Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Certainly is! 

Another day in the office today (this going in every day won't last!) Free parking, took couscous for dinner and a snack (although some nice person had put a tub of chocs in the kitchen so I pilfered a few of those too). Worked 8.30-5. 

Home now, and I've given the chickens a bed time treat and got some rice and dahl defrosting for my tea 😊

Mr Cheery is out until at least 8, so before then I'm going to do some combination of 

* happy wheel
* flute practice
* yoga
* epilating legs 😂

Not sure which combination yet, no decisions until I've eaten! 

Also need to write a couple of cards ready to post tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm back in work, although at a different site in the morning, and I've been invited out to lunch with a team I'd like to get to know a bit more and maybe work with in the future so that's nice. 

We've got a friend coming over in the evening - and it occurred to me that depending on timings, I may be able to bring her back from work with me (I though she was coming earlier in the day but apparently not). I'll give her a quick ring tonight to check. 

Nothing much else to report. Premium Bond dosh has landed in the bank account, so I want to transfer what I pilfered back to the MB account. 

Right, best go and get my tea!

Cheery_Daff

Right, tea had (and some saved for Mr Cheery), down £4.06 on the Happy Wheel today (standing at £39 for April now) and I did a Prolific survey too. 

Yoga first I think (my shoulders are aching today), then tuck the chickens into bed, and then get the epilator out for a bit, and if Mr Cheery still isn't back, some flute practice (he did say 8, but he's coming from his dad's and ended up on a massive detour  on the way there so we'll see...)

Karmacat

8.30 - 5 is a lot better than it has been, Cheery, thats a good start!

Enjoy your friend's visit  

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums

Another cheery day at work today. Slightly unusual as I started at a different site, and went out for lunch with some people I don't know very well (I shared a pizza with someone, so between that and a drink it only cost £6.20). Ended up leaving about 4 and bringing Mr Cheery's friend home with me, so after we'd eaten and they were off doing musical things, I did another hour of work. 

That means I've done pretty much dead on my actual hours this week! Made much easier by not having any teaching... 

I also realised I've only taken FOUR days of holiday since September It feels like more, because we've actually had several days of strikes in that time... And because I don't work Fridays, so things aren't as full on as they used to be. But it also means I have quite a lot to take over the summer. Also noticed that they've still got my full time holiday allowance on the system Sadly I've had to email HR about it - as tempting as it was to take another 8 weeks (plus bank holidays) before September I suspect someone would notice and claw it back at some point! Anyway, 6 weeks plus another 7 days of bank holidays (which for me is another week and 3 days) is quite enough to find time for (!) 

Anyway. Happy Wheel gained us £15.89 tonight, so extra income for April is now up to £79.33. Not bad given it's only the 7th! 

Sniffling and snuffling and quite full of cold this evening. Friend will be sleeping on the sofa bed, so I might camp out on the mattress in the new bedroom - it's nowhere near ready in there and I wouldn't subject anyone else to the mess, but it might be better than subjecting Mr Cheery to my inevitable snufflingness (and subjecting ME to him waking me up every five minutes to telll me I'm snoring!)  

So, tomorrow. I've booked swimming first thing, but I don't think that's wise in my current state, so I think a leisurely breakfast with friend instead. Then we'll need to take her to somewhere she can get a bus, so probably a little wander round for us too. Also 

* get birthday card and post
* write and post other card
* washing

That might be it. We're going to Mr Cheery's dad's on Sunday, and I'd quite like to feel properly rested and better by then, so Fri/Sat need to be quite restful I think... 

Cheery_Daff

Right, I have left them to it and retreated to bed. Some observations about the 4 poster (which at the minute isn't a 4 poster, just a base and mattress on the floor):

(a) it's pretty small 😂
(b) it's like a watered, and we'll definitely need a new mattress if we keep it.

Right now (on the basis of 5 minutes in it by myself 😂) I'm thinking we scrap it and keep our existing bed, which was hand made as a temporary bed by Mr Cheery because we didn't have one (in our old house we slept on a mattress on a mezzanine shelf thing 😂). Temporay bed is extremely sturdy, and I suspect will outlast us all. It was built in the room though, so will need dismantling to get it out again...

Anyway, four poster was from Freegle (and might just go back on Freegle again) and temporary bed was made from scraps of wood, so no harm done and no money spent.

Right, sleep!

Suffolk_lass

We still have the raft of pine planks that DH put together for his first flat. It was on top of painted breeze blocks when we met (albeit, in his flat in England, while we were in Munich in a rental)

themadvix

Hope you’re feeling less sniffly this morning Cheery! Could it be hayfever?

Karmacat

Hope you feel better this morning, Cheery - madvix's suggestion of hayfever sounds possible, you sound your usual alert self.  Love the analysis of the bed situation in particular - yes, if it was me, I'd be keeping the scratch made bed - who knows, eventually Mr Cheery could build a four poster frame onto that!  Anyway, have a restful day, as you say.

EssexHebridean

Oh Lordy definitely send the 4-poster back to freegle if it seems that bad already before it’s even fully set up! Bad enough being woken repeatedly in the night by your partner of choice (which I would NOT be standing for, and particularly not on days when I then had to get up and head off to work - you  have a LOT more patience than I do!) but having a bed conspiring against you too is not something you want to add into the mix! 

Hopefully your cold has retreated - I feel as though I’ve had a constant sniffle since about October, possibly longer. I assume it’s just a steady trickle of all the cold viruses we’ve been kept away from for the past couple of years coming to get us! 

Cheery_Daff

Glad to see we're not the only ones with a home made bed! They are super expensive to buy new, aren't they? Love the idea of getting Mr Cheery to turn the bed into a four poster - that's exactly the type of thing I'm sure he'd love to do! 

At the minute I'm sticking with my self-diagnosis of a cold. It's followed my classic cold pattern - sore throat, feeling a bit off, gradually getting more and more sniffly... I'm mentally alert *enough* but definitely not on top form, and physically I feel quite under the weather... Never had hayfever before, and while there's a first time for everything, this seems far more likely to just be a common-or-garden cold. I suppose we'll find out if it doesn't go away in the next few days. Will be covid testing before we visit Mr Cheery again at the weekend just in case, although I've been negative so far.

Woke up several times in the night, and don't feel particularly well-rested this morning. Cancelled swimming. Mr Cheery has just go up, but our friend hasn't. I've been up for a couple of hours, been pottering around the internet and the Happy Wheel - £11.05 up today, bringing grand total of April's extra dosh to £90.38. I know Happy Wheel money can go down as well as up, and it has been fluctuating day to day, but I've consistently spent about an hour a day on it in April and it's certainly adding up more than my inconsistent efforts so far this year. 

Remembered something else I need to do today - parcel those books for collection tomorrow, and the other ones to drop off in town. That will be a nice addition to the extra money pot too. 

Right. We're just deciding between our usual Friday morning cafe breakfast (we'll have missed Mr Cheery's favourite seat by now...) or making pancakes/scones at home... I'm letting Mr Cheery and his friend decide as they may want to carry on with the stuff they were doing last night (in which case we'll stay here). 

I'm very happy sitting here in a sunbeam looking out of the window for now!