄😂

So. Car has diesel, compost is out, kitchen is clean. I have a full list of things to pack, and we have both started assembling our items on different chairs 😂 I'm just going to jump in the bath, then finish mine off, and then Mr Cheery will do the same later.

Getting there! Going to leave about 7am tomorrow so it's a good job 😂😂

dawnybabes

Have an amazing time, my DS is nagging me to go back to Berlin just to get some steak pepper from Blockhouse - apparently nothing else is anywhere near as good 🤣🤣🤣🤣

beanielou

happy happy wee break to you both 

Cheery_Daff

Thanks all 😊

Seems a bit of a long way to go for steak pepper Dawnybabes! 😂😂

We are packed, and I have finally made it to bed 🙄😂 all we need to do tomorrow is get dressed, eat breakfast and get to the airport for 8.45. Eek! 

Did some totting up earlier and realised this is, I think, only my 6th return flight ever 😱 No wonder it feels like a big deal 😂 we are definitely NOT globetrotters 😂

Delighted to report L switch has gone through, £175 is in each of our accounts, and, as an extra bonus, the account Mr Cheery switched from turned out to have £95 in it 😂 I suspected there was more than the £2.15 I had, but we didn't check how much. So that's £445 that's just appeared in the budget, which is extremely cheerful 😊

What's not cheerful is that I'm lying here and can hear another mouse in the loft 🙄 !!!!!!. Won't be getting rid before we go away now so it can have the run of the place for the next few days, and we'll catch it when we get back, and presumably the 4 new generations imof family it's given birth to in the meantime 🙄😂 One day we'll get to the end of them! We got rid of 32 in a row when we moved in, but that was the end of it. We've got to be up near that many again now, wish I'd kept count better! Definitely making a tally chart next year 🙄😂

KajiKita

I think you need to borrow a cat! My dad always said that our cat was always working, even when asleep, as she was emanating ‘anti-meurine odours’. 😉😂

Have a lovely trip and I hope you both got a good night’s sleep so you set out refreshed. 

KK

Jellytotts

I'm afraid when it comes to mice in those numbers then it's poison for us, the thought of that many incontinent creatures pee'ing and pooping all over my house is a huge no-no.  

I'm a dab hand at catching what the cats bring in and can normally have them trapped under a Tupperware pot and out the door quicker than the cats can understand, I think they see it is a huge game to get me up and moving.

Hope you have a fantastic trip.

greenbee

Have a fabulous holiday!

I’m afraid I’ve gone for inhumane traps and two kinds of bait (not a fan of it as you don’t know the scale of the problem and they can go to annoying places to die and then smell, but not generally an issue if they die in the attic!). I’m also investing in cats… 

There ws an electronic pest repeller in the attic. Clearly it didn’t work, so it’s now unplugged (saving about 0.1p electricity) and will be offfered on freegle before I resort to electrical waste collection.

EssexHebridean

Have a wonderful trip Cheery and MrCheery - and I'm sure the mice won't have taken over the house before you get back!  I always LOVE a flight - regardless of what sort - so I completely get your excitement! 

LadyWithAPlan

Enjoy your trip ! Hope it stays dry 

@EssexHebridean I am with you - I love a flight especially when I can get a work contract to pay for it as I have managed 80% of the time this year with work trips 

@Elisheba that sounds like superhamster / got a great visual 

so Cheery I suggest you get a hamster and let them run free or maybe easier borrow a cat - that would be a great idea 
I had friends in my building who would borrow my cats for a few hours each day for a week and the mice went 
I now live in a tall building so I am sure there are mice and rats but never seen them / catless now - but they filled a lot of the pipe gaps up with foam after grenfell - just in case which probably helps 

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums 😊😊

We are nearly home, Mr Cheery is just driving the last post-supermarket leg home from the airport. 

We had a lovely time, but it was quite a weird trip 😂

Arrived Wednesday afternoon, hosts both at work, but we all went out for tea together, then one went home to sleep. Mr Cheery and his old school chum got absolutely hammered, we didn't leave the pub til 2am, and they were swaying all over the place like a pair of teenagers 🙄😂

Thursday our hosts were meant to be at work, and we were going to have the day to ourselves - I'd suggested a boat trip would be nice. Unfortunately Mr Cheery had the hangover from hell and needed to stay pretty close to a loo 🙄 Friend was off work, but not in that much of a good state, so we spent most of the day in their flat aside from a brief afternoon walk up the road.

Thursday evening we ventured out to see Ruts DC 😂 They were actually very good, and it's not something we'd usually do at all. No alcohol was consumed 🙄

Friday people were slightly more lively, but our planned boat trip got shunted back from 2.30 til 4pm, and then in the end, we MISSED THE BOAT, sadly AFTER paying £54 for tickets 😱😱 I was slightly consoled by the presence of a Christmas Market - but sadly it wasn't opened for another few days.

Friday evening our host had a work event - we joined him, and the plan was we'd leave after an hour and join our other host for tea and a wander round a Christmas market. But he was having a nice time, our other host decided to meet up with a friend instead, and we ended up staying there til after 11pm, everyone being very nice, but us feeling slightly like spare parts 😂

Today we had a leisurely breakfast at their flat before flying home.

So aside from the mammoth hangover writing off the whole of Thursday, me blocking our hosts' toilet (which i am NOT taking full responsibility for given what had gone into it before I got there), spending £54 on a boat trip we didn't even get to go on, and failing to get to a Christmas Market, it was a lovely trip 😂😂

Seriously, we did have a nice time and it was lovely to see our hosts 😊😊😊 It just felt like we were in a Mr Bean film for quite a bit of the time 😂

Very glad to be nearly home 😊